Name
MovieClip._parent Property — a reference to the host clip or movie containing this clip
Availability
Flash 4 and later
Synopsis
mc._parent
Access
Read-only
Description
The _ parent
property stores a reference to the
clip object upon whose timeline mc
resides. Main movies don’t support the _ parent
property because they are at the top level (conveniently referred to
as _root
). References to _root._ parent
return undefined
. The
_parent
property gives us the powerful ability to
manipulate clips in relation to the current clip.
Bugs
Though it is possible in Flash 5 to reassign the _ parent
property to another clip, doing so has little
purpose—only the reference is changed, not the physical
structure of the clips. This unintentional behavior will likely be
changed in the future.
Example
If mc
resides on the main timeline of a
movie, we can play the main timeline from
mc
using:
_parent.play( );
We may also set the parent timeline’s properties, as in:
_parent._alpha = 50;
The _ parent
property may also be used in
succession; that is, we may access the _ parent
of
a _ parent
, as follows:
_parent._parent.play( ); // Play the clip two clips above the current clip
See Also
_root
; Section 13.5.3
in Chapter 13
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