Setting the base color on a Halo MenuBar control in Flex 4

By Peter deHaan On August 22, 2009 · 1 Comment

The following example shows how you can set the base background color on a Halo MenuBar control in Flex 4 by setting the baseColor style.

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/2009/08/22/setting-the-base-color-on-a-halo-menubar-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Halo_MenuBar_baseColor_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="baseColor:">
                <mx:ColorPicker id="colorPicker" selectedColor="#CCCCCC" />
            </mx:FormItem>
        </mx:Form>
    </mx:ApplicationControlBar>
 
    <mx:MenuBar id="menuBar"
            labelField="@label"
            showRoot="false"
            baseColor="{colorPicker.selectedColor}"
            horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0">
        <mx:dataProvider>
            <fx:XML>
                <root>
                    <parent label="File">
                        <node label="a) File" />
                        <node label="b) File" />
                        <node label="c) File" />
                        <node label="d) File" />
                        <node label="e) File" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Edit">
                        <node label="a) Edit" />
                        <node label="b) Edit" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="View">
                        <parent label="a) View" />
                        <parent label="b) View" />
                        <parent label="c) View" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Favorites">
                        <parent label="a) Favorites" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Tools">
                        <node label="a) Tools" />
                        <node label="b) Tools" />
                        <node label="c) Tools" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Help">
                        <node label="a) Help" />
                        <node label="b) Help" />
                        <node label="c) Help" />
                        <node label="d) Help" />
                    </parent>
                </root>
            </fx:XML>
        </mx:dataProvider>
    </mx:MenuBar>
 
</s:Application>

You can also set the baseColor 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/2009/08/22/setting-the-base-color-on-a-halo-menubar-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Halo_MenuBar_baseColor_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|MenuBar {
            baseColor: haloBlue;
        }
    </fx:Style>
 
    <mx:MenuBar id="menuBar"
            labelField="@label"
            showRoot="false"
            horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0">
        <mx:dataProvider>
            <fx:XML>
                <root>
                    <parent label="File">
                        <node label="a) File" />
                        <node label="b) File" />
                        <node label="c) File" />
                        <node label="d) File" />
                        <node label="e) File" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Edit">
                        <node label="a) Edit" />
                        <node label="b) Edit" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="View">
                        <parent label="a) View" />
                        <parent label="b) View" />
                        <parent label="c) View" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Favorites">
                        <parent label="a) Favorites" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Tools">
                        <node label="a) Tools" />
                        <node label="b) Tools" />
                        <node label="c) Tools" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Help">
                        <node label="a) Help" />
                        <node label="b) Help" />
                        <node label="c) Help" />
                        <node label="d) Help" />
                    </parent>
                </root>
            </fx:XML>
        </mx:dataProvider>
    </mx:MenuBar>
 
</s:Application>

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

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/08/22/setting-the-base-color-on-a-halo-menubar-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Halo_MenuBar_baseColor_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 {
                menuBar.setStyle("baseColor", evt.color);
            }
        ]]>
    </fx:Script>
 
    <mx:ApplicationControlBar width="100%" cornerRadius="0">
        <mx:Form styleName="plain">
            <mx:FormItem label="baseColor:">
                <mx:ColorPicker id="colorPicker"
                        selectedColor="#CCCCCC"
                        change="colorPicker_change(event);"/>
            </mx:FormItem>
        </mx:Form>
    </mx:ApplicationControlBar>
 
    <mx:MenuBar id="menuBar"
            labelField="@label"
            showRoot="false"
            horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0">
        <mx:dataProvider>
            <fx:XML>
                <root>
                    <parent label="File">
                        <node label="a) File" />
                        <node label="b) File" />
                        <node label="c) File" />
                        <node label="d) File" />
                        <node label="e) File" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Edit">
                        <node label="a) Edit" />
                        <node label="b) Edit" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="View">
                        <parent label="a) View" />
                        <parent label="b) View" />
                        <parent label="c) View" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Favorites">
                        <parent label="a) Favorites" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Tools">
                        <node label="a) Tools" />
                        <node label="b) Tools" />
                        <node label="c) Tools" />
                    </parent>
                    <parent label="Help">
                        <node label="a) Help" />
                        <node label="b) Help" />
                        <node label="c) Help" />
                        <node label="d) Help" />
                    </parent>
                </root>
            </fx:XML>
        </mx:dataProvider>
    </mx:MenuBar>
 
</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.

Tagged with: baseColor • Gumbo

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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