Using Sprite objects to draw to screen

[meddlingwithfir]

How are these things supposed to be used? I'm apparently missing the mark. I figured I could use them to display images & shapes in my application. But it doesn't look like I can add them in my MXML or Actionscript:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application 
	xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" 
	layout="absolute" 
	width="800"
	height="600"
	creationComplete="onLoad()"
>
	<mx:Script>
		<![CDATA[

			private function onLoad():void
			{
				var square:Sprite = new Sprite();
				square.graphics.beginFill(0xFF88CC);
				square.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, 80, 80);
				panel1.addChild(square);
			}
		]]>
	</mx:Script>

	<mx:Panel id="panel1" 
		x="0" y="1000"
		width="50%" 
		height="80%" 
		title="panel1">
	</mx:Panel>
	<mx:Panel id="panel2" 
		x="400" y="1000" 
		width="50%"
		height="80%" 
		title="panel2">
	</mx:Panel>

	
</mx:Application>

Throws an error during runtime:

TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert flash.display::Sprite@4dee191 to mx.core.IUIComponent.
at mx.core::Container/http://www.adobe.com/2006/flex/mx/internal::addingChild()
at mx.core::Container/addChildAt()
at mx.core::Container/addChild()
at SpaceFlex/:nLoad()
at SpaceFlex/___Application1_creationComplete()
at flash.events::EventDispatcher/flash.events:EventDispatcher::dispatchEventFunctio n()
at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
at mx.core::UIComponent/set initialized()
at mx.managers::LayoutManager/::doPhasedInstantiation()
at Function/http://adobe.com/AS3/2006/builtin::apply()
at mx.core::UIComponent/::callLaterDispatcher2()
at mx.core::UIComponent/::callLaterDispatcher()

So I can see that a Sprite isn't of IUIComponent -- so it won't let me add it directly to the panel or to the application. How am I supposed to use these things in my Flex application? I checked out the livedocs: http://livedocs.macromedia.com/flex/...ay/Sprite.html and I don't see why their subclass of Sprite would work, while a regular plain-jane Sprite wouldn't. It doesn't look like they've made any conversion of the Sprite to a IUIComponent...

Pretty much all I'm after is trying to programatically draw a square (or whatever other shape my miniscule brain can conjure ) and display that to the screen.

[CDHBookingEdge]

Trying to work this out in my head too so forgive me, and based on the fact that I'm kinda working "crippled" here at the moment, kinda bear with me.

Sprite is a subclass of ...never mind..LOL here might be the answer.

Try using FlexSprite In the documentation for it, it says:

FlexSprite is a subclass of the Player's Sprite class and the superclass of UIComponent. It overrides the toString() method to return a string indicating the location of the object within the hierarchy of DisplayObjects in the application.

Also since FlexSprite is in mx.core and therefore in the Flex 2 SDK you can look at it's implementation to see how they did it and if it doesn't quite work for you, maybe use some similar concepts, to make something that will work.

See if that works for you and let us know. ;-)

Christopher

[Tink]

Anything added to a UIComponent needs to be a UIComponent. A Sprite is not, you would use it for Flash and ActionScript projects.

If you really want to use Sprites you can add them as a rawChild or components that have rawChildren

var square:Sprite = new Sprite();
square.graphics.beginFill(0xFF88CC);
square.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, 80, 80);
panel1.rawChildren.addChild(square);

Also if you were just drawing, you be bext of using a Shape instead of a Sprite.

[CDHBookingEdge]

Interesting! So what the heck is a FlexSprite and where would you really use it?

[CDHBookingEdge]

Interesting! So what the heck is a FlexSprite and where would you really use it?

[CDHBookingEdge]

Sorry for the double post, apparently AS.org wasn't responding or such.

[meddlingwithfir]

CDH -- It sounds like FlexSprite is what you should use, from what you said. But if it's a superclass to UIComponent, wouldn't that mean that it is not in-itself a UIComponent, and therefore I'd get the same error as before?

Tink -- would that be considered a "dirty" way to get the functionality I'm looking for (just drawing a simple shape to the screen programatically), or is that the expected method?

[CDHBookingEdge]

You might need to cast it to a UIComponent, true. (Ducks at the castigation I might receive for throwing that out there. And hopefully not other words that beging with cast LOL) But if you cast it shouldn't you be able to "cirumvent" the compiler error?

Laughs at myself after having deleted what I was going to write, about 3 or 4 times.

Tink's probably got the best idea. He usually does. ;-)

Christopher

[meddlingwithfir]

Haha I get the same impulses too! Just try anything and everything that might work

I'll give the casting thing a try tomorrow, along with Tinks suggestion. It just seems like I'm going about this wrong though -- like there should be some other class out there for me to use (this seems like fighting an uphill battle for what I think should be a fairly trivial task...). And usually when that happens, it means I'm doing something wrong

[dr_zeus]

You could instantiate a UIComponent and draw to that:

private function onLoad():void
{
	var square:UIComponent = new UIComponent ();
	square.graphics.beginFill(0xFF88CC);
	square.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, 80, 80);
	panel1.addChild(square);
}

The reason you're receiving this error is because Flex Containers expect to receive UIComponents as children. Containers need access to certain functions and properties of UIComponents to position them properly. Tink suggested using rawChildren, which is used internally by the Panel to attach it's skin pieces that aren't UIComponents.