Gaius, thanks again for the reply. I think I get where you're going with the Array being included in the loadComplete function, but I'm not quite there. In my main Flex application I created a method that is called through the creationComplete instantiation, as you suggested in my other post. The function that is then called in my main application creates an instance of the FileLoad class and calls its retrieve method to populate a string in the main application, something like this:
private var dataString:String;
var dataAccess:FileLoad = new FileLoad();
dataString = dataAccess.retrieve(location);
The idea was to return a string from the retrieve method to instantiate the dataString variable with the data from my .txt file. I was then planning to use the dataString variable to populate an Array/ArrayCollection object. So it sounds like what you are suggesting is just moving that work to the retrieve method, which I agree would be cleaner. What I'm still unsure on, though, is how to get the retrieve method to return something to the main application after the data is loaded, so it can populate the string/array/arraycollection that I want to use outside the FileLoad class to populate charts/etc. However, I have thought of another idea and am wondering if this is valid, instead:
----------------------------- MAIN APPLICATION (inside the creationCompleteHandler function) -------------------------
private var dataArray:ArrayCollection;
//Have the constructor take the file location as a parameter
var dataAccess:FileLoad = new FileLoad(location);
//call the retrieve method, which now takes an ArrayCollection object as a parameter
dataAccess.retrieve(dataArray);
---------------------------------------------------------- FileLoad Class -------------------------------------------------------------
package actionscript
{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.IOErrorEvent;
import flash.net.URLLoader;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
public class FileLoad extends Sprite
{
private var loader:URLLoader;
private var request:URLRequest;
private var text:String;
private var url:String;
private var loaded:Boolean = false;
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Creates an object that can load a text file saved in the bin-debug folder of
//the 'Project' Flex Project
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
public function FileLoad(location: String)
{
super();
url = location;
loader = new URLLoader();
}
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Loads the specified text file saved in the bin-debug folder of the 'Project'
//Flex Project
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
public function retrieve(dataArray:ArrayCollection):void
{
request = new URLRequest(url);
loader.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, errorHandler);
loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadComplete)
try
{
loader.load(request);
}
catch(error:SecurityError)
{
trace("A Security Error has occured.");
}
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Once the retrieve method completes loading the text file, this method creates an
//ArrayCollection representation of the data and adds it to the main application
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
private function loadComplete(event:Event):void
{
private var tempArray:Array;
loaded = true;
try
{
text = event.target.data;
tempArray = text.split(",");
dataArray = new ArrayCollection(tempArray);
}
catch (e:TypeError)
{
text = "Could not parse the file.";
}
trace("test2");
trace(text);
}
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//I know this does nothing useful right now, it will be changed.
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
private function errorHandler(e:IOErrorEvent):Boolean
{
return loaded;
}
}
}
[/CODE]
Now, if I recall correctly, modifying the dataArray instance of ArrayCollection within the FileLoad's retrieve method will cause it to also be modified in the main application, right? I'm still not confident this is a fix though, because in the retrieve method control will enter the try clause and begin loading the data with the loader.load(request) command. However, it still won't wait for the event to complete loading, so control will jump back to the main application and go on processing whatever is there before the dataArray object points to anything other than null. Don't I need control to actually wait for the loading to finish (wait for the loadComplete method to be called) before returning to the main application so that when control does return to the main application the dataArray object will be populated?
One possible solution I'm thinking of is to include "loadInProgress" (this being the initial state) and "dataLoaded" states in the main application and essentially have the program wait in a while lope for the dataAccess variable to populate. Would the following be valid:
----------------------------- MAIN APPLICATION (inside the creationCompleteHandler function) -------------------------
private var dataArray:ArrayCollection;
var dataAccess:FileLoad = new FileLoad(location);
dataAccess.Retrieve(dataArray);
while(dataArray == null)
{
currentState = "loadInProgress";
}
//In this state the charts/etc that use the .txt file data will be included so they can populate with the data
currentState = "dataLoaded";
Sorry, I would experiment with these ideas in FlashBuilder but I'm not anywhere I currently have access. I'm kind of doubtful of these ideas though as solutions offered up in other forums seem more complicated. If these ideas are wrong and anyone can explain to me why it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again Gaius for your help.
8
Replies
AdChoices