Replicating a movie clip or graphic symbol

The Replicate command lets you display movie clips or graphics sequentially. The command displays a movie clip or graphic symbol for each row of data in a data source. This can be useful for creating animated sports scoreboards or sequential displays of data, such as might be returned from a database query.

When you apply the Replicate command to a movie clip or graphic symbol, the original symbol determines the uses for values and objects in subsequent movie clips by:

Providing variables to be filled in with values from each row of the Replicate command's data source.
Containing variables that specify other symbols to plot or insert.
Declaring variables as frame labels or within actions.
Serving as a parent timeline to other Generator objects or commands included within the original symbol.

The Replicate command uses its own data source. The data source must have at least one column and one row, but it does not require any mandatory column names. Instead, all columns in a row are used to specify variables for the replicated movie clip.

To replicate a movie clip or graphic symbol:

1 Create a movie clip or graphic symbol that you want to replicate. Within the symbol, place variables and actions that you want to be defined by the data source when the template is generated.
Usually, the symbol contains variables specified in text blocks and actions, and it may include other Generator objects. Generator fills in all variables when it processes the template.
2 Make sure the Generator inspector is displayed by choosing Window > Inspectors > Generator.
3 Place an instance of the symbol on the Stage, and then select it.
4 In the Generator inspector, choose Replicate from the pop-up menu.
5 Select Data Source and specify the data source in the Parameters text box.
6 For Expand Frames, if you are creating templates in Flash 3 or later format, set the option to False. If you are creating Flash 2-compatible templates, set the option to True.