On 1 Mar 2012, at 08:28, Omar Gonzalez wrote:
http://www.tink.ws/examples/**apache-flex/index.html<http://www.tink.ws/examples/apache-flex/index.html
>
If anyone is interested in looking at those, the source and examples
source is in my whiteboard.
Tink
Nice, Tink. I'll add a link to the relevant components so people can
peep
your code and contribute to your already started efforts and not
waste time
on stuff that's already started.
--
Omar Gonzalez
s9tpep...@apache.org
Apache Flex PPMC Member
Hey Omar
I still see on the list no info next to ViewStack, and maybe I should
be clearer about the code I've produce.
ViewStack, TabNavigator Accordion are all navigators. When I started
dev on these components I wanted to follow what I ttok as the spark
mantra to reduce the code leaving only the core functionality of a
navigator, which for me meant 2 things
1. the component implements ISelectableList. i.e. the component can
act as an IList with a selectedIndex, which means it can be used as a
data provider to other controls.
2. deferred instantiation.
The idea that how the contents are laid out, displayed, animated etc
to me seems something that shouldn't be in a navigator class, instead
getting designated to a layout.
From this basis I created 4 types of navigators, 2 low level groups,
and 2 skinnable components, that use the groups in their skin. 1 set
works by adding elements (child based), the other by adding an item
renderer and data provider (data based). I had to create a
DeferredGroup for the child based navigators, but deferred
instantiation was simple for the data based components as they just
leverage virtual layout.
It is then down to the layout you provide, to how the contents of the
navigator are displayed, in the same way that Adobe provided a Group
and have a VerticalLayout, HorizontalLayout or TileLayout, negating
the need for any VGroup, HGroup (although Adobe still added them), or
TileGroup.
I haven't seen Adobes proposed code but the idea of having a
ViewStack, an Accordion etc sounds like the old MX way. Flexible
layouts and skins for me were one of the main advantages of spark, and
I wanted to leverage this, not just build spark counterparts of MX
components (which sounds slightly pointless).
The code in my whiteboard you choose what type of navigator you want,
data or element based, you then pick a layout to control how the
component looks. At the moment the layout has to implement
INavigatorLayoutBase, and I've added the following layouts...
StackLayout - navigator will act like a ViewStack
AccordionLayout - navigator will act like an accordion, with the
option of adding a ButtonBar control as you see with a standard
Accordion.
CarouselLayout - navigator will display it's elements layouts out
along a curve or a complete circle
CoverflowLayout - navigator will act like a coverflow component
TimeMachineLayout and RolodexLayout - guess what.... ;)
The layouts also update a Scroller if found to add and remove a
Scrollbar if required, change the direction of the scrollbar and also
set the scroll bars up so when used they move a whole index at a time.
The layouts can also be used with any of the standard spark components
that accept a layout.
I have provided an Accordion, but to be honest I see no real reason
for it to be there. If you want an Accordion, you can create a skin
for a Navigator or DataNavigator, give the group inside an
AccordionLayout and a ButtonBar and off you go.
I haven't provided a TabNavigator, but did show an example. You create
a skin for a Navigator or DataNavigator, give the group inside an
StackLayout add a ButtonBar and off you go.
Due to a StackLayout being the default layout for the navigator
controls, you can just create any navigator and you have a component
that acts as a ViewStack (with the addition of being able to navigator
using a scroll bar if you set that property to true).
The idea of spark to me was there are lots of smaller parts that we
can use to make up complex wholes that are much more flexible is what
they can achieve than the mx components. For instance my MenuBar is
just a ButtonBar that used DropDownList's for its item renderers, and
each DropDownList uses a DropDownList for its item renderes and so on.
I don't see how having a spark ViewStack or Accordion achieves this
goal.
Hope this makes some sense
Tink
