Populate ArrayCollection with HTTPService

Question

Hi guys.

Yes there is a question like this one, but there is no activity and no answer.

I want to load data from a external XML file, using a HTTPService, and on the ResultEvent of the same HTTPService i want him to populate a ArrayCollection with the data from the XML.

I think a ArrayCollection is the ideal for this XML. but I'm open to suggestions.

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PhotoGalleryData>
    <Photo>
     <id>1</id>
     <name>Summer Vacation</name>
     <description>In vacation</description>
     <source>vacation.JPG</source>
    </Photo>
    <Photo>
     <id>2</id>
     <name>Winter Vacation</name>
     <description>coold</description>
     <source>vacation2.JPG</source>
    </Photo>
</PhotoGalleryData>

I thought that this simple line in getDataResultHandler(), would be enough to populate the ArrayCollection.

<mx:HTTPService id="getData"
     url="{XMLDataFileLocation}"
     fault="getDataFaultHandler()"
     result="getDataResultHandler()"/>

[Bindable]
private var PhotoData:ArrayCollection;

private function getDataResultHandler():void
{
    PhotoData = new ArrayCollection(getData.lastResult.PhotoGalleryData.photo)
}

But i guess it isn't, because just to be sure i have placed a List binded to the ArrayCollection to actually see if it really was populated.

<mx:List dataProvider="{PhotoData}" labelField="name"/>

And the list didn't showed any data, so isn't working as supposed to be.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT

NOTE

The <mx:List/> used is just to be sure that the ArrayCollection is indeed populated, it won't be used in the App.

---

Results taking Bozho advice.

With Bozho changes Flex doesn't report the var type error any more, but once i run it. Adobe flash does report this.

TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert mx.utils::ObjectProxy@22cd311 to mx.collections.ArrayCollection. at PhotoGallery/getDataResultHandler()[C:\Users\Fábio Antunes\Documents\Flex Builder 3\Photo Gallery\src\ActionScripts\PhotoGallery.as:56] at PhotoGallery/__getData_result()[C:\Users\Fábio Antunes\Documents\Flex Builder 3\Photo Gallery\src\PhotoGallery.mxml:23] at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction() at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent() at mx.rpc.http.mxml::HTTPService/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal%3A%3AdispatchRpcEvent%28%29%5BC:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\http\mxml\HTTPService.as:290] at mx.rpc::AbstractInvoker/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal%3A%3AresultHandler%28%29%5BC:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\AbstractInvoker.as:193] at mx.rpc::Responder/result()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\Responder.as:43] at mx.rpc::AsyncRequest/acknowledge()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\AsyncRequest.as:74] at DirectHTTPMessageResponder/completeHandler()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\channels\DirectHTTPChannel.as:403] at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()

Well and the line 23 that Flash reports the error its:

PhotoData = ArrayCollection(event.result);

Line 23 is:

result="getDataResultHandler(event)"

Answer 1

You can simplify your script like this:

<mx:HTTPService id="getData" url="{XMLDataFileLocation}"/>
<mx:List dataProvider="{getData.lastResult.Photo}" labelField="name"/>

The lastResult of your getData will be the root of your XML. By retrieving lastResult.Photo you'll get an XMLList of the photos.

Answer 2

If you can use an XMLListCollection in place of an ArrayCollection the process of converting the result object is more straightforward. Here is a good tutorial explaining how to go about this.

EDIT:

The key things to get from this tutorial are this:

• you need to set the result format of the service to e4x.

• you need to cast the result object as XML object, extract the repeating nodes as an XMLList, and construct an XMLListCollection from the list like so:

  private function httpService_result(evt:ResultEvent):void 
  {
       var xmlList:XMLList = XML(evt.result).path.to.repeating.element;
       xmlListColl = new XMLListCollection(xmlList);
  }