Flex/Flash/Actionscript

FlexLib bugfixes for the New Year

As part of my non-existent New Year’s resolutions, I’ve gone through and made a series of bugfixes to FlexLib and released an updated version .2.2. You can download the distribution zip file here or checkout the project from SVN.

What was fixed
Here are the list of issues that I fixed. If you find out that something I think I fixed is still broken then let me know.

Component Issue
SuperTabNavigator Add ItemCloseEvent to SuperTabNavigator
FlowBox FlowLayout does not respect includeInLayout Usability
ScrollableMenu ScrollableMenu should be more extensible
ScrollableMenu ScrollableMenu bugs: icons and variableRowHeight
HAccordion HAccordion icon rotation issue
ScrollableArrowMenu ScrollableArrowMenu RTE TypeError 322
SuperTabNavigator SuperTabNavigator PopupMenu doesn’t support localization
SuperTabNavigator SuperTabNavigator truncates labels with … Unnecessarily
Base64Image Base64Image throwing error when using url as source
FlowBox Vertical size of FlowBox is measured for vertical layout instead of the flow layout used
DragScrollingCanvas DragScrollingCanvas array of children to allow scrolling/mouse interaction
EnhancedButtonSkin Add EnhancedButtonSkin support for downSkin and selectedDownSkin
SuperTabNavigator SuperTabNavigator unneccesarrily places tabbar at 0,0
CanvasButton CanvasButton not working with Flex 3 beta 3

How you can help

  1. There are still open issues that have not been fixed. If you take a look at the list and know how to fix something listed there, submit a patch by emailing it to the FlexLib discussion group and we’ll add it in.
  2. Report more bugs using the issue tracking system. It’s MUCH easier to keep track of bugs people have found if they log them in the issue tracking system. I tried to go back over emails to the flexlib discussion group where people reported bugs, and I got some of them, but I likely missed some there. If you previously emailed the list (or me directly) with bug reports but did not log it in the issue tracking system then it might have gotten lost. If it’s logged in the system then even if it takes me a while to get to it, at least I have all the issues in one nice list to review. I also fixed a few small bugs that were emailed to the list without filing them as issues, and now I forget what they were, so if you sent me an email with a bug you might want to check the latest release to make sure it’s still an issue (and then file a report).
  3. There are two issues I can’t reproduce or need more clarification on. Check out these two reports and see if you can reproduce either one. If so, write up a more detailed description of the problem and maybe I can figure it out.

Thank you
Thanks to everyone who has reported bugs, keep it up. Special thanks go to Hob Spillane, Kevin Fauth and Andrew Westberg, who all submitted patches to fix a few of these issues (if I forgot anyone who submitted accepted patches I apologize, you can send me an email to bitch at me if you want).

What’s Next for FlexLib
So near the end of last year FlexLib was fairly stagnant, there were no updates since September sometime. We’re all super busy, and I simply didn’t have the time to devote to bugfixes, etc. I’m hoping to stay on top of my shit a bit more this year (which I estimate will last for a solid few weeks). We’ve got to figure out the best way to allow new contributions without compromising the quality of the components. I’m aware that there have been submissions that have taken a long time to get in, or are still sitting in moderation limbo. I don’t have a good answer as to the best way to open up a bit more while keeping quality high enough, if anyone who is wiser than I am has suggestions on ways to run open source projects like this then feel free to contact me with your advice.

I also know that the Scheduling Framework in FlexLib is a big area of concern for a lot of people. There are 7 bug reports in the issue tracking system related to the Scheduling Framework. Unfortunately I’ve never used the Scheduling Framework and so have a) no insight into the code and b) no motivation for fixing code I’ve never used. The original creators of the Scheduling Framework are busy as hell like all of us. I think some ideal scenario is that some badass coder comes along who has extensive experience with the Scheduling Framework and wants to be the champion and take care of the code. If that’s you, then shoot me an email and let me know.

FlexLib and Flex 3
One of the bug reports had to do with Flex 3 compatibility. The latest release will compile with the Flex 3 SDK. I have tested many of the components and for the most part things seem to work fine (I had to make a few minor tweaks here and there). That said, some of the FlexLib components have some copy/pasted code from the Flex 2 SDK, and I have not upgraded these to the Flex 3 versions (they still work, but do not benefit from potential bugfixes in the Flex 3 SDK). For the most part I think you can use FlexLib in Flex 3 projects without any problems. But I don’t want to require the Flex 3 SDK just yet, especially since Flex 3 is still in beta. Sometime after the official release of Flex 3 we’ll figure out the best way to move forward. New components that require Flex 3 will likely be created. At some point we may have to freeze the Flex 2 version and continue moving forward and require Flex 3. But for now you can use the current version with Flex 2 or 3.

Standard