The Flash Player API classes are in the flash.* packages. The Flash Player API refers to all packages, classes, functions, properties, constants, events, and errors that are in the flash package. They are unique to Flash Player, as opposed to the top-level classes, such as Date, Math, and XML, or the language elements, which are based on ECMAScript. The Flash Player API contains features that you expect to find in object-oriented programming languages, such as the flash.geom package for geometry classes, as well as features specific to the needs of rich Internet applications, such as the flash.filters package for expressiveness and the flash.net package for handling data transmission to and from a server.
Other classes for ActionScript authoring are in the fl.* packages and include:
| package | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Top Level | The top level contains the core ActionScript classes and global functions. | |
| adobe.utils | The adobe.utils package contains functions and classes used by Flash authoring tool developers. | |
| flash.accessibility | The flash.accessibility package contains classes for supporting accessibility in Flash content and applications. | |
| flash.desktop | The flash.desktop package contains classes used for copy-and-paste and drag-and-drop operations, as well as the Icon class, used to define system icons used by a file. | |
| flash.display | The flash.display package contains the core classes that the Flash Player uses to build visual displays. | |
| flash.errors | The flash.errors package contains a set of commonly used error classes. | |
| flash.events | The flash.events package supports the new DOM event model and includes the EventDispatcher base class. | |
| flash.external | The flash.external package contains the ExternalInterface class which can be used to communicate with the Flash Player's container. | |
| flash.filters | The flash.filters package contains classes for bitmap filter effects. | |
| flash.geom | The flash.geom package contains geometry classes, such as points, rectangles and transformation matrixes, to support the BitmapData class and the bitmap caching feature. | |
| flash.media | The flash.media package contains classes for working with multimedia assets such as sound and video. | |
| flash.net | The flash.net package contains classes for sending and receiving from the network, such as URL downloading and Flash Remoting. | |
| flash.printing | The flash.printing package contains classes for printing Flash-based content. | |
| flash.profiler | The flash.profiler package contains functions used for debugging and profiling ActionScript code. | |
| flash.sampler | The flash.sampler package contains methods and classes for tracking procedure calls so that you can profile memory usage and optimize applications. | |
| flash.system | The flash.system package contains classes for accessing system-level functionality, such as security, multilanguage content, etc. | |
| flash.text | The flash.text package contains classes for working with text fields, text formatting, text metrics, style sheets, and layout. | |
| flash.text.engine | The FTE provides low-level support for sophisticated control of text metrics, formatting, and bi-directional text. While it can be used to create and manage simple text elements, the FTE is primarily designed as a foundation for developers to create text-handling components. | |
| flash.ui | The flash.ui package contains user interface classes, such as classes for interacting with the mouse and keyboard. | |
| flash.utils | The flash.utils package contains utility classes, such as data structures like ByteArray. | |
| flash.xml | The flash.xml package contains Flash Player's legacy XML support, and other Flash Player-specific XML functionality. |