fix needed for bug in TextField/Text

Question

Sort of a complicated scenario - just curious if anyone else could come up with something:

I have a Text control and when I scroll it and stop the scroll with the cursor over some text that has a url, the cursor doesn't revert to a hand, and also flash player starts acting as if a selection is being made from the last cursor position. So IOW a bonafide bug in flash as far as I can determine.

The above probably wasn't completely clear so let me elaborate. If you grab a scrollbar thumb and start moving it up and down, you don't actually have to keep the mouse pointer on the thumb while doing so. When you stop the scroll, the mouse pointer could be outside the browser window, inside your flash application, but not currently on the scroll bar thumb, or wherever. The previously mentioned bug occurs when you stop the scroll with the mouse pointer positioned over text with an html anchor (a hyperlink). At that point the cursor enters into some state of limbo, and doesn't show the url hand pointer, and furthermore acts as if some text selection is taking place from the last cursor position prior to the scroll.

So the question would be, what sort of event could I simulate in code to jolt flash out of this erroneous state it is in. And furthermore in what event could I perform this simulated event (given that for example there is no AS3 event to signal the end of a scroll.)

To be clear, the Text control in question is on a canvas, and that canvas (call it A) is on another canvas which actually owns the scrollbar, and scrolling takes place by changing the scrollRect of canvas A.

Answer 1

I have run into this exact same problem with the TextArea in Flex 4: Scroll (textarea content is large than it's container) and release the mouse when over a link, and the cursor doesn't act right.

I think it's a bug, try submitting it to the Adobe Bug and Issue Management System. I will vote for it :).

Are you using Flex 3 or 4? If you're in Flex 4, I can make some suggestions. As a base, I would examine the TextArea and related source code in the Flex 3 SDK and figure out what events are being dispatched from links and whatnot. If you can eliminate the possibility that it's a Flash TextField (which TextArea uses), then it's a Flex bug. Try dispatching events that they're dispatching within the TextArea, from the things that are dispatching it (Event.CHANGE is all I can see taking a quick glance).

Good luck!

Answer 2

This is really in response to viatropos.

I was just able to duplicate the bug using the code example from the end of the Text documentation page in Flex 3.5 reference.

Just replace their htmlText in that example with a huge block of htmlText containing anchors tags (<a>...</a>). Then make the browser window small. Then click some arbitrary area of the htmlText with the mouse (That step is important.) Then scroll using the thumb. Stop the scroll with the cursor directly over one of the hyperlinks you created and release the mouse. The entire block of htmlText is selected and highlighted and the mouse pointer will not revert to a hand. (Well it will after you click somewhere else.)

As far as reporting this to adobe through their bug tracking system, I guess if I want to wait several months for it to be fixed. I reported another genuine bug over a year ago that was never fixed.

But examining their source code as you suggested - probably my best bet.