Setting an image background on a Halo ButtonBar control in Flex 4

By Peter deHaan On July 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

The following example shows how you can set an image background on a Halo ButtonBar control (with default Spark skin) in Flex 4 by setting the buttonStyleName, firstButtonStyleName, lastButtonStyleName, and skin styles.

Full code after the jump.

The following example(s) require Flash Player 10 and the Adobe Flex 4 SDK. To download the Adobe Flash Builder 4 trial, see http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/. To download the latest nightly build of the Flex 4 SDK, see http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4.
For more information on getting started with Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4, see the official Adobe Flex Team blog.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/07/09/setting-an-image-background-on-a-halo-buttonbar-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Halo_ButtonBar_buttonStyleName_test"
        xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
        xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
        xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo">
 
    <fx:Style>
        @namespace s "library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark";
        @namespace mx "library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo";
 
        .buttonBarButtonStyles {
            skin: ClassReference("skins.CustomButtonBarButtonSkin");
        }
    </fx:Style>
 
    <mx:ButtonBar id="btnBar"
            dataProvider="[The,Quick,Brown,Fox,Jumps,Over,The,Lazy,Dog]"
            buttonStyleName="buttonBarButtonStyles"
            firstButtonStyleName="buttonBarButtonStyles"
            lastButtonStyleName="buttonBarButtonStyles"
            horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0" />
 
</s:Application>

The custom ButtonBar button skin class, skins/CustomButtonBarButtonSkin.mxml, is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/07/09/setting-an-image-background-on-a-halo-buttonbar-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:SparkSkin name="CustomButtonBarButtonSkin"
        xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
        xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
        minWidth="21" minHeight="21"
        alpha.disabledStates="0.5">
    <!-- states -->
    <s:states>
        <s:State name="up" />
        <s:State name="over" stateGroups="overStates" />
        <s:State name="down" stateGroups="downStates" />
        <s:State name="disabled" stateGroups="disabledStates" />
        <s:State name="selectedUp" stateGroups="selectedStates, selectedUpStates" />
        <s:State name="selectedOver" stateGroups="overStates, selectedStates" />
        <s:State name="selectedDown" stateGroups="downStates, selectedStates" />
        <s:State name="selectedDisabled" stateGroups="selectedUpStates, disabledStates, selectedStates" />
    </s:states>
 
    <!-- layer 1: shadow -->
    <s:Rect left="0" right="0" bottom="-1" height="1">
        <s:fill>
            <s:SolidColor color="black" 
                    color.downStates="white" 
                    alpha="0.07"
                    alpha.downStates="0.5" />
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>
 
    <!-- layer 2: fill -->
    <s:Rect left="1" right="1" top="1" bottom="1" alpha="0.6">
        <s:fill>
            <s:BitmapFill source="@Embed('assets/pattern_149.gif')" />
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>
 
    <!-- layer 3: fill lowlight -->
    <s:Rect left="1" right="1" bottom="1" height="9">
        <s:fill>
            <s:LinearGradient rotation="90">
                <s:GradientEntry color="black" alpha="0.0099" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="black" alpha="0.0627" />
            </s:LinearGradient>
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>
 
    <!-- layer 4: fill highlight -->
    <s:Rect left="1" right="1" top="1" height="9">
        <s:fill>
            <s:SolidColor color="white" 
                    alpha="0.33" 
                    alpha.selectedUpStates="0.22"
                    alpha.overStates="0.22" 
                    alpha.downStates="0.12" />
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>
 
    <!-- layer 5: highlight stroke (all states except down) -->
    <s:Rect left="1" right="1" top="1" bottom="1" excludeFrom="downStates">
        <s:stroke>
            <s:LinearGradientStroke rotation="90" weight="1">
                <s:GradientEntry color="white" alpha.overStates="0.22" alpha.selectedUpStates="0.33" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="0xD8D8D8" alpha.overStates="0.22" alpha.selectedUpStates="0.33" />
            </s:LinearGradientStroke>
        </s:stroke>
    </s:Rect>
 
    <!-- layer 6: highlight stroke (down state only) -->
    <s:Rect left="1" top="1" bottom="1" width="1"
            includeIn="downStates, selectedUpStates, selectedOver">
        <s:fill>
            <s:SolidColor color="black" alpha="0.07" />
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>
    <s:Rect right="1" top="1" bottom="1" width="1"
            includeIn="downStates, selectedUpStates, selectedOver">
        <s:fill>
            <s:SolidColor color="black" alpha="0.07" />
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>
    <s:Rect left="1" top="1" right="1" height="1"
            includeIn="downStates, selectedUpStates, selectedOver">
        <s:fill>
            <s:SolidColor color="black" alpha="0.25" />
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>
    <s:Rect left="1" top="2" right="1" height="1"
            includeIn="downStates, selectedUpStates, selectedOver">
        <s:fill>
            <s:SolidColor color="black" alpha="0.09" />
        </s:fill>
    </s:Rect>
 
    <!-- layer 7: border - put on top of the fill so it doesn't disappear when scale is less than 1 -->
    <s:Rect left="0" right="0" top="0" bottom="0" width="69" height="20">
        <s:stroke>
            <s:LinearGradientStroke rotation="90" weight="1">
                <s:GradientEntry color="black" 
                        alpha="0.5625"
                        alpha.down="0.6375"
                        alpha.selectedStates="0.6375" />
                <s:GradientEntry color="black" 
                        alpha="0.75" 
                        alpha.down="0.85"
                        alpha.selectedStates="0.85" />
            </s:LinearGradientStroke>
        </s:stroke>
    </s:Rect>
 
</s:SparkSkin>

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

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/07/09/setting-an-image-background-on-a-halo-buttonbar-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Halo_ButtonBar_buttonStyleName_test"
        xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
        xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
        xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo">
 
    <fx:Style>
        @namespace s "library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark";
        @namespace mx "library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo";
 
        mx|ButtonBar {
            buttonStyleName: buttonBarButtonStyles;
            firstButtonStyleName: buttonBarButtonStyles;
            lastButtonStyleName: buttonBarButtonStyles;
        }
 
        .buttonBarButtonStyles {
            skin: ClassReference("skins.CustomButtonBarButtonSkin");
        }
    </fx:Style>
 
    <mx:ButtonBar id="btnBar"
            dataProvider="[The,Quick,Brown,Fox,Jumps,Over,The,Lazy,Dog]"
            horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0" />
 
</s:Application>

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

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/07/09/setting-an-image-background-on-a-halo-buttonbar-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Halo_ButtonBar_buttonStyleName_test"
        xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
        xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
        xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo"
        initialize="init();">
 
    <fx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import skins.CustomButtonBarButtonSkin;
 
            private function init():void {
                var buttonBarButtonStyles:CSSStyleDeclaration = new CSSStyleDeclaration(".buttonBarButtonStyles");
                buttonBarButtonStyles.setStyle("skin", CustomButtonBarButtonSkin);
 
                var buttonBarStyles:CSSStyleDeclaration = StyleManager.getStyleDeclaration("mx.controls.ButtonBar");
                buttonBarStyles.setStyle("buttonStyleName", "buttonBarButtonStyles");
                buttonBarStyles.setStyle("firstButtonStyleName", "buttonBarButtonStyles");
                buttonBarStyles.setStyle("lastButtonStyleName", "buttonBarButtonStyles");
            }
        ]]>
    </fx:Script>
 
    <mx:ButtonBar id="btnBar"
            dataProvider="[The,Quick,Brown,Fox,Jumps,Over,The,Lazy,Dog]"
            horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0" />
 
</s:Application>

Due to popular demand, here is the “same” example in a more ActionScript friendly format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/07/09/setting-an-image-background-on-a-halo-buttonbar-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Halo_ButtonBar_buttonStyleName_test"
        xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
        xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
        xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo"
        initialize="init();">
 
    <fx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import skins.CustomButtonBarButtonSkin;
            import mx.controls.ButtonBar;
 
            private var btnBar:ButtonBar;
 
            private function init():void {
                var buttonBarButtonStyles:CSSStyleDeclaration = new CSSStyleDeclaration(".buttonBarButtonStyles");
                buttonBarButtonStyles.setStyle("skin", CustomButtonBarButtonSkin);
 
                btnBar = new ButtonBar();
                btnBar.dataProvider = ["The", "Quick", "Brown", "Fox", "Jumps", "Over", "The", "Lazy", "Dog"];
                btnBar.setStyle("buttonStyleName", "buttonBarButtonStyles");
                btnBar.setStyle("firstButtonStyleName", "buttonBarButtonStyles");
                btnBar.setStyle("lastButtonStyleName", "buttonBarButtonStyles");
                btnBar.horizontalCenter = 0;
                btnBar.verticalCenter = 0;
                addElement(btnBar);
            }
        ]]>
    </fx:Script>
 
</s:Application>

This entry is based on a beta version of the Flex 4 SDK and therefore is very likely to change as development of the Flex SDK continues. The API can (and will) change causing examples to possibly not compile in newer versions of the Flex 4 SDK.

 
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About The Author

Peter deHaan

Peter deHaan currently works for Adobe on the Flex SDK QA team. While not working on Flex, Flash, and ColdFusion applications, Peter enjoys making up bios and writing in 3rd person. Peter's rarely updated blog can be found at blogs.adobe.com/pdehaan/, actionscriptexamples.com, airexamples.com, and coldfusionexamples.com.

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