The following example shows how you can set both an background image and background color and change its alpha to for a Flex VBox container by setting the backgroundImage, backgroundColor, and backgroundAlpha styles.
Full code after the jump.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2008/01/05/changing-a-vbox-containers-background-alpha-in-flex/ -->
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
layout="vertical"
verticalAlign="middle"
backgroundColor="white">
<mx:Style>
.containerVBox {
backgroundColor: haloBlue;
borderThickness: 1;
borderColor: black;
borderStyle: solid;
paddingLeft: 5;
paddingRight: 5;
paddingTop: 5;
paddingBottom: 5;
}
</mx:Style>
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
[Bindable]
[Embed("Fx.png")]
private var flexLogo:Class;
private function backImage_change(evt:Event):void {
if (backImage.selected) {
vBox.setStyle("backgroundImage", flexLogo);
} else {
vBox.setStyle("backgroundImage", null);
}
}
private function backColor_change(evt:Event):void {
if (backColor.selected) {
vBox.setStyle("backgroundColor", colorPicker.selectedColor);
} else {
vBox.setStyle("backgroundColor", null);
}
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:String id="lorem" source="lorem.txt" />
<mx:ApplicationControlBar dock="true">
<mx:Form styleName="plain">
<mx:FormItem label="backgroundAlpha:">
<mx:HSlider id="slider"
minimum="0.0"
maximum="1.0"
value="1.0"
liveDragging="true"
tickInterval="0.1" />
</mx:FormItem>
<mx:FormItem label="show backgroundImage:">
<mx:CheckBox id="backImage"
selected="true"
change="backImage_change(event);" />
</mx:FormItem>
<mx:FormItem label="show backgroundColor:">
<mx:CheckBox id="backColor"
selected="true"
change="backColor_change(event);" />
</mx:FormItem>
<mx:FormItem label="backgroundColor:">
<mx:ColorPicker id="colorPicker"
selectedColor="white"
enabled="{backColor.selected}"
change="backColor_change(event);" />
</mx:FormItem>
</mx:Form>
</mx:ApplicationControlBar>
<mx:VBox styleName="containerVBox">
<mx:VBox id="vBox"
backgroundImage="{flexLogo}"
backgroundAlpha="{slider.value}"
backgroundColor="white"
backgroundAttachment="fixed"
width="500"
height="250">
<mx:Text width="100%" text="{lorem}" />
</mx:VBox>
</mx:VBox>
</mx:Application>
View source is enabled in the following example.




Peter, how would you do it the other way around: keeping a containers background alpha 100% but add a transparent border to it?
Strangely there is a container.backgroundAlpha property, but no container.borderAlpha.