[Flex] simple datagrid

[jAQUAN]

Howdy,

I'm trying to get familiar with the datagrid component in flex. Where I'm lost is how I connect to external data. Most likely, the data will all be passed through FlashVars so the movie will need only read vars from its embed tag.

Can someone explain how I would do that?
Thanks.

[gSOLO_01]

I think you may have to be a bit more specific as to what you want to do. You can access url params/flashvars in an MXML Application through the Application.application.parameters object.

[jAQUAN]

Sorry, I just opened Flex for the first time the other day. I'm fluent in AS2.0 so it's not a huge leap but it is quite new to me.
I'm creating a store for sounds and the datagrid will be used to display search results. Two of the cells in each row need a custom button graphic w/ link but I'll start another thread for that.

I've talked to my backend developer and I will actually need to do the equivilent of a LoadVars.sendAndLoad() to get the data I'm looking for. I'll just be calling a php page and sending it some vars, I will then need to parse the results. Is it stupid to that with anything but an XMLList object? I prefer to just loop over an array created from a split string but not if there is a better way.

[gSOLO_01]

I would use XML personally, but a simple parsed string would do as well. With XML, all you would have to do is set the dataProvider of the grid. In any case, here is a long winded AS3 sendAndLoad equiv (havn't checked syntax so there may be some typos &c):

var search_request : URLRequest = new URLRequest ("search.php");

var search_variables : URLVariables = new URLVariables ();

search_variables.filter = "search filter";

search_request.data = search_variables;

var search_loader : URLLoader = new URLLoader (search_request);

search_loader.addEventListener (Event.COMPLETE, searchCompleteHandler);

function searchCompleteHandler (event : Event) : void {
trace (search_loader.data);
//total=2&img0=1.jpg&link0=1.htm&img1=2.jpg&link1=2.htm

var result_variables : URLVariables = new URLVariables (search_loader.data);

var soundsLen : uint = result_variables.total;
for (var sound : uint; sound < soundsLen; sound++) {
var img : String = result_variables["img" + sound];
var link : String = result_variables["link" + sound];
// add item to grid / data provider
}
}

[jAQUAN]

Omg, you just saved me a whole day! Thank you soo much.

Not suprisingly I have a few questions.
I can see why you would use XML. There is a really cool sample in the datagrid language reference that simply connects to an XMLlist as a dataprovider.

<mx:DataGrid id="dg" width="100%" height="100%" rowCount="5" dataProvider="{employees}">
<mx:columns>
<mx:DataGridColumn dataField="name" headerText="Name"/>
<mx:DataGridColumn dataField="phone" headerText="Phone"/>
<mx:DataGridColumn dataField="email" headerText="Email"/>
</mx:columns>
</mx:DataGrid>


then connects some form fields to display the selected datagrid row

<mx:Form width="100%" height="100%">
<mx:FormItem label="Name">
<mx:Label text="{dg.selectedItem.name}"/>
</mx:FormItem>
<mx:FormItem label="Email">
<mx:Label text="{dg.selectedItem.email}"/>
</mx:FormItem>
<mx:FormItem label="Phone">
<mx:Label text="{dg.selectedItem.phone}"/>
</mx:FormItem>
</mx:Form>

This seems so cool to me because I didn't have to set up any listeners and everything just 'works'. So I'm assuming it's only this easy when you use an XMLlist object as a dataprovider. Is that true?

If so I'm sure I can use the last line of your for loop to append an XML object. The question is when do I assign the object as a dataprovider, before or after its built? Does it matter?

Thanks again for the help.

Edit: I am also stuck on how to put a clickable image in two cells of each row.

[gSOLO_01]

Check out these guides:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/quickstart/using_item_renderers/

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/quickstart/using_data_providers/