private function parseXML(event){
   //generate the xml object
   xml=new XML(event.target.data);
   //ignorre the white spaces
   xml.ignoreWhitespace=true;
   //generate the xmlList object
   xmlList=xml.img;
   //init the image pos
   imgPos=0;
   //and the total image number
   imgTotal=xmlList.length();
   //add the menu holder to the stage
   addChild(menuHolder);
   //create a menu item variable
   var menuItem:Sprite;
   //and a textfield
   var menuText:TextField;
   //assign a new format for the text field
   var format:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
   format.font = "_sans";
   format.color = 0xFFFFFF;
   format.align='center';
   format.size = 10;
   //loop on the items to generate the menu
   for(var i=0;i<xmlList.length();i++){
    //the text field
    menuText=new TextField();
    //size fo the text
    menuText.width=15;
    menuText.height=15;
    menuText.defaultTextFormat=format;
    //set the text
    menuText.text=i;//
    //not selectable
    menuText.selectable=false
    //show border 
    menuText.border=true;
    menuText.borderColor=0xFFFFFF;
    //give it the name text
    menuText.name="text";
    
    menuItem=new Sprite();
    //add it to the menu item
    menuItem.addChildAt(menuText,0);
    //
    menuItem.x=i*(menuItem.width+10);
    //draw the back ground ot use the backgroundColor text field proprety instead
    menuItem.graphics.beginFill(0x333333,1);
    menuItem.graphics.drawRect(0,0,menuItem.width,menuItem.height);
    menuItem.graphics.endFill()
    //disable the mouse children
    menuItem.mouseChildren=false
    //enable the button mode and use the hand cursor
    menuItem.useHandCursor=true;
    menuItem.buttonMode=true;
    //add the on click event
    menuItem.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,handleItemClick);
    
    
    //add the menu item to the menu holder
    menuHolder.addChild(menuItem);
    
   }
   //reupdate the position of the childs
   resizeHandler(null);
   //start loading the images one after one   
   loadNextImage();
  }