flash.system.IME (ActionScript 3.0)

Package	flash.system
Class	public final class IME
Inheritance	IME EventDispatcher Object

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

The IME class lets you directly manipulate the operating system's input method editor (IME) in the Flash runtime application that is running on a client computer. You can determine whether an IME is installed, whether or not the IME is currently enabled, and which IME is enabled. You can disable or enable the IME in the application, and you can perform other limited functions, depending on the operating system.

AIR profile support: This feature is supported on desktop operating systems, but it is not supported on all mobile devices. It is also not supported on AIR for TV devices. You can test for support at run time using the IME.isSupported property. See AIR Profile Support for more information regarding API support across multiple profiles.

IMEs let users type non-ASCII text characters in multibyte languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. For more information on working with IMEs, see the documentation for the operating system for which you are developing applications. For additional resources, see the following websites:

If an IME is not active on the user's computer, calls to IME methods or properties, other than Capabilities.hasIME, will fail. Once you manually activate an IME, subsequent ActionScript calls to IME methods and properties will work as expected. For example, if you are using a Japanese IME, it must be activated before any IME method or property is called.

The following table shows the platform coverage of this class:

Capability	Windows	Mac OSX	Linux
Determine whether the IME is installed: `Capabilities.hasIME`	Yes	Yes	Yes
Set IME on or off: `IME.enabled`	Yes	Yes	Yes
Find out whether IME is on or off: `IME.enabled`	Yes	Yes	Yes
Get or set IME conversion mode: `IME.conversionMode`	Yes	Yes **	No
Send IME the string to be converted: `IME.setCompositionString()`	Yes *	No	No
Get from IME the original string before conversion: `System.ime.addEventListener()`	Yes *	No	No
Send request to convert to IME: `IME.doConversion()`	Yes *	No	No

* Not all Windows IMEs support all of these operations. The only IME that supports them all is the Japanese IME.

** On the Macintosh, only the Japanese IME supports these methods, and third-party IMEs do not support them.

The ActionScript 3.0 version of this class does not support Macintosh Classic.

	Property	Defined by
		constructor : Object A reference to the class object or constructor function for a given object instance.	Object
		conversionMode : String [static] The conversion mode of the current IME.	IME
		enabled : Boolean [static] Indicates whether the system IME is enabled (`true`) or disabled (`false`).	IME
		isSupported : Boolean [static][read-only] The `isSupported` property is set to `true` if the IME class is available on the current platform, otherwise it is set to `false`.	IME
		prototype : Object [static] A reference to the prototype object of a class or function object.	Object

Public Methods

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	Method		Defined by
		addEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean = false, priority:int = 0, useWeakReference:Boolean = false):void Registers an event listener object with an EventDispatcher object so that the listener receives notification of an event.	EventDispatcher
		compositionAbandoned():void [static] Causes the runtime to abandon any composition that is in progress.	IME
		compositionSelectionChanged(start:int, end:int):void [static] Call this method when the selection within the composition has been updated, either interactively or programmatically.	IME
		dispatchEvent(event:Event):Boolean Dispatches an event into the event flow.	EventDispatcher
		doConversion():void [static] Instructs the IME to select the first candidate for the current composition string.	IME
		hasEventListener(type:String):Boolean Checks whether the EventDispatcher object has any listeners registered for a specific type of event.	EventDispatcher
		hasOwnProperty(name:String):Boolean Indicates whether an object has a specified property defined.	Object
		isPrototypeOf(theClass:Object):Boolean Indicates whether an instance of the Object class is in the prototype chain of the object specified as the parameter.	Object
		propertyIsEnumerable(name:String):Boolean Indicates whether the specified property exists and is enumerable.	Object
		removeEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean = false):void Removes a listener from the EventDispatcher object.	EventDispatcher
		setCompositionString(composition:String):void [static] Sets the IME composition string.	IME
		setPropertyIsEnumerable(name:String, isEnum:Boolean = true):void Sets the availability of a dynamic property for loop operations.	Object
		toLocaleString():String Returns the string representation of this object, formatted according to locale-specific conventions.	Object
		toString():String Returns the string representation of the specified object.	Object
		valueOf():Object Returns the primitive value of the specified object.	Object
		willTrigger(type:String):Boolean Checks whether an event listener is registered with this EventDispatcher object or any of its ancestors for the specified event type.	EventDispatcher

Summary	Defined by
activate	[broadcast event] Dispatched when the Flash Player or AIR application gains operating system focus and becomes active.	EventDispatcher
deactivate	[broadcast event] Dispatched when the Flash Player or AIR application operating loses system focus and is becoming inactive.	EventDispatcher
imeComposition	Dispatched when a user has completed an input method editor (IME) composition and the reading string is available.	IME

Property detail

conversionMode

property

conversionMode:String [read-write]

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

The conversion mode of the current IME. Possible values are IME mode string constants that indicate the conversion mode:

ALPHANUMERIC_FULL
ALPHANUMERIC_HALF
CHINESE
JAPANESE_HIRAGANA
JAPANESE_KATAKANA_FULL
JAPANESE_KATAKANA_HALF
KOREAN
UNKNOWN (read-only value; this value cannot be set)

Implementation
public static function get conversionMode():String
public function set conversionMode(value:String):void

Throws

Error — A set attempt was not successful.

enabled

property

enabled:Boolean [read-write]

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

Indicates whether the system IME is enabled (true) or disabled (false). An enabled IME performs multibyte input; a disabled IME performs alphanumeric input.

Implementation
public static function get enabled():Boolean
public function set enabled(value:Boolean):void

Throws

Error — A set attempt was not successful.

isSupported

property

isSupported:Boolean [read-only]

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

AIR 2

The isSupported property is set to true if the IME class is available on the current platform, otherwise it is set to false.

Implementation
public static function get isSupported():Boolean

Method detail

compositionAbandoned

()

method

public static function compositionAbandoned():void

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

AIR 2

Causes the runtime to abandon any composition that is in progress. Call this method when the user clicks outside of the composition area or when the interactive object that has focus is being destroyed or reset. The runtime confirms the composition by calling confirmComposition() in the client. The runtime also resets the IME to inform the operating system that the composition has been abandoned.

compositionSelectionChanged

()

method

public static function compositionSelectionChanged(start:int, end:int):void

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

AIR 2

Call this method when the selection within the composition has been updated, either interactively or programmatically.

Parameters

	`start:int` — Specifies the offset in bytes of the start of the selection.

	`end:int` — Specifies the offset in bytes of the end of the selection.

doConversion

()

method

public static function doConversion():void

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

Instructs the IME to select the first candidate for the current composition string.

Throws

Error — The call was not successful.

setCompositionString

()

method

public static function setCompositionString(composition:String):void

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

Sets the IME composition string. When this string is set, the user can select IME candidates before committing the result to the text field that currently has focus.

If no text field has focus, this method fails and throws an error.

Parameters

composition:String — The string to send to the IME.

Throws

Error — The call is not successful.

Event detail

imeComposition

event

Event object type: flash.events.IMEEvent
IMEEvent.type property = flash.events.IMEEvent.IME_COMPOSITION

Language version:

ActionScript 3.0

Runtime version:

Dispatched when a user has completed an input method editor (IME) composition and the reading string is available. IMEs are generally used to enter text from languages that have ideographs instead of letters, such as Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

To handle IME text input, the receiver must set the imeClient field of the event to an object that implements the IIMEClient interface. If imeClient is unset, the runtime uses out-of-line IME composition instead, and sends the final composition as a TEXT_INPUT event.

This event has the following properties:

Property	Value
`bubbles`	`false`
`cancelable`	`false`; there is no default behavior to cancel.
`currentTarget`	The object that is actively processing the Event object with an event listener.
`target`	The IME object.

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Class IME	Properties \| Methods \| Events