Custom eventhandler giving more headaches

[lash]

Hi all

I'm having huge difficulties getting my custom eventhandler to work. For some reason my eventhandler doesn't get triggered. My eventhandler should get triggered, when my form is submitted. Here is what I have got so far:

Custom event class called submitEvent.as:

package 
{
	import flash.events.Event;
	
	public class submitEvent extends Event
	{
		public static  const ON_FORM_SUBMIT:String = "onFormSubmit";
		
		public function submitEvent(type:String)
		{
			super(type);
		}
		
		public override function clone():Event
		{
			return new submitEvent(type);
		}		
	}
}

When form is submitted, dispatch event from submitForm class file:

dispatchEvent(new submitEvent(submitEvent.ON_FORM_SUBMIT));

Listener set up in document class file:

var emailSubmitform:submitForm = new submitForm();
emailSubmitform.addEventListener(submitEvent.ON_FORM_SUBMIT, onFormSubmit);
	
	function onFormSubmit(e:submitEvent):void
{
	trace("FORM IS SUBMITTED");
}
addChild(emailSubmitform);

[jweeks123]

change your event class file to this:

package 
{
	import flash.events.Event;
	
	public class submitEvent extends Event
	{
		public static  const ON_FORM_SUBMIT:String = "onFormSubmit";
		private var command:String;
		public function submitEvent(command:String)
		{
			super(ON_FORM_SUBMIT);
                        this.command = command;
		}	
	}
}

That should work. At least it does for me anyway.

[jweeks123]

and your dispatch to this:

dispatchEvent(new submitEvent("onFormSubmit"));

[lash]

hmm .. doesn't seem to have any effect :-(

[jweeks123]

Zip up your source, and attach it, and I'd be more than happy to take a look to see what X factor I can find.

[lash]

That would be a big help, since I've been sending a lot of time now figuring out how this works. A working example would really explain a lot :-)

Thanks a lot

I've uploaded the files at
www.larsliin.dk/Custom_eventhandler.zip

[jweeks123]

Okay, here we go, instead of re-attaching, I'll just post code:

Your ChristmasCountdown.as

package
{
	import flash.display.MovieClip;
	import flash.events.*;
	
	import submitEvent;
	
	public class christmasCountdown extends MovieClip
	{		
	
		private var emailSubmitform:submitForm = new submitForm();
		
		public function christmasCountdown():void
		{
			
			
			emailSubmitform.x = 100;
			emailSubmitform.y = 150;
			
			addChild(emailSubmitform);
			
			emailSubmitform.addEventListener(submitEvent.ON_FORM_SUBMIT, onFormSubmitHandler);
		}
		
		private function onFormSubmitHandler(e:submitEvent):void
		{
			emailSubmitform.removeEventListener(submitEvent.ON_FORM_SUBMIT, onFormSubmitHandler);
			trace("FORM IS SUBMITTED");
		}		
	}	
}

Your submitEvent.as

package 
{
	import flash.events.Event;
	
	public class submitEvent extends Event
	{
		public static const ON_FORM_SUBMIT:String = "onFormSubmit";
		
		private var command:String;
		
		public function submitEvent(command:String)
		{
			super(ON_FORM_SUBMIT);
			
			this.command = command;
		}	
	}
}

Your submitForm.as

package {
	import flash.display.MovieClip;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
	import flash.net.Responder;
	import flash.net.NetConnection;
	import flash.text.TextField;
	import flash.events.*;
	import submitEvent;

	public class submitForm extends MovieClip {
		private var visitorName:String = "";
		private var visitorEmail:String = "";

		public function submitForm():void {
			// add eventlisteners
			this.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, submitKeyHandler);
			submitBtn_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, submitBtnHandler);
		}
		// submit keyboard handler
		private function submitKeyHandler(e:KeyboardEvent):void {
			// keycode 13: enter-key
			if (e.keyCode == 13) {
				submitHandler();
			}
		}
		// submit button handler
		private function submitBtnHandler(e:MouseEvent):void {
			submitHandler();
		}
		// submit user input
		private function submitHandler():void {
			visitorName = nameTxt_txt.text;
			visitorEmail = emailTxt_txt.text;

			// submit input if 'validate-input' returns true
			if (isEmailValid(visitorEmail) != false && visitorName != "") {
				submitUserData();
			} else {
				trace("INPUT ERROR");
				return;
			}
		}
		// check if email is valid
		private function isEmailValid(email:String):Boolean {
			var emailExpression:RegExp = /^[a-z][\w.-]+@\w[\w.-]+\.[\w.-]*[a-z][a-z]$/i;

			return emailExpression.test(email);
		}
		// submit data
		private function submitUserData():void {
			dispatchEvent(new submitEvent("Submit"));
			trace("dispatching Event Here");
		}
	}
}

It was tested and is working for me. Let me know if this helps.

[lash]

That's exactly what I need! Thanks a lot.

Could you perhaps just explain, what I did wrong? I noticed, that you have moved the dispatchEvent ..

[jweeks123]

Sure, I'm not that great at explanations though so please feel free to ask if you need further explanation.

Anyway, what I did was this:

In the submitForm.as file:

You had all your function within the constructor, so I split them up. In the dispatchEvent, I just changed the string dispatching. To be honest, it doesn't matter what it is as long as it's nothing conflicting. So in actuality, you could type in dispatchEvent(new submitEvent("WildSpaceMonkeys")); and it would work.

Then of course I added a trace function just for clarification there.

The submit event, all you needed was the constructor as we handled earlier.

Then in your document class your event listeners were tied to the main document class, and the main class never dispatches the Event. The submitForm class dispatches the event, so you have to have that class listen for the event to be dispatched. Then after it was dispatched I removed the Event Listener.

Make sense?

Let me know.

[lash]

That makes perfect sense.

Again thanks a lot. You've have just made it all much more clear to me.

Thanks.

[jweeks123]

No Problem, glad to help.

[lash]

One last question though:

What if I wanted to add a few arguments, when I dispatch this event? Thought it would something like

package 
{
	import flash.events.Event;
	
	public class submitEvent extends Event
	{
		public static const ON_FORM_SUBMIT:String = "onFormSubmit";
		
		private var command:String;
		
		public function submitEvent(command:String)
		{
			super(ON_FORM_SUBMIT);
			
			this.command = command;

			// ADDING MY ARGUMENT
			this.testArg = "TEST";
		}	
	}
}

But this only returns

[Event type="onSubmitEvent" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2]

[jweeks123]

Well, this would be my guess, as I just got into this myself and am honestly learning with you, LOL.

package 
{
	import flash.events.Event;
	
	public class submitEvent extends Event
	{
		public static const ON_FORM_SUBMIT:String = "onFormSubmit";
		
		private var command:String;

                private var testArg:String;		

		public function submitEvent(command:String, tArg:String)
		{
			super(ON_FORM_SUBMIT);
			
			this.command = command;

			// ADDING MY ARGUMENT
			this.testArg = tArg;
		}	
	}
}

Let me know if that helps

[lash]

Glad to hear that we're actually both benefiting from this.

I tried what you suggested, but still only get

[Event type="onFormSubmit" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2]

Thought that I would get something like

[Event type="onFormSubmit" testArg="SOME VALUE" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2]

And would be able to access it with something like

private function onFormSubmitHandler(e:submitEvent):void
{
	trace(e.testArg);
}

[neznein9]

The event class has a custom toString method (otherwise you'd just get [Event, event]) - you can override it to see the properties you want:

public override function toString():String{
    return "[submitEvent type=" + type + " testArg=" + testArg + " bubbles="+ bubbles + " cancelable=" + cancelable + " eventPhase=" + eventPhase + "]";
} 

[lash]

Thanks, I noticed that later :-)

jweeks123-> I actually solved it, and you weren't totally off!

Notice, that this class is used in another context than the previous. This is loading a queue of images instead of submitting a form.

I Changed my custom event class to this

package
{
	import flash.events.Event;
	
	public class imageQueueLoadedEvent extends Event
	{
		public static const ON_QUEUE_LOADED:String = "onQueueLoaded";
		
		private var command:String;
		public var params:Object;
		
		public function imageQueueLoadedEvent(command:String, params:Object):void
		{
			
			super(ON_QUEUE_LOADED, bubbles, cancelable);
			this.params = params;
			
			this.command = command;
		}
		
		public override function clone():Event
        {
            return new imageQueueLoadedEvent(command, this.params);
        }
	}
}

Passing my arguments when dispatching the event

dispatchEvent(new imageQueueLoadedEvent("onQueueLoaded",imageArray));

And accessing the arguments with

private function onImageQueueLoadedHandler(e:imageQueueLoadedEvent):void
{
	trace(e.params)
}