20.6. Summary

In this chapter, I described how to use advanced techniques with list controls. You learned the following:

• The Spark DropDownList control is similar to the MX ComboBox, but implements the new Spark skinning architecture.

• The Spark ButtonBar control displays a set of buttons laid out horizontally, based on a dataProvider that implements the IList interface.

• The ComboBox control's editable property produces a TextInput control into which the user can type an arbitrary String value, instead of selecting an item from the list.

• You can create your own custom DropDownList control that selects a complex object from its dataProvider based on properties you pass in at runtime.

• A default DataGrid displays columns for each named property of the first data item in its data provider.

• You determine selection and order of column display in a DataGrid with the columns property, which in turn contains a set of DataGridColumn objects declared in the order in which you want the columns displayed.

• The DataGridColumn component implements the labelFunction, itemRenderer, and itemEditor for customization of its appearance.

• The dataChange event can be used for customizing item renderer appearance at runtime with ActionScript code.

• Item editors can be declared to appear only on the current row with the itemEditor property or on every row with the itemRenderer and rendererIsEditor properties.

• The DataGridColumn component's editorDataField property should be set to the name of the item editor's property that contains data updated by the user.

• The TileList and HorizontalList controls display data in grid- or row-style layouts and use custom item renderers to determine the visual appearance of their cells.

• The AdvancedDataGrid component is available with the Data Visualization components(part of Flash Builder Premium).

• The AdvancedDataGrid component can present hierarchical and flat data in groups, along with summaries and other advanced data display features.