Mate not catching Event in EventMap [Flex] - apache-flex

Question

In my AIR application I am having problems catching dispatched events in my eventmap.
The class that is dispatching the events looks like this:
Shortcuts.as
[Event(name="centeredZoomOut", type="flash.events.Event")]
public class Shortcuts extends EventDispatcher
{
// Event Names
public static const CENTERED_ZOOM_OUT:String = "centeredZoomOut";
public function Shortcuts(target:IEventDispatcher=null)
{
super(target);
NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, onKeyUp);
}
private function onKeyUp(event:KeyboardEvent):void
{
this.dispatchEvent(new Event(CENTERED_ZOOM_OUT, true));
}
}
I know that the event is getting dispatched from debugging it, but it is not getting caught by the following eventmap.
ShortcutMap.mxml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<EventMap
xmlns="http://mate.asfusion.com/"
xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.controls.Alert;
import mx.events.FlexEvent;
import models.Shortcuts;
]]>
</mx:Script>
<EventHandlers type="{ Shortcuts.CENTERED_ZOOM_OUT }">
<MethodInvoker generator="{ShortCutExample}" method="showAlert" arguments="{['centeredZoom']}" />
</EventHandlers>
Here is the main application file called "ShortCutExample"
ShortCutExample.mxml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:WindowedApplication
xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
xmlns:maps="maps.*"
layout="absolute"
creationComplete="init()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.controls.Alert;
import models.Shortcuts;
private var shortcuts:Shortcuts;
private function init():void
{
this.shortcuts = new Shortcuts();
}
public function showAlert(value:String):void
{
Alert.show(value);
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<maps:ShortcutMap/>
</mx:WindowedApplication>
Why is my eventmap not catching the event?

Answer 1

Because I was not adding the object to the display list and it did not extend DisplayObject the dispatched events were not being caught by the eventmap. To solve this problem create a private variable of type GlobalDispatcher and dispatch your events from that variable.
private var dispatcher:GlobalDispatcher = new GlobalDispatcher();
...
this.dispatcher.dispatchEvent(new ShortCutEvent(ShortCutEvent.CENTERED_ZOOM_OUT, true));