Populate ArrayCollection with HTTPService

apache-flexarraycollectionflex3httpservice

Yes there is a question like this one, but there is no activity and no answer.

I want to load data from a external XML file, using a HTTPService, and on the ResultEvent of the same HTTPService i want him to populate a ArrayCollection with the data from the XML.

I think a ArrayCollection is the ideal for this XML. but I'm open to suggestions.

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PhotoGalleryData>
    <Photo>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>Summer Vacation</name>
        <description>In vacation</description>
        <source>vacation.JPG</source>
    </Photo>
    <Photo>
        <id>2</id>
        <name>Winter Vacation</name>
        <description>coold</description>
        <source>vacation2.JPG</source>
    </Photo>
</PhotoGalleryData>

I thought that this simple line in getDataResultHandler(), would be enough to populate the ArrayCollection. 

<mx:HTTPService id="getData"
        url="{XMLDataFileLocation}"
        fault="getDataFaultHandler()"
        result="getDataResultHandler()"/>

[Bindable]
private var PhotoData:ArrayCollection;

private function getDataResultHandler():void
{
    PhotoData = new ArrayCollection(getData.lastResult.PhotoGalleryData.photo)
}

But i guess it isn't, because just to be sure i have placed a List binded to the ArrayCollection to actually see if it really was populated.

<mx:List dataProvider="{PhotoData}" labelField="name"/>

And the list didn't showed any data, so isn't working as supposed to be.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT

NOTE

The <mx:List/> used is just to be
sure that the ArrayCollection is
indeed populated, it won't be used in
the App.

Results taking Bozho advice.

With Bozho changes Flex doesn't report the var type error any more, but once i run it. Adobe flash does report this.

TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion
failed: cannot convert
mx.utils::ObjectProxy@22cd311 to
mx.collections.ArrayCollection. at
PhotoGallery/getDataResultHandler()[C:\Users\Fábio
Antunes\Documents\Flex Builder 3\Photo
Gallery\src\ActionScripts\PhotoGallery.as:56]
at
PhotoGallery/__getData_result()[C:\Users\Fábio
Antunes\Documents\Flex Builder 3\Photo
Gallery\src\PhotoGallery.mxml:23] at
flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
at
flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
at
mx.rpc.http.mxml::HTTPService/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::dispatchRpcEvent()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\http\mxml\HTTPService.as:290]
at
mx.rpc::AbstractInvoker/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::resultHandler()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\AbstractInvoker.as:193]
at
mx.rpc::Responder/result()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\Responder.as:43]
at
mx.rpc::AsyncRequest/acknowledge()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\rpc\AsyncRequest.as:74]
at
DirectHTTPMessageResponder/completeHandler()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\rpc\src\mx\messaging\channels\DirectHTTPChannel.as:403]
at
flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()

Well and the line 23 that Flash reports the error its:

PhotoData = ArrayCollection(event.result);

Line 23 is:

result="getDataResultHandler(event)"

Best Answer

If you can use an XMLListCollection in place of an ArrayCollection the process of converting the result object is more straightforward. Here is a good tutorial explaining how to go about this.

EDIT:

The key things to get from this tutorial are this:

  • you need to set the result format of the service to e4x.

  • you need to cast the result object as XML object, extract the repeating nodes as an XMLList, and construct an XMLListCollection from the list like so:

    private function httpService_result(evt:ResultEvent):void 
{
     var xmlList:XMLList = XML(evt.result).path.to.repeating.element;
     xmlListColl = new XMLListCollection(xmlList);
}
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