Access children of embedded aswf

Question

I am embedding an swf file that has some children on its timeline. Like this:

[Embed(source="assets/skyscraper200x600.swf")]
private var Skyscraper  :Class;

All children in the swf have an instance name, I double checked that when creating the swf in Flash CS5. I am trying to access those children by name like this:

_bg = MovieClip(new Skyscraper());
_pig = MovieClip(_bg.getChildByName("chara_pig"));
_arrow = MovieClip(_bg.getChildByName("arrow_banner"));

However, both _pig and _arrow end up being null.

What's even stranger is that when I look at the Skyscraper object in the debugger, it shows a rather strange class name and a Loader as its only child (which in turn has no children). What's up with this?

.

I can access them like above if I do not embed the swf, but load it with a Loader. But I cannot do it in this case. I need to embed the swf.

So, how can you access children of embedded swfs?

I am not talking about accessing classes in the library of the embedded swf, but the instances on the timeline.

Answer 1

Here is a solution. You can also see the steps who helped me find this solution (describeType is your friend) :

public class Demo extends Sprite {

    [Embed(source="test.swf")]
    private var Test:Class

    public function Demo() {
        //first guess is that embed SWF is a MovieClip
        var embedSWF:MovieClip = new Test() as MovieClip;
        addChild(embedSWF);

        //well, emebed SWF is more than just a MovieClip...       
        trace(describeType(embedSWF));//mx.core::MovieClipLoaderAsset
        trace(embedSWF.numChildren);//1
        trace(describeType(embedSWF.getChildAt(0)));//flash.display::Loader

        var loader:Loader = embedSWF.getChildAt(0) as Loader;

        //the content is not already loaded...
        trace(loader.content);//null


        loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, function(){
            var swf:MovieClip = loader.content as MovieClip;
            var child:MovieClip = swf.getChildByName("$blob") as MovieClip;
            //do nasty stuff with your MovieClip !
        });
    }
}