Flex Examples

The following example shows how you can change the background color of a disabled Flex TextArea control by setting the use the backgroundDisabledColor style.

Full code after the jump.

View MXML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2008/08/17/changing-the-background-color-of-a-disabled-textarea-control-in-flex/ -->
<mx:Application name="TextArea_backgroundDisabledColor_test"
        xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
        layout="vertical"
        verticalAlign="middle"
        backgroundColor="white">

    <mx:String id="lorem" source="lorem.txt" />

    <mx:ApplicationControlBar dock="true">
        <mx:Form styleName="plain">
            <mx:FormItem label="backgroundDisabledColor:">
                <mx:ColorPicker id="colorPicker"
                        selectedColor="#CCCCCC" />
            </mx:FormItem>
            <mx:FormItem label="enabled:">
                <mx:CheckBox id="checkBox"
                        selected="true" />
            </mx:FormItem>
        </mx:Form>
    </mx:ApplicationControlBar>

    <mx:TextArea id="textArea"
            text="{lorem}"
            backgroundDisabledColor="{colorPicker.selectedColor}"
            enabled="{checkBox.selected}"
            width="100%"
            height="100%" />

</mx:Application>

View source is enabled in the following example.

You can also set the backgroundDisabledColor style in an external .CSS file or <mx:Style /> block, as seen in the following example:

View MXML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2008/08/17/changing-the-background-color-of-a-disabled-textarea-control-in-flex/ -->
<mx:Application name="TextArea_backgroundDisabledColor_test"
        xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
        layout="vertical"
        verticalAlign="middle"
        backgroundColor="white">

    <mx:String id="lorem" source="lorem.txt" />

    <mx:Style>
        TextArea {
            backgroundDisabledColor: haloSilver;
        }
    </mx:Style>

    <mx:ApplicationControlBar dock="true">
        <mx:Form styleName="plain">
            <mx:FormItem label="enabled:">
                <mx:CheckBox id="checkBox"
                        selected="true" />
            </mx:FormItem>
        </mx:Form>
    </mx:ApplicationControlBar>

    <mx:TextArea id="textArea"
            text="{lorem}"
            enabled="{checkBox.selected}"
            width="100%"
            height="100%" />

</mx:Application>

Or, you can set the backgroundDisabledColor style using ActionScript, as seen in the following example:

View MXML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2008/08/17/changing-the-background-color-of-a-disabled-textarea-control-in-flex/ -->
<mx:Application name="TextArea_backgroundDisabledColor_test"
        xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
        layout="vertical"
        verticalAlign="middle"
        backgroundColor="white">

    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.events.ColorPickerEvent;

            private function colorPicker_change(evt:ColorPickerEvent):void {
                textArea.setStyle("backgroundDisabledColor", evt.color);
            }
        ]]>
    </mx:Script>

    <mx:String id="lorem" source="lorem.txt" />

    <mx:ApplicationControlBar dock="true">
        <mx:Form styleName="plain">
            <mx:FormItem label="backgroundDisabledColor:">
                <mx:ColorPicker id="colorPicker"
                        selectedColor="#CCCCCC"
                        change="colorPicker_change(event);" />
            </mx:FormItem>
            <mx:FormItem label="enabled:">
                <mx:CheckBox id="checkBox"
                        selected="true" />
            </mx:FormItem>
        </mx:Form>
    </mx:ApplicationControlBar>

    <mx:TextArea id="textArea"
            text="{lorem}"
            backgroundDisabledColor="#CCCCCC"
            enabled="{checkBox.selected}"
            width="100%"
            height="100%" />

</mx:Application>