Setting the background alpha on a Spark SimpleText control in Flex 4

by Peter deHaan on July 15, 2009

in SimpleText (Spark), beta1

The following example shows how you can set the background alpha and background color on a Spark SimpleText control in Flex 4 by setting the backgroundAlpha and backgroundColor 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 beta, check out the Adobe Flash Builder 4 page on the Adobe Labs site. To download the latest build of the Flex 4 SDK, see http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4. For instructions on using the beta Flex 4 SDK in Flex Builder 3, see "Using the beta Flex 4 SDK in Flex Builder 3".

View MXML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/07/15/setting-the-background-alpha-on-a-spark-simpletext-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Spark_SimpleText_backgroundAlpha_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">
 
    <mx:ApplicationControlBar width="100%" cornerRadius="0">
        <mx:Form styleName="plain">
            <mx:FormItem label="backgroundColor:">
                <mx:ColorPicker id="colorPicker"
                        selectedColor="white" />
            </mx:FormItem>
            <mx:FormItem label="backgroundAlpha:">
                <s:HSlider id="slider"
                        minimum="0.0"
                        maximum="1.0"
                        value="1.0" 
                        stepSize="0.1" 
                        snapInterval="0.1" 
                        liveDragging="true" />
            </mx:FormItem>
        </mx:Form>
    </mx:ApplicationControlBar>
 
    <s:SimpleText id="smplTxt"
            backgroundAlpha="{slider.value}"
            backgroundColor="{colorPicker.selectedColor}"
            maxWidth="500"
            horizontalCenter="0"
            verticalCenter="0">
        <fx:String source="lorem.txt" />
    </s:SimpleText>
 
</s:Application>

You can also set the backgroundAlpha and backgroundColor styles 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/2009/07/15/setting-the-background-alpha-on-a-spark-simpletext-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Spark_SimpleText_backgroundAlpha_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 mx "library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo";
        @namespace s "library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark";
 
        s|SimpleText {
            backgroundAlpha: 0.2;
            backgroundColor: red;
        }
    </fx:Style>
 
    <s:SimpleText id="smplTxt"
            maxWidth="500"
            horizontalCenter="0"
            verticalCenter="0">
        <fx:String source="lorem.txt" />
    </s:SimpleText>
 
</s:Application>

Or, you can set the backgroundAlpha and backgroundColor styles using ActionScript, as seen in the following example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/07/15/setting-the-background-alpha-on-a-spark-simpletext-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Spark_SimpleText_backgroundAlpha_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:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.events.ColorPickerEvent;
 
            protected function colorPicker_change(evt:ColorPickerEvent):void {
                smplTxt.setStyle("backgroundColor", evt.color);
            }
 
            protected function slider_change(event:Event):void {
                smplTxt.setStyle("backgroundAlpha", slider.value);
            }
        ]]>
    </fx:Script>
 
    <mx:ApplicationControlBar width="100%" cornerRadius="0">
        <mx:Form styleName="plain">
            <mx:FormItem label="backgroundColor:">
                <mx:ColorPicker id="colorPicker"
                        selectedColor="white"
                        change="colorPicker_change(event);" />
            </mx:FormItem>
            <mx:FormItem label="backgroundAlpha:">
                <s:HSlider id="slider"
                        minimum="0.0"
                        maximum="1.0"
                        value="1.0" 
                        stepSize="0.1" 
                        snapInterval="0.1" 
                        liveDragging="true"
                        change="slider_change(event);" />
            </mx:FormItem>
        </mx:Form>
    </mx:ApplicationControlBar>
 
    <s:SimpleText id="smplTxt"
            maxWidth="500"
            horizontalCenter="0"
            verticalCenter="0">
        <fx:String source="lorem.txt" />
    </s:SimpleText>
 
</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.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 jayaprakash July 21, 2009 at 2:53 am

Wonderful article…..:)

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