So we were presented with a small problem for a project (in Flex 4) i was working on and because i couldn’t find information about this i decided to make a little blog post myself altough it’s a very small thing.

The problem:
As main navigation for the project we were using a ButtonBar with four buttons. One of those buttons linked to an external file and actually had nothing to do with navigating thru the application. Logically if you click a menu item it gets ‘selected’ and is shown as the active item in your menu. We didn’t want this because the view inside the project wouldn’t change at all as you were redirected to an external file.

So we needed to achieve two things when you click that “false button”:
– Keep the current selected button active
– Keep the “false button” from being activated

So after searching for a while we found this:
You have to listen to the IndexChangeEvent.CHANGE like this:

myButtonBar_btb.addEventListener(IndexChangeEvent.CHANGE, onIndexChange);

and inside the onIndexChange handler:

private function onIndexChange(e:IndexChangeEvent):void
{
	// The button we want to check here is the third one in the menu so the e.newIndex = 2 for this button.
	if( e.newIndex == 2 ){
		// noActivation_btn is the button that links to en external file/webpage.
		var noActivation_btn:ButtonBarButton = myButtonBar_btb.dataGroup.getElementAt(myButtonBar_btb.selectedIndex) as ButtonBarButton;
		noActivation_btn.selected = false;
 
		// activateThis_btn is the current active button in the menu			
		var activateThis_btn:ButtonBarButton = myButtonBar_btb.dataGroup.getElementAt(e.oldIndex) as ButtonBarButton;
		activateThis_btn.selected = true;
	}
}

And thats it, there is nothing more to it.

Below is the full example code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
			   xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
			   xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" 
			   minWidth="955" minHeight="600"
			   creationComplete="init(event)">
	<fx:Declarations>
		<!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
	</fx:Declarations>
	<fx:Script>
		<![CDATA[
			import spark.components.ButtonBarButton;
			import spark.events.IndexChangeEvent;
 
			private function init(e:Event):void
			{
				myButtonBar_btb.addEventListener(IndexChangeEvent.CHANGE, onIndexChange);	
			}
 
 
			private function onIndexChange(e:IndexChangeEvent):void
			{
				if( e.newIndex == 2 ){
					var noActivation_btn:ButtonBarButton = myButtonBar_btb.dataGroup.getElementAt(myButtonBar_btb.selectedIndex) as ButtonBarButton;
					noActivation_btn.selected = false;
 
					var activateThis_btn:ButtonBarButton = myButtonBar_btb.dataGroup.getElementAt(e.oldIndex) as ButtonBarButton;
					activateThis_btn.selected = true;
				}
			}
		]]>
	</fx:Script>
	<s:ButtonBar id="myButtonBar_btb" horizontalCenter="0" top="20">
		<s:dataProvider>
			<s:ArrayCollection source="['Normal button', 'Normal button', 'You cannot activate me']" />
		</s:dataProvider>
	</s:ButtonBar>
</s:Application>

So a lot has been going lately with adobe and and apple. A lot of Flash developers around the world (including myself) were looking forward to adobe’s next release of CS5. From all the new features they are introducing for the flash platform, one specifically got a lot of attention. The iphone packager for Flash CS5.
I was very excited about this new feature so we finally could get flash running on iphone/ipod touch/ipad devices and a lot of ideas were already brewing.

But then a few days before the official announcements for Adobe’s new Creative suites began (CS5) apple changed the policy for their apps.

This is the part where it goes wrong for Adobe:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

And this quite sucked for Adobe as their promotional video’s were already recorded and ready for broadcast and thus at the day of the announcements the part about flash still included the iphone packager.

A few days later Rumors went that Adobe was preparing a lawsuit against Apple.

Again a few days later Steve Jobs made a blog post about Flash and that HTML5 is the new ‘holy grail’ that they are going to support. But after seeing this i cried a little.

Later in the same week Adobe announces that they put a stop to the effort to get Flash to iphone and ipad devices.

So what the hell are you people doing!

Because let’s be honest who is going to pay for this? That’s right the developers.
If we want to create iphone/ipad apps we need to adapt ourselves and learn a new language in order to do that. I’m not saying that change and evolution are bad. We need it to keep fresh and on our toes. But this is ridiculous, first letting Adobe almost release new functionality and then giving them the royal finger by declining every app made by the packager just before they release it. That’s kind of low apple, shame on you.

When I see everything that is going on between Apple and Adobe it’s like two children fighting. I wonder if at the sidelines we have Microsoft and Google laughing at it and enjoying a bag of popcorn. The worst of it is that the real people getting hurt are the ones working with and using both of the companies soft- and hardware.

As someone who works with Adobe products (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Flex, Dreamweaver, Coldfusion, .. ) on a daily basis i was very disappointed in apple’s decision to decline flash made apps. On the other hand I use apple products too (ipod, iphone and just ordered a new macbook pro). I’m just saying i am not connected to either company and i ask myself where is this going. I think they both should ‘shake hands and share a cookie’ and work on the Flash <> i’Someting’ issues.
I see many opportunities getting lost to both companies in fact i am quite sure both Apple as Adobe are losing the battle. Now it’s not a matter of are you pro or against apple (as in buying an iphone vs let’s say an Android device). But it’s going to be a much tougher decision with flash now certainly almost never being enabled on the apple devices. Is the Android market place going to expand much faster compared to the Apple’s app store and so on.

At the moment i am an happy iphone user but if foolishness continues there is a good chance my next phone won’t be one made by apple…