How to abstract multiple buttons to use the same function?

[tdellaringa]

Not sure I phrased that right, but here's the deal. I'm building a demo that has a keyboard in it. Obviously, people will type stuff with it and it will go into a dynamic text field.

So I have a full keyboard (a movie clip named "keyboardStandard") made up of button symbols. That is placed in the same frame as the text field. Then I wrote this code, using the Q key ("keyQ"):

keyboardStandard.keyQ.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, addQ);

function addQ(ev):void {
	enterPlayerID_txt.appendText("Q");
}

This works just fine, the Q goes into the text field. However, I sure as heck don't want to write 26 event listeners, then 26 more functions, even if it is copy paste. That's just gnarly. Plus, there are actually 3 keyboards - a numeric and special char one as well I need to handle.

I seems passing a parameter from the event listener is not doable, so how do I approach this?

TIA

[v5000]

You could rename all your buttons to their actual character, for example rename "keyQ" to "Q" then just use one click listener on keyboardStandard:

keyboardStandard.addEventListener( MouseEvent.CLICK, onKeyClick );

function onKeyClick ( e:MouseEvent ):void {
    enterPlayerID_txt.appendText( DisplayObject( e.target ).name );
} 

[tdellaringa]

Unfortunately that won't work for the other keys on the keyboard, which are space, lower case (to swap uc/lc) and a special character key that swaps keyboards.

[v5000]

Well then, you got to put some logic in:

function onKeyClick ( e:MouseEvent ):void { 
    if( e.target == keyboardStandard.toggleCase ){
        //....
    }else if( e.target == keyboardStandard.switchKeys ){
        //...
    }else{
        enterPlayerID_txt.appendText( DisplayObject( e.target ).name ); 
    }
} 

[tdellaringa]

Thanks I'll give that a try unless there are any other suggestions, but it looks like a decent way to go. This is demoware, not production code, so it doesn't have to be perfect, but I always like to try and find the best way to do things.