How to set a public var in a popup window? - apache-flex

Question

I am trying to set a variable in a titlewindow pupup and use it in a script section. The variable is not being set and I don't know why.
Here is my Main.mxml file:
<?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="application1_creationCompleteHandler(event)">
<fx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.events.FlexEvent;
import mx.managers.PopUpManager;
protected function application1_creationCompleteHandler(event:FlexEvent):void
{
var test:TestWindow = TestWindow(PopUpManager.createPopUp(this,TestWindow,true));
PopUpManager.centerPopUp(test);
test.testText = 'test 2';
test.bol = true;
}
]]>
</fx:Script>
<fx:Declarations>
<!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
</fx:Declarations>
</s:Application>
Here is my titleWindow file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:TitleWindow xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" width="400" height="300"
close="PopUpManager.removePopUp(this);" creationComplete="titlewindow1_creationCompleteHandler(event)">
<fx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.events.FlexEvent;
import mx.managers.PopUpManager;
[Bindable] public var testText:String = 'test 1';
public var bol:Boolean = false;
protected function titlewindow1_creationCompleteHandler(event:FlexEvent):void
{
if(bol){
trace('Boolean is true');
}
}
]]>
</fx:Script>
<fx:Declarations>
<!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
</fx:Declarations>
<s:Label text='{testText}'/>
</s:TitleWindow>
The problem is the label does change from 'test 1' to 'test 2' but the bol variable will not be set, why is that?

Answer 1

The creationComplete event fires when your TitleWindow has been completely created and only fires once (see component lifecycle).
In your case this happens in your Main.mxml file when you add the pop up with PopUpManager.centerPopUp(test);. bol is getting updated, you're just not seeing that from a trace statement because the creationComplete event has already fired.
If you want to to change the value for bol with your current setup you'll need to do that prior to opening the pop up.
In general I feel that a better way of doing this would be by using getters and setters and data binding (or Flex's invalidation methods which is described in that first link).
Note: these links provided are for Flex 3 but so far as I know all this holds true in Flex 4.

Answer 2

NoobsArePeople2 is 100% correct about what's going on with the lifecycle. A quick and dirty workaround for this is to use PopUpManager.addPopUp() instead of createPopUp():
var test:TestWindow = new TestWindow();
test.testText = 'test 2';
test.bol = true;
PopUpManager.addPopUp(test, this, true);
PopUpManager.centerPopUp(test);
This should allow you to set the values on TestWindow before it actually gets initialized.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/mx/managers/PopUpManager.html