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1. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
pauland Sep 16, 2011 11:45 AM (in response to sneakyimp)In MXML all code must be inside a function and called from another function or via an event handler.
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2. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
sneakyimp Sep 16, 2011 2:59 PM (in response to pauland)That's weird. Do you have any official links describing this in more detail? I have a pretty dire need to understand scoping more. For instance, if I want to generate new, dynamic objects, what objects and methods are at my disposal?
I'm accustomed to setting a document class in the Flash IDE -- this means you can define an external actionscript file which the flash movie uses when it instantiates the movie clip. I need to know the equivalent approach in MXML/Flex.
For instance, when a view, MyNewView, gets pushed onto the navigation stack at the push of a button, I need to run some actionscript which will attach new, dynamic objects to the view. These new dynamic objects are not attached to any particular object on the view. They are attached to the view itself.
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3. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
Flex harUI Sep 16, 2011 3:12 PM (in response to sneakyimp)In theory, all code does not have to be inside a function, although that's a
good practice. MXML is just a markup for a subclass. Use the
-keep-generated-actionscript compiler option to see what it generates. It
will hopefully give you a better feel for what is going to happen with your
script block.
I generally avoid using bare code in a class definition even when doing
straight ActionScript.
-Alex
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4. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
GordonSmith Sep 16, 2011 3:45 PM (in response to Flex harUI)> if I want to generate new, dynamic objects, what objects and methods are at my disposal?
You just use the 'new' operator to create an instance of any class. The methods you can call on that instance are, of course, determined by the class. If the thing you're creating is visual, then you have to add it to the display list, typically with addElement(). So, for example, to add a button to a Spark application you'd write the following code inside some handler:
var b:Button = new Button();
b.label = "OK";
addElement(b);
Gordon Smith
Adobe Flex SDK Team
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5. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
GordonSmith Sep 16, 2011 3:50 PM (in response to sneakyimp)> I generally avoid using bare code in a class definition even when doing straight ActionScript.
Alex says this because bare code executes at class initialization time, not at instance initialization time, and that is seldom what you want. For example, the original problem with myString is that it was declared as an instance variable, which doesn't exist until an instance is created, but then accessed by bare code as a implied static variable (since only statics exist at class initialization time). This is a very unfortunate quirk of AS3, and a future version of MXML will probably warn about, or disallow, bare code in <Script> blocks.
Gordon Smith
Adobe Flex SDK Team
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6. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
sneakyimp Sep 16, 2011 4:36 PM (in response to Flex harUI)Thanks for the helpful response Flex harUI.
I'm confused when you say that "MXML is just a markup for a subclass" ? To me, "subclassing" means I've written a class that extends some other class. From what I've seen, MXML is kind of a declarative way to define my entire application, which I believe is an instance of ViewNavigatorApplication, as well as its constituent components such as a View. Unless I'm mistaken the View class extends the SkinnableContainer and is not a subclass of ViewNavigatorApplication or vice versa.
That tip for the -keep-generated-actionscript compiler flag is helpful. For anyone else who wants to know, this compiler flag instructs the Flash Builder IDE to keep the automatically generated actionscript files (and other stuff) when building the SWF file. You can enable this in Flash Builder 4.5 for a given project by right-clicking the project and selecting Properties. Then, select Flex Compiler and in the box where it says Additional Compiler Arguments you add a space and then paste in -keep-generated-actionscript=true. Then, when you run/compile your project, take a peek in the bin-debug/generated folder and you should see a bunch of Actionscript files which will give you a much better idea of what is going on in your SWF.
My goal here was not to use 'bare code' but rather to understand the relationship of my MXML script blocks to the Actionscript 3 scoping with which I am already familiar. The downside of relying on Flash Builder to generate my actionscript from MXML is that I no longer have control over the actionscript external to the class or the class declaration itself (including extends, implements, etc). I could be missing something, but this seems to me like I'm ceding control to the IDE for my classes and I'm also having to learn a new paradigm for creating objects.
Now I'm wondering which class functions I need to delcare to get something to run once my view is initialized. Is it possible to define a constructor function in MXML for the auto-generated class? Is there a naming convention for the auto-generated classes? Are there standard events for these auto-generated classes such as before object initialization and after object instantiation, etc.?
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7. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
GordonSmith Sep 16, 2011 4:50 PM (in response to sneakyimp)When you write MyApp.mxml as
<s:Application>
...
</s:Application>
you are defining
public class MyApp extends spark.components.Application.
When you write MyButton.mxml as
<s:Button>
...
</s:Button>
you are defining
public class MyGroup extends spark.components.Button.
The name of the class you are creating is the name of the MXML file (and the directory of the MXML file determines its package). The root tag in the MXML file determines the class you are extending.
The <Script> is simply copied into the body of the class.
Any instance tag with an id, such <s:Button id="b">, creates a public (and bindable) instance variable
public var b:Button;
in the class so that script methods and event handlers can refer to that instance.
You cannot write a constructor for the MXML class.
If you are extending a UIComponent class, then the important lifecycle events to learn about are preinitialize, initialize, updateComplete, creationComplete, and applicationComplete.
Gordon Smith
Adobe Flex SDK Team
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8. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
GordonSmith Sep 16, 2011 4:51 PM (in response to GordonSmith)typo:
public class MyGroup extends spark.components.Button
should have been
public class MyButton extends spark.componens.Button
- Gordon
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9. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
Flex harUI Sep 16, 2011 4:54 PM (in response to sneakyimp)If you look at the generated code, your app extended
ViewNavigatorApplication, and instantiated Views and added them as children.
There are events and lifecycle methods for you to learn about. There are
examples, training videos and books. It depends on what best fits your
learning style.
By using a framework like Flex, and using MXML instead of AS, you are
definitely giving up control. You are using code written by someone else in
the hope that it will save you time. For most people it does, and that's
why we've been successful.
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10. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
sneakyimp Sep 16, 2011 5:00 PM (in response to GordonSmith)Gordon thank you too for the excellent detail. Alex's tip on -keep-generated-actionscript was really helpful and corroborates what you've said. My "trace" function for instance was included in the generated actionscript at the class level. Your code to instantiate a button was also helpful, but I'm still wondering a bit about scope related issues and object persistence.
Suppose for a moment that I were to adapt your button-adding code to create some elaborate matrix of dynamically created objects not in the main MXML block for the application but instead in a <script> block in a view. For example in MyNewView.mxml in the HelloWorld example. The view MyNewView is added when you click a button on the default view for my app:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <s:View xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" title="HomeView"> <fx:Declarations> <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here --> </fx:Declarations> <s:VGroup width="100%" height="100%" verticalAlign="middle" horizontalAlign="center"> <s:Label text="Hello World!"/> <s:Button label="Continue" click="navigator.pushView(MyNewView)" styleName="next" /> </s:VGroup> </s:View>
Then in myNewView, I create a <script> block. Seems pretty obvious that if I want to add a button in there using Actionscript that I should not be trying to add a button at the static/declaration level in my code but rather inside some class function. Which function though? Keep in mind I'm not adding a simple button or shape here but probably an instance of an elaborate class I define myself. Additionally, I'll probably need to supply MyNewView with some data. I see that the pushView method can accept a data parameter so I'm guessing that's a way to pass information in. Unfortunately, I don't see how to define code in my view to parse this data object and begin creating interface elements. Additionally, I wonder about the memory consumption of these objects I dynamically create -- are they destroyed when popView runs? Do I need to create a destructor to clean them up?
I realize that some of this is learning to deal with the view navigator class and some of it is learning the Flash Builder eccentricities. Any assistance would be much appreciated.
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11. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
sneakyimp Sep 16, 2011 5:13 PM (in response to sneakyimp)Oops...I type slowly because I'm reading code, documentation, etc. Very helpful posts thank you.
Sadly, the Flash Builder approach seems like quite a learning curve for me. I do not doubt the success of the product and crave its mobile app development features. I'm just looking to understand it as quickly as possible or perhaps how to find a workflow that suits an old AS3 hand. Given that, book suggestions are welcome. Obviously, I consider "flex for dummies" or some such thing too simple. Any good books or learning resources on the internet?
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12. Re: Vars, scoping in Flex
Flex harUI Sep 16, 2011 5:32 PM (in response to sneakyimp)The good and bad of AS3 is that you can use it in an object-oriented manner
or not. I don't know what kind of AS3 projects you've worked on in the
past, but from the questions you are asking, my sense is that you might
benefit from putting into practice my two recommendations for working with
OO code. My number one recommendation in the OO world is to trust the
layers underneath you until they screw you over, then go digging. My number
two recommendation is to train your brain to see patterns.
I would start with a non-mobile app and look at all of the examples on
flexexamples.com and in our doc. You should start to see the patterns for
how children get added and removed and what events are commonly used to
launch other code. You would trust that the child tags in MXML get
instantiated in time for 99% of the use cases, but not necessarily in the
constructor, because of the way the framework subsystems work. And you
would trust Flash Builder to help you manage the code.
You've already had to trust that the Flash Player will do things in a
particular way and that the browser it lives in will launch the Flash Player
in a particular way. Flex is another layer on top of the Flash Player for
you to trust to see how far you can get following common patterns.
You can find past threads on the forums about good education materials. I
can't recommend any since I learned before there were books, but I did
review Chafic's book many years back.





