I want to handle the keydown event globally in my application and as such have added the event handler to the top most DisplayObject in the display list. However, the event doesn't seem to fire unless the cursor focus is on a Textbox or Datagrid or the like.
How can I have key presses handled globaly by the application?
First, you won't detect any keystroke until your flex application get the focus. You can do it automatically by calling a js script at startup that will set the focus on the application
Once done, I would recommand you to add your key listener on systemManager. Doing that will allow you to handle keydown event globally.