Navigation issue in Flex - ViewStack, states or something else?

Question

Hi,

I have a bit of doubt regarding my application which is being created using Mate framework. The first thing user has to do is to log in, so I created Login.mxml view. After a successful login I need to display the main view with applicationControlBar at the top and a workspace below. At the moment I have two separate views, so if I understand correctly it makes sense using ViewStack.

Thing is, I'd like also to display some kind of panel with buttons on top of the workspace after login - here is screenshot. After clicking on a button the panel should dissapear. To complicate things a little bit more, there is a possibility for this panel to change state. Clicking on a specific button may result in showing progress bar at the bottom of panel.

I feel I should create separate view, MenuDialog.mxml and put there buttons, progress bar and states, but how to display it on the top of the workspace? I hope my problem is clear enough :)

Answer 1

I would make the panel a popUp, with the main application (or the ViewStack's parent container) as the parent of the popUp. You can use the PopUpManager Class to close it based on user actions within the Panel.

Answer 2

Assuming that perhaps you do not want a modal login style panel (which many apps these days eschew) then you should absolutely use states rather than ViewStacks.

States are a much cleaner way to distinguish the various, uh, states that your UI can be in -LOGGED_IN, LOGGED_OUT, etc.

It may take a little to get used to working with states, but once you do, you'll never go back. :-)