implementing UIComponent as TileListItemRenderer

Question

I had some code I was working on in flex. I had 16 UIComponents added to a Grid Container.

The grid wasnt really giving me what I wanted so insetead of using that I want to try and use a tilelist because its gots lots of really nice built in features.

As far as my understanding goes, to add items to a tilelist you need to define a dataprovider and an item renderer.

I'm struggling conceptly taking my UIComponent and implementing it as an itemrenderer. Could somebody help me?

There are 2 main problems that I see.

Firstly in my inital implementation I had added unique ids to my UIComponents at design time. These unique ids are very important in my application and I'm not sure how to assign them to a tilelistitemrenderer.

Secondly my UIcomponets had 3 custom events that my grid listened for. I dont know how to assign these listeners to a tilelist itemrenderer.

Here is my original grid code

GRID CODE

<mx:GridRow id="row0">
  <mx:GridItem width="100%"
      height="100%">
   <PadDisplay:Pad id="channel_0_pad_0"
       channelNumber="0"
       padNumber="0"
       currentPadState="{PalletteCode.EMPTY}"
       verify="verifyItemOnPad(event)"
       requestplay="requestPlayHandler(event)"
       requeststop="requestStopHandler(event)"/>
  </mx:GridItem>
  <mx:GridItem width="100%"
      height="100%">
   <PadDisplay:Pad id="channel_0_pad_1"
       channelNumber="0"
       padNumber="1"
       currentPadState="{PalletteCode.EMPTY}"
       verify="verifyItemOnPad(event)"
       requestplay="requestPlayHandler(event)"
       requeststop="requestStopHandler(event)"/>
  </mx:GridItem>
  <mx:GridItem width="100%"
      height="100%">
   <PadDisplay:Pad id="channel_0_pad_2"
       channelNumber="0"
       padNumber="2"
       currentPadState="{PalletteCode.EMPTY}"
       verify="verifyItemOnPad(event)"
       requestplay="requestPlayHandler(event)"
       requeststop="requestStopHandler(event)"/>
  </mx:GridItem>
  <mx:GridItem width="100%"
      height="100%">
   <PadDisplay:Pad id="channel_0_pad_3"
       width="{padwidth}"
       height="36"
       currentPadState="{PalletteCode.EMPTY}"
       verify="verifyItemOnPad(event)"
       requestplay="requestPlayHandler(event)"
       requeststop="requestStopHandler(event)"/>
  </mx:GridItem>
 </mx:GridRow>

Heres is my UIComponet code that I now want to be a TileListItemRender

<mx:UIComponent xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
    initialize="init(event)"
    dragEnter="input_dragEnterHandler(event)"
    dragDrop="input_dragDropHandler(event)">
 <mx:Script>
  <![CDATA[
   import components.remix.events.PadEvent;
   import mx.binding.utils.BindingUtils;
   import components.remix.events.PadContentEvent;
   import mx.core.DragSource;
   import mx.core.IUIComponent;
   import fl.data.DataProvider;
   import mx.managers.DragManager;
   import mx.events.DragEvent;
   import mx.collections.IList;
   import mx.events.FlexEvent;
   public var _padCode:PadCode
   public var pad:pad_v1_0_1
   [Bindable]
   public var padNumber:int;
   [Bindable]
   public var channelNumber:int
   [Bindable]
   public var currentPadState:String= PalletteCode.EMPTY;


   private function init(e:FlexEvent):void
   {
    _padCode=new PadCode()
    pad=new pad_v1_0_1()
    pad.cacheAsBitmap=true;
    pad.spinnymc.visible=false
    pad.gotoAndStop("empty")
    addChild(pad)
    _padCode._targetComponent=this;
    this.buttonMode=true
    setInitialState()
    addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,padClicked)
   }

   private function input_dragEnterHandler(event:DragEvent):void
   {

    if (event.dragSource.hasFormat(PadContent.LOOP_FORMAT))
     DragManager.acceptDragDrop(this)


   }

   private function input_dragDropHandler(event:DragEvent):void
   {
    var dropTarget:IUIComponent=event.currentTarget as IUIComponent;
    var dragSource:DragSource=event.dragSource;
    var padContent:PadContent=new PadContent()
    padContent.channelNumber=channelNumber
    padContent.padNumber=padNumber


    if (dragSource.hasFormat(PadContent.LOOP_FORMAT))
    {
     var data:Object=event.dragSource.dataForFormat(PadContent.LOOP_FORMAT);

     padContent.format=PadContent.LOOP_FORMAT
     padContent.parseContent(data)
     dispatchEvent(new PadContentEvent(PadContentEvent.VERIFY, padContent))
    }
   }

   public function setInitialState():void
   {
    /**switch (currentPadState)
    {
     case (PalletteCode.EMPTY):

      pad.gotoAndStop("empty");
      pad.visible=false;
      this.buttonMode=false;
      break;


     case (PalletteCode.IDLE):

      pad.gotoAndStop("grey");
      pad.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, padClicked)
      //pad.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, padover)
      //pad.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, padout)
      pad.alpha=.5;

      this.buttonMode=true;
      break;

    }**/
   }


   private function padClicked(e:MouseEvent=null):void
   {
    //var p:pad_v1_0_1=e.currentTarget as pad_v1_0_1;

    //var pc:PadContainer=p.holder;
    trace("pad clicked")

    switch (currentPadState)
    {
     case (PalletteCode.IDLE):
      // send play command
      dispatchEvent(new PadEvent(PadEvent.REQUEST_PLAY, channelNumber, padNumber))
      currentPadState=PalletteCode.QUEUEING;
      pad.gotoAndStop("amber");

      break;

     case (PalletteCode.PLAYING):

      // send stop command
      dispatchEvent(new PadEvent(PadEvent.REQUEST_STOP, channelNumber, padNumber))
      currentPadState=PalletteCode.STOPPING;
      pad.gotoAndStop("red");
      break;

    }


   }
  ]]>
 </mx:Script>

 <mx:Metadata>
       [Event(name="verify", type="components.remix.events.PadContentEvent")]
       [Event(name="requestplay", type="components.remix.events.PadEvent")]
       [Event(name="requeststop", type="components.remix.events.PadEvent")]


    </mx:Metadata>



</mx:UIComponent>

Answer 1

Im pretty sure you should be setting a dataProvider=arrayCollection for the Grid in the Grid Code, and in the itemRenderer, you should be refering to a 'data' object.

When the itemRenderer is set for the Grid, the {data} variable in the itemRenderer knows to look for the appropriate dataProvider array elements.

Good example here. (I just dont see where youve set your dataprovider or refer to the data items in the above code)