I've created a Flex 4.6 web application that has many instances that need information from each other. Originally, I used a singleton to store the reference to the instance which was real convienent and works fine.

I am refactoring it to use FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication to access the instance instead of an extra singleton class.

Example 1:Singleton code that i am refactoring looks something like this and does work:(this works just fine but uses an extra class for storing the reference)

//ViewHDDComp.mxml

import HDD.Classes.HDDGlobals;

private var hdd:HDDGlobals= HDDGlobals.getInstance();

hdd.ViewHDD.menuButtons.visible=false; //the reference to the menuButtons component is stored in the HDD Globals

hdd.ViewHDD.menuInput.visible=false; //the reference to the menuInput component is stored in the HDD Globals

//HDDGlobals.as

private var _viewHDD:ViewHDDComp;

public function get ViewHDD():ViewHDDComp { return _viewHDD; }

public function set ViewHDD(viewHDD:ViewHDDComp):void{_viewHDD=viewHDD;}

Example 2: This is what I am trying to do which does not work:(don't understand why it doesn't)

//ViewHDDComp.mxml

import HDD.Components.ViewHDDComp;

private var h:ViewHDDComp=FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.viewHDD;

h.menuButtons.visible=false; //menuButtons is a component in the instance viewHDD component

h.menuInput.visible=false; //menuInput is a component in the instance viewHDD component

This is what does work:(but is too verbose)

//ViewHDDComp.mxml

FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.viewHDD.menuButtons.visible=false; //menuButtons is a component in the instance viewHDD component

FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.viewHDD.menuInput.visible=false; //menuInput is a component in the instance viewHDD component

How do I abbreviate or type cast FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.componentInstance.componentInstance.c omponentInstance?

Thanks in advance,

Joe