Adding links to a Panel container’s status text in Flex

The following example shows how you can assign an HTML formatted string to a Panel container’s status text field using the getStatusTextField() method in the mx_internal namespace.

Full code after the jump.

Since this example uses the mx_internal namespace, you can’t always depend on this behavior to work in future versions of the Flex SDK. Use at your own risk.

View MXML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2008/04/17/adding-links-to-a-panel-containers-status-text-in-flex/ -->
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
        layout="vertical"
        verticalAlign="middle"
        backgroundColor="white"
        creationComplete="init();">

    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.core.IUITextField;
            import mx.controls.Alert;

            private function init():void {
                var tf:IUITextField = panel.mx_internal::getStatusTextField();
                tf.selectable = true;
                tf.addEventListener(TextEvent.LINK, textField_link);
                tf.htmlText = "status with <a href='event:showAlert'><u>link</u></a>";

            }

            private function textField_link(evt:TextEvent):void {
                Alert.show("Success! A Panel container with a link in the status text.", evt.text);
            }
        ]]>
    </mx:Script>

    <mx:Panel id="panel"
            title="Title"
            status="status with link"
            width="320"
            height="240">
        <mx:Text text="Click the link in the Panel container's status bar to launch an Alert control."
                width="100%" selectable="false" />
        <mx:ControlBar>
            <mx:Text htmlText="&lt;b&gt;Note:&lt;/b&gt; The status text field must have it's selectable property set to true in order to dispatch the link event."
                    width="100%" selectable="false" />
        </mx:ControlBar>
    </mx:Panel>

</mx:Application>

View source is enabled in the following example.

The status text field must have it’s selectable property set to true in order to dispatch the link event.

Note that the Panel container’s status message was initially set to the desired final string, minus any HTML formatting. This ensures that when the status text is created and measured, the HTML formatted text should fit correctly when it is substituted. This may not work if the width of your text changes due to bold fonts or other changes.

Tagged as: getStatusTextField(), link, mx internal, selectable