How can I create a continuous fire effect on mouse click with actionscript 3?

When someone "click and holds" I want to fire off function over and over, say, once every 100ms whi开发者_StackOverflowle the mouse is clicked. Instead of MouseEvent.CLICK I would look for MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN and then start a timer on that event function that calls another function every 100ms. Then, on MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP I would stop the timer. Am I on the right track? Will I be able to get updated X and Y coordinates while the mousedown event is firing?

Try something similar to this: Personally I wouldn't have a timer, and just let the framerate handle how often stuff happens.

var _mouseDown:Boolean = false;
var _msTimer:int = 3;
var _msMax:int = _msTimer;

stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, _mousedown);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, _mouseup);
stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _handle);

function _mousedown(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    _mouseDown = true;
}

function _mouseup(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    _mouseDown = false;
}


function _handle(e:Event):void
{
    if(_mouseDown) _msTimer --;
    else _msTimer = _msMax;
    if(_msTimer < 1)
    {
        _msTimer = _msMax;

        // DO FIRE EFFECT HERE
        var xm:Number = stage.mouseX;
        var ym:Number = stage.mouseY;

        trace("do fire effect here", xm, ym);
    }
}

Here's a quick fire effect just for kicks :)

var _mouseDown:Boolean = false;
var fire:Array = [];
var colors:Array = [0xFF0000,0xFF9900,0xFFCC00,0xFF0000,0xFF9900,0xFFCC00,0x333333];

var rect:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0,0,stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
var point:Point = new Point(0, 0);
var bmd:BitmapData = new BitmapData(stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight);
var filter:BlurFilter = new BlurFilter(6,6,3);

var container:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
var bitmap:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bmd);

addChild(bitmap);

stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, _mousedown);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, _mouseup);
stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _handle);

function _mousedown(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    _mouseDown = true;
}

function _mouseup(e:MouseEvent):void
{
    _mouseDown = false;
}


function _handle(e:Event):void
{
    if(_mouseDown)
    {
        // DO FIRE EFFECT HERE
        var xm:Number = stage.mouseX;
        var ym:Number = stage.mouseY;

        var k:uint = 0;
        for(k; k<10; k++)
        {
            var s:Sprite = fireThing();
            s.x = -30 + xm + Math.random()*30;
            s.y = -30 + ym + Math.random()*30;
        }
    }

    // handle fire
    var i:Array;
    for each(i in fire)
    {
        i[0].x += Math.cos(i[1].ang) * i[1].speed;
        i[0].y += Math.sin(i[1].ang) * i[1].speed;

        if(i[0].y < 0 || i[0].x < 0 || i[0].x > stage.stageWidth || i[0].y > stage.stageHeight)
        {
            if(i[0].parent) i[0].parent.removeChild(i[0]);

            var ix:uint = fire.indexOf(i);
            fire.splice(ix, 1);
        }
    }

    bmd.lock();
    bmd.draw(container);
    bmd.applyFilter(bmd, rect, point, filter);
    bmd.unlock();
}

function fireThing():Sprite
{
    var s:Sprite = new Sprite();

    s.graphics.beginFill(colors[uint(Math.random()*colors.length)]);
    s.graphics.drawCircle(0,0,1+Math.random()*2);
    s.graphics.endFill();

    var o:Object =
    {
        ang: Math.random()*Math.PI*2,
        speed: Math.random()*4
    };

    fire.push([s,o]);
    container.addChild(s);

    return s;
}

You're on the right track. To get updated mouse coordinates also on MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN add MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE listener and save X and Y coordinates to some variable in this listener. So when calling your "pseudo" click listener, you'll always have updated coordinates. And on MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP remove MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE listener.
OR
You can just use mouseX, mouseY, and contentMouseX, contentMouseY (for UIComponent in Flex) properties of your component.

Listen for buttonDown event after setting autorepeat property of button to true.

<mx:Button label="Click" buttonDown="trace('continuous')" autoRepeat="true"/>