Several folks have been asking about how to have a DataGrid ItemEditor with two input fields (say you want to separately edit first name and last name or something like that).
It’s a bit tricky because of some missing pieces in the underlying Flash focus APIs and because of how Focus events work. Here is my take on how to do it. Usual caveats apply (i.e, code is not supported and may have bugs etc).
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx=”http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml” layout=”vertical”>
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
import mx.utils.ObjectProxy;
[Bindable] private var comboArr:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection([new ObjectProxy({"checked":true}),new ObjectProxy({"checked":true}),new ObjectProxy({"checked":false}),new ObjectProxy({"checked":true}),new ObjectProxy({"checked":false})]);
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:DataGrid dataProvider=”{comboArr}”>
<mx:columns>
<mx:DataGridColumn headerText=”Check Box” dataField=”checked”>
<mx:itemRenderer>
<mx:Component>
<mx:Canvas>
<mx:CheckBox id=”checks” selected=”{data.checked}” change=”{data.checked = this.checks.selected}”/>
</mx:Canvas>
</mx:Component>
</mx:itemRenderer>
</mx:DataGridColumn>
<mx:DataGridColumn headerText=”Combo Box” dataField=”checked”>
<mx:itemRenderer>
<mx:Component>
<mx:Canvas>
<mx:ComboBox visible=”{data.checked}”>
<mx:dataProvider>
<mx:ArrayCollection>
<mx:source>
<mx:String>Data1</mx:String>
<mx:String>Data2</mx:String>
<mx:String>Data3</mx:String>
<mx:String>Data4</mx:String>
<mx:String>Data5</mx:String>
</mx:source>
</mx:ArrayCollection>
</mx:dataProvider>
</mx:ComboBox>
</mx:Canvas>
</mx:Component>
</mx:itemRenderer>
</mx:DataGridColumn>
</mx:columns>
</mx:DataGrid>
</mx:Application>
The following code is solution to a problem where you need to make the accordion component’s MouseOver event to behave like a click event. The code will work only in the case if you have not given the names to the AccordionHeader explicitly. Check the solution out here
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx=”http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml”>
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
public function onMouseOver(evt:MouseEvent):void{
var strName:String = evt.target.name;
var strLen:int = String("_header").length;
if(strName.indexOf("_header") > -1){
accordion.selectedIndex = int(strName.substr(strLen,strName.length));
}
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:Panel title=”Accordion Container Example” height=”90%” width=”90%”
paddingTop=”10″ paddingLeft=”10″ paddingRight=”10″ paddingBottom=”10″>
<mx:Label width=”100%” color=”blue”
text=”Select an Accordion navigator button to change the panel.”/>
<mx:Accordion id=”accordion” width=”100%” height=”100%” mouseOver=”onMouseOver(event)” >
<!– Define each panel using a VBox container. –>
<mx:VBox label=”Accordion Button for Panel 1″>
<mx:Label text=”Accordion container panel 1″/>
</mx:VBox>
<mx:VBox label=”Accordion Button for Panel 2″>
<mx:Label text=”Accordion container panel 2″/>
</mx:VBox>
<mx:VBox label=”Accordion Button for Panel 3″>
<mx:Label text=”Accordion container panel 3″/>
</mx:VBox>
</mx:Accordion>
<mx:Label width=”100%” color=”blue”
text=”Programmatically select the panel using a Button control.”/>
<mx:HBox>
<mx:Button label=”Select Panel 1″ click=”accordion.selectedIndex=0;”/>
<mx:Button label=”Select Panel 2″ click=”accordion.selectedIndex=1;”/>
<mx:Button label=”Select Panel 3″ click=”accordion.selectedIndex=2;”/>
</mx:HBox>
</mx:Panel>
</mx:Application>
You can enable the hand cursor on a MovieClip by defining the following statement
MovieClip.buttonMode = true;
However the solution does not work in-case you have a dynamic textField in that movieclip. To enable hand in this case you have to additionally write the following statement
MovieClip.mouseChildren = false;
The reason is that the mouseChildren property determines whether or not the children of the object are mouse enabled. If an object is mouse enabled, a user can interact with it by using a mouse. The default is true which makes the dynamic textfield interactable and due to the textfield behaviour the flash player does not show the hand-cursor.
The post contains a solution for a case where you need to attach a Library symbol and you have to pass that class name as a string to the function.
The approach followed here is by using the getDefinitionByName utility which interprets the string and convert it into a Class. Then you can use a new syntax with that particular class. Following is a code for the same solution and you can download the source files from here. The “testMC” here is a movieClip in library with the className as testMC and BaseClass as flash.display.MovieClip
import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;
function addMovieFromLibrary(mcIName:String){
var tMC:Class = getDefinitionByName(mcIName) as Class;
var newMc:MovieClip = new tMC() as MovieClip;
addChild(newMc);
}
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx=”http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml” width=”800″>
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.controls.Alert;
import mx.events.ListEvent;
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
[Bindable] private var employees:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection([{"name":"Christina Coenraets","phone":"555-219-2270","email":"ccoenraets@fictitious.com","active":"true"},{"name":"Joanne Wall","phone":"555-219-2012","email":"jwall@fictitious.com","active":"true"},{"name":"Maurice Smith","phone":"555-219-2012","email":"maurice@fictitious.com","active":"false"},{"name":"Mary Jones","phone":"555-219-2000","email":"mjones@fictitious.com","active":"true"}]);
private function dgItemClick(event:ListEvent):void{
if (event.columnIndex != 3) //to check if the button has not been clicked
loadItem(event.itemRenderer.data);
}
public function loadItem(dataObj:Object):void{
var str:String = “”;
for (var items:String in dataObj)
{
if (items != “mx_internal_uid”)//this is an extra unique id that Flex assigns by itself
str += items + “:” + dataObj[items] + “\n”;
}
Alert.show(str);
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:DataGrid id=”dg” width=”500″ height=”200″ rowCount=”5″ dataProvider=”{employees}” itemClick=”dgItemClick(event)”>
<mx:columns>
<mx:DataGridColumn dataField=”name” headerText=”Name”/>
<mx:DataGridColumn dataField=”phone” headerText=”Phone”/>
<mx:DataGridColumn dataField=”email” headerText=”Email”/>
<mx:DataGridColumn headerText=”">
<mx:itemRenderer>
<mx:Component>
<mx:Button label=”Select” click=”{outerDocument.loadItem(data)}”/>
</mx:Component>
</mx:itemRenderer>
</mx:DataGridColumn>
</mx:columns>
</mx:DataGrid>
</mx:Application>
Even though this is the first step, this is the one that you’re going to question the most, should I really uninstall my Flash Player and install the Debug Player? The answer is an emphatic “yes”. The Flash Debug Player is the exact same player with a very nice extra feature.
Find the installer here: Adobe Flash Debug Players
Restart your browser and right-click (ctrl-click) on a swf. You should have the “Debugger” option in the context menu, like the example below. 
Save the file here:
esktop:flashlog.txtEither publish a swf that uses trace() and view it in the browser, or surf around and find out what other people have been tracing in their movies (that’s one of my favorite options). The traces have been output from the browser to the text file. Open up flashlog.txt and see for yourself, you know you want to.
Create a shortcut to the batch file to set the Command Prompt colors and optionsClose out of the properties and double-click on the shortcut to see the flashlog with your colors and options.
General Known Issues in Flash Player 9.0
· Flash Player cannot progressively load files that are greater than 2Gb
· UILoader ignores scaleContent when content is loaded through loadBytes
· Memory utilization could substantially increase when large numbers of bitmaps that are subject to mipmapping are loaded
· Flash Player supports up to 30 frames per second playback for video.
· Opera and Netscape do not allow recursive calls using the ExternalInterface API into the Flash Player. This issue has been reported to Opera and Netscape.
· In certain browsers, full-screen does not render correctly when the window is split between two monitors where one monitor has a higher resolution than the other.
· Socket connecting to port under 1024 throws ioError, not securityError
· When using the Flex profiler, if FlashPlayerTrust is incorrectly created as a file, the Flex profiler will crash. Please ensure FlashPlayerTrust is properly configured as a directory.
· On the Windows standalone Flash Player, empty POST actions are changed to GET.
· Subsequent loads of ActionScript 2.0 SWFs containing components into a parent ActionScript 3.0 SWF may cause some components to break. The components will work on the first load, but loading new, or unloading ActionScript 2.0 components of the same class may exhibit this behavior.
· Developers should not rely on garbage collection if immediate clean up of active objects, such as display objects, streams and media, is expected. Use the appropriate ActionScript 3.0 APIs (close, removeEvent Listener, etc.) to get immediate behavior when cleaning up active objects.
· The delete operator is intended to remove properties of an object, and cannot be used to remove members of a class. For more details on the delete operator, see the ActionScript 3.0 Language Reference.
· Flash Player sound input does not work for OSX Audio MIDI sample rate settings higher than 48Khz. The microphone will either record noise or nothing. Some third party applications and MIDI breakout boxes will change the systemwide Audio settings on launch, and fail to return settings to default on close. To workaround this issue, go to Applications-> Utilities-> Audio MIDI Setup. Select Sound Input and change the properties for the ‘Built-in Input’ and/or ‘Built-in Microphone’ to a setting less than or equal to 48Khz.
· The standalone player cannot self-register SWF and FLV file associations under Vista without administrator privileges. Workaround: Users should launch SAFlashPlayer.exe once with administrator privileges by right-clicking on the EXE and selecting “Run as administrator” so it can correctly set the registry properties.
· Bitmap effects and filters cannot be printed.
· Button label text may not redraw correctly upon exiting full screen mode. User must mouse over the text to force the redraw.
· Transform Matrix transformations are not reflected in respective MovieClip/DisplayObject properties. Properties like scaleX, scaleY, and rotation are not changed as the result of changes to a DisplayObject’s transformation matrix (flash.geom.Transform, flash.geom.Matrix). However, changes to those properties are reflected in the matrix. If you change a property after changing the matrix, the matrix also resets to its original value. Affects ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0. Workaround: If using matrix transformations, avoid using scaleX, scaleY, and rotation in favor of their respective matrix transformations.
· Triggering stage.invalidate() during a “render” event listener fails.
· Empty strings passed through External Interface API via JavaScript are converted to null.
· Some users are experiencing sound problems under Windows due to lack of support for WaveOut with drivers for some video cards, such as Realtek and SoundMax.
· Launching the context menu when in full-screen mode may temporarily reduce FLV video playback performance on Macintosh systems.
· Although full-screen mode does not support text input, the text input cursor will display over input text fields. Workaround: dynamically convert input fields to dynamic text fields or disable TextInput components when in full-screen mode.
As you know, all MXML files are converted to ActionScript Classes which are later compiled in SWF file. If you want to view / study these automatically generated classes, you can use Compiler Argument -keep-generated-actionscript in Flex Builder Project.
In Flex Builder navigate to Project > Properties > Flex Compiler > Additional compiler arguments and add following configuration: -keep-generated-actionscript
This will create a folder named generated in project source folder which will have all ActionScript classes which Flex Builder automatically generates from MXML ({MXML file name}-generated).
Thease feature will probably be present in ActionScript 4 .
generic, but then mutliple methods (with different method signatures) can be used.