Handling Events from Flash User Interface (UI) Components

< Day Day Up >

The components in Flash MX 2004 have their own broadcasting mechanism. Each Flash component has a method called addEventListener() , which behaves similarly to the addListener() method discussed earlier. Listing 7.3 shows a listener being added for an event of a combo box.

Listing 7.3. Using addEventListener to Respond to Events from Components

 var myResponder:Object = new Object(); var myCombo:mx.controls.ComboBox; myResponder.change = function(){       trace(myCombo.value); } myCombo.addEventListener("change",myResponder);

In Listing 7.3, the addEventListener() method of a combo box is used to broadcast any change events from the combo box to the myResponder object. This example shows how similar addEventListener() is to addListener() . However, as can be seen, there is one key difference between the two methods ” addEventListener takes the name of the event as an argument in addition to the object name . This enables a single component to have different objects listening for individual events.

addEventListener() also has a few other ways it can be used. Rather than specifying an object as the event listener, the second argument passed to it can instead be a function located on the main timeline, as seen in Listing 7.4:

Listing 7.4. addEventListener Can Specify a Function to Respond to Events from Components

 var myCombo:mx.controls.ComboBox; function showValue(){       trace(myCombo.value); } myCombo.addEventListener("change",showValue);

Of course, in OOP, it is a best practice to avoid functions on the main timeline. Instead, you should create functions as methods on an object. Fortunately, addEventListener() also supports this construct, enabling a listener object to have any of its methods respond to an event instead of requiring the method to have the same name as the event. Although the usefulness of this might not be obvious, it can enable a single method to handle disparate events from multiple components.

Listing 7.5 shows addEventListener() being used to route the change event of a combo box to a method named someMethod() within the myResponder object:

Listing 7.5. addEventListener is Flexible Enough to Enable Methods of Any Name to Respond to Any Component Event

 var myResponder:Object = new Object(); var myCombo:mx.controls.ComboBox; myResponder.someMethod = function(){       trace(myCombo.value); } myCombo.addEventListener("change",myResponder.someMethod);

N OTE

Flash UI components, and the events involved with them, are covered in detail in Chapter 10, "To Protect and Serve."

T ip

There is a difference regarding the scope in which a responding method will fire. It is based on whether an object, method, or function is passed in. If the listener is specified as an object (not the method of an object), the responder will fire in the scope of the specified object. However, if a function on the timeline or a method of an object is specified as the listener when the listener is invoked, it will be in the scope of the component, rather than of the timeline or object to which the function/method belongs. When in doubt, add the statement trace(this) to the listener to find out the scope of it.

< Day Day Up >