Flex custom item renderer for the displayed item in the combobox

actionscript-3apache-flexcomboboxitemrenderermxml

I am using a custom item renderer in a combobox to display a custom drawing instead of the default text label.

This works fine for the dropdown list but the displayed item ( when the list is closed) is still the textual representation of my object.

Is there a way to have the displayed item rendered the same way as the one in the dropdown?

Best Answer

By default you cannot do this. However, if you extend ComboBox you can add this functionality easily. Here is a quick example, it is a rough version and probably needs testing / tweaking but it shows how you could accomplish this.

package
{
    import mx.controls.ComboBox;
    import mx.core.UIComponent;

    public class ComboBox2 extends ComboBox
    {
        public function ComboBox2()
        {
            super();
        }

        protected var textInputReplacement:UIComponent;

        override protected function createChildren():void {
            super.createChildren();

            if ( !textInputReplacement ) {
                if ( itemRenderer != null ) {
                    //remove the default textInput
                    removeChild(textInput);

                    //create a new itemRenderer to use in place of the text input
                    textInputReplacement = itemRenderer.newInstance();
                    addChild(textInputReplacement);
                }
            }
        }

        override protected function updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number):void {
            super.updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth, unscaledHeight);

            if ( textInputReplacement ) {
                textInputReplacement.width = unscaledWidth;
                textInputReplacement.height = unscaledHeight;
            }
        }
    }
}

Related Solutions

Actionscript – Flex: Custom Item Renderer For Combobox controls truncates text

Just a random thought (no clue if this will help):

Try setting the parent HBox and the Label's widths to 100%. That's generally fixed any problems I've run into that were similar.

C# – Binding a WPF ComboBox to a custom list

You set the DisplayMemberPath and the SelectedValuePath to "Name", so I assume that you have a class PhoneBookEntry with a public property Name.

Have you set the DataContext to your ConnectionViewModel object?

I copied you code and made some minor modifications, and it seems to work fine. I can set the viewmodels PhoneBookEnty property and the selected item in the combobox changes, and I can change the selected item in the combobox and the view models PhoneBookEntry property is set correctly.

Here is my XAML content:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication6.Window1"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
<Grid>
    <StackPanel>
        <Button Click="Button_Click">asdf</Button>
        <ComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding Path=PhonebookEntries}"
                  DisplayMemberPath="Name"
                  SelectedValuePath="Name"
                  SelectedValue="{Binding Path=PhonebookEntry}" />
    </StackPanel>
</Grid>
</Window>

And here is my code-behind:

namespace WpfApplication6
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for Window1.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class Window1 : Window
    {
        public Window1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            ConnectionViewModel vm = new ConnectionViewModel();
            DataContext = vm;
        }

        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            ((ConnectionViewModel)DataContext).PhonebookEntry = "test";
        }
    }

    public class PhoneBookEntry
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public PhoneBookEntry(string name)
        {
            Name = name;
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return Name;
        }
    }

    public class ConnectionViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        public ConnectionViewModel()
        {
            IList<PhoneBookEntry> list = new List<PhoneBookEntry>();
            list.Add(new PhoneBookEntry("test"));
            list.Add(new PhoneBookEntry("test2"));
            _phonebookEntries = new CollectionView(list);
        }

        private readonly CollectionView _phonebookEntries;
        private string _phonebookEntry;

        public CollectionView PhonebookEntries
        {
            get { return _phonebookEntries; }
        }

        public string PhonebookEntry
        {
            get { return _phonebookEntry; }
            set
            {
                if (_phonebookEntry == value) return;
                _phonebookEntry = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("PhonebookEntry");
            }
        }

        private void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
        {
            if (PropertyChanged != null)
                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }
        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
    }
}

Edit: Geoffs second example does not seem to work, which seems a bit odd to me. If I change the PhonebookEntries property on the ConnectionViewModel to be of type ReadOnlyCollection, the TwoWay binding of the SelectedValue property on the combobox works fine.

Maybe there is an issue with the CollectionView? I noticed a warning in the output console:

System.Windows.Data Warning: 50 : Using CollectionView directly is not fully supported. The basic features work, although with some inefficiencies, but advanced features may encounter known bugs. Consider using a derived class to avoid these problems.

Edit2 (.NET 4.5): The content of the DropDownList can be based on ToString() and not of DisplayMemberPath, while DisplayMemberPath specifies the member for the selected and displayed item only.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Actionscript – Flex: Custom Item Renderer For Combobox controls truncates text

C# – Binding a WPF ComboBox to a custom list

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