PopUpButton with TileList and custom renderer

Question

Hello,

I have prepared a simple test case for a PopUpButton opening a TileList with black and red entries and it mostly works, but has 2 annoyances.

I've searched a lot, tried several variants (added [Bindable] members in my renderer; added color member to the bids array; created my public override set data() method; ...) and has been getting some answers too, but they are way too general.

I would appreciate if someone can suggest code to fix the 2 issues in my code:

1) Scrolling "tl2" right-left doesn't work well: the entries are displayed in a mix of red and black. I know the TileList reuses itemRenderer, but how do I fix the problem?

2) In debug-mode I get numerous warnings: warning: unable to bind to property 'label' on class 'Object' (class is not an IEventDispatcher)

Thank you, Alex

MyRenderer.mxml:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Canvas xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
           verticalScrollPolicy="off" horizontalScrollPolicy="off"
           width="100%" height="100%">
    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            public static function findColor(str:String):uint {
                return (str.indexOf('♥') != -1 ||
                    str.indexOf('♦') != -1) ? 0xFF0000 : 0x000000;
            }
        ]]>
    </mx:Script>

    <mx:Label truncateToFit="true" width="60"
              text="{data.label}" color="{findColor(data.label)}"/>
</mx:Canvas>

MyTest.mxml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
                creationPolicy="all" applicationComplete="init(event);">
    <mx:Style>
        @font-face {
            src:url("C:\\WINDOWS\\Fonts\\arial.ttf");
            fontFamily: myFont;
            unicodeRange:
                U+0020-U+0040, /* Punctuation, Numbers */
                U+0041-U+005A, /* Upper-Case A-Z */
                U+005B-U+0060, /* Punctuation and Symbols */
                U+0061-U+007A, /* Lower-Case a-z */
                U+007B-U+007E, /* Punctuation and Symbols */
                U+0410-U+0451, /* cyrillic */
                U+2660-U+266B; /* card suits */
        }
        List, CheckBox, Label, Button, PopUpButton, TileList {
            fontFamily: myFont;
            fontSize: 24;
        }
    </mx:Style>

    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.controls.*;
            import mx.events.*;

            [Bindable]
            private var bids:Array;
            private var tl:TileList;

            private function init(event:FlexEvent):void {
                bids = createBids();
                pub.popUp = createList(bids);
            }

            private function createBids():Array {
                var arr:Array = [{label: 'Pass'}];
                for (var i:uint = 6; i <= 10; i++)
                    for (var j:uint = 0; j < 5; j++)
                        arr.unshift({label: i+'♠♣♦♥ '.charAt(j%5)});

                return arr;
            }

            private function createList(arr:Array):TileList {
                tl = new TileList();
                tl.maxColumns = 5;
                tl.width = 350;
                tl.height = 250;
                tl.dataProvider = arr;
                tl.itemRenderer = new ClassFactory(MyRenderer);
                tl.addEventListener('itemClick', itemClickHandler);

                if (arr.length > 0) {
                    tl.selectedIndex = arr.length - 1;
                    pub.label = arr[tl.selectedIndex].label;
                }

                return tl;
            }

            private function itemClickHandler(event:ListEvent):void {
                var index:uint = tl.columnCount * event.rowIndex + event.columnIndex;
                var label:String = bids[index].label;
                pub.label = label;
                pub.setStyle('color', MyRenderer.findColor(label));
                pub.close();
                tl.selectedIndex = index;
            }
        ]]>
    </mx:Script>

    <mx:Panel title="TileList scrolling problem" height="100%" width="100%"
              paddingTop="10" paddingBottom="10" paddingLeft="10" paddingRight="10">

        <mx:Label width="100%" color="blue" text="Select your bid:"/>

        <mx:TileList id="tl2" height="200" width="200"
                     maxColumns="5" rowHeight="30" columnWidth="60"
                     dataProvider="{bids}" itemRenderer="MyRenderer"/>
    </mx:Panel>

    <mx:ApplicationControlBar width="100%">
        <mx:Spacer width="100%"/>
        <mx:CheckBox id="auto" label="Auto:"/>
        <mx:Button id="left" label="&lt;&lt;"/>
        <mx:PopUpButton id="pub" width="90"/>
        <mx:Button id="right" label="&gt;&gt;"/>
    </mx:ApplicationControlBar>
</mx:Application>

Update:

Thank you Wade, the warning is gone now (I guess it was not ok to use {data.label} in my label), but the "tl2" still has scrolling issues.

New MyRenderer.mxml (still has scrolling issues):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Canvas xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
           verticalScrollPolicy="off" horizontalScrollPolicy="off"
           width="100%" height="100%">
    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[

            override public function set data(value:Object):void {
                super.data = value;

                var str:String = String(value.label);
                myLabel.text = str;
                myLabel.setStyle('color', findColor(str));
            }

            public static function findColor(str:String):uint {
                return (str.indexOf('♥') != -1 ||
                    str.indexOf('♦') != -1) ? 0xFF0000 : 0x000000;
            }
        ]]>
    </mx:Script>

    <mx:Label id="myLabel" truncateToFit="true" width="60"/>
</mx:Canvas>

Answer 1

You can take care of both of your issues by overriding the set data method on your item renderer:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Canvas xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
           verticalScrollPolicy="off" horizontalScrollPolicy="off"
           width="100%" height="100%">
    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            override public function set data(value:Object):void {
                super.data = value;
                var str:String = value.label;
                this.myLabel.text = str;
                this.myLabel.setStyle("color", (str.indexOf('♥') != -1 ||
                    str.indexOf('♦') != -1) ? 0xFF0000 : 0x000000);
            }
        ]]>
    </mx:Script>

    <mx:Label id="myLabel" truncateToFit="true" width="60"/>
</mx:Canvas>

Since the renderers are re-used, the best way to ensure they are correctly updated is to use the set data method since it always gets called when a renderer gets re-used. This also gets rid of your binding warning since you are no longer binding to data.label. Note: I haven't tested this code, it may need some tweaking :) Hope that helps.

EDIT: Your "tl2" issue looks like it's caused by horizontally scrolling your tile list, whereas the TileList appears to be optimized for vertical scrolling. Since your data set is finite and relatively small, I would make the tile list full size to show all of the elements (eliminating item renderer re-use) and wrap it in a canvas set to the desired dimensions and let the canvas handle the scrolling. Probably not the answer you are looking for, sorry.