Flex Actionscript 3.0 Missing DisplayObject Children

So you have a component like


Awesome.mxml

<mx:Canvas ....>
<mx:Vbox id="avbox" />
</mx:Canvas>



if you try to create your object with as3 like:



var awesome:Awesome = new Awesome();



you'll see that



trace(awesome.avbox); //NULL



gives you null. Thats because your component's children are created using deferred instantiation. If you want to force the component to create its children do:


awesome.initialize();


now when you try:


trace(awesome.avbox); //NOT NULL


there will actually be something there :)

Actionscript 3.0 Flex Modules Tricky Timer Memory Leak

Becareful when unloading modules to stop and remove Timers, these can cause you memory leaks (and headaches)!!

Adding a Resize button to a Flex Panel v2

check out this guys resizable panel: http://www.aboutflex.net/flex/resizable-panel/

Its pretty cool, but it won't work if you try to add the panel inside another component. Thats because handleScale directly references the stage to get the mouse coordinates. But if your component does not start at x=0 y=0 then the cordinates will be off.

here is the modified version which uses the parents mouseX,mouseY in handleScale:





heres the source:

ResizablePanelv2.mxml


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" xmlns:containers="com.flexas3.containers.*">
<mx:VBox horizontalAlign="center" verticalAlign="middle" backgroundColor="#696969" horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0" width="50%" height="75%">
<mx:Button label="I'm in a Vbox" />
<containers:ResizablePanel title="Resize Me !!" x="73" y="110" width="258" height="213" />
</mx:VBox>
</mx:Application>



./com/flexas3/containers/ResizablePanel.as

package com.flexas3.containers
{
import flash.events.MouseEvent;

import mx.containers.Panel;
import mx.controls.Button;

public class ResizablePanel extends Panel
{
public function ResizablePanel()
{
super();
resizer.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,handleDown)
}
private var resizer:Button=new Button();

override protected function createChildren():void{
this.resizer.width=12;
this.resizer.height=12;

super.createChildren();
this.rawChildren.addChild(resizer);
}
override protected function updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number):void{
super.updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth,unscaledHeight);
this.resizer.y = unscaledHeight - resizer.height ;
this.resizer.x = unscaledWidth - resizer.width ;

}
private function handleDown(e:MouseEvent):void{
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE,handleScale)
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,stopResize)
}
private function handleScale(e:MouseEvent):void{
if(parent.mouseX-this.x>50)
width=parent.mouseX-this.x;
if(parent.mouseY-this.y>50)
height=parent.mouseY-this.y;
}
private function stopResize(e:MouseEvent):void{
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE,handleScale)
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,stopResize)
}
}

}