WebGyver Revisited

Flex + PopUpManager + TitleWindow

Posted by admin on December 2, 2009

Note to self: If you create a custom-skinned Flex application, the windows created with PopUpManager will inherit the same customized look-and-feel. Duh!

It seems so obvious now, but I’m embarrassed to say that it took me a good day to catch on to that. The situation in a nutshell: I built this Flex application, using a custom skin. When I added a popup window for options and settings, the text was all white and the button fonts were “normal” instead of bold. Naturally, I thought I had done something wrong. Some kind of transparency setting? A unique attribute of the TitleWindow container?

After Google-ing all around the world, I tried again and realized that my main application window (dark background with white text) had the same characteristics. Aha! Once I figured that out, the world was all right again.

So in the end, myopia was to blame. Because I had been working with the application for a couple of weeks, I took a few things for granted, and that reminded me of similar experiences with database and web applications. You work on custom solutions, and after a while everything seems normal as it is. I’m sure most programmers have experienced this, and I would never claim to be the only one who’s walked straight into that trap.

Related terms: Flex, PopUpManager, TitleWindow, white text, button font not bold, normal, text not bold, text is not black, custom skin