Using an XML data provider with the Spark List control in Flex 4

by PETER DEHAAN on NOVEMBER 4, 2009

in LIST (SPARK), XML, XMLLIST, XMLLISTCOLLECTION, BETA2

The following example shows how you can use an XML document as a data provider for a Spark List control in Flex 4 by using an XMLListCollection.

Full code after the jump.

 

The following example(s) require Flash Player 10 and the Adobe Flex 4 SDK. To download the Adobe Flash Builder 4 trial, seehttp://www.adobe.com/products/flex/. To download the latest nightly build of the Flex 4 SDK, seehttp://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4.
For more information on getting started with Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4, see the official Adobe Flex Team blog.

<?xml version="1.0"?> <!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/11/04/using-an-xml-data-provider-with-the-spark-list-control-in-flex-4/ --> <s:Application name="Spark_List_dataProvider_XML_test" xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo">   <s:List id="lst" labelField="@label" horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0"> <s:dataProvider> <s:XMLListCollection> <fx:XMLList xmlns=""> <node label="One" /> <node label="Two" /> <node label="Three" /> <node label="Four" /> <node label="Five" /> <node label="Six" /> <node label="Seven" /> <node label="Eight" /> <node label="Nine" /> </fx:XMLList> </s:XMLListCollection> </s:dataProvider> </s:List>   </s:Application>

Or, if you wanted to embed the XML into your application, you could use the <fx:XML/> tag and bind to an XMLListCollection, as seen in the following example:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/11/04/using-an-xml-data-provider-with-the-spark-list-control-in-flex-4/ --> <s:Application name="Spark_List_dataProvider_XML_test" xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo">   <fx:Declarations> <fx:XML id="nodes" source="nodesAndStuff.xml" /> </fx:Declarations>   <s:List id="lst" labelField="@label" horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0"> <s:dataProvider> <s:XMLListCollection source="{nodes.children()}" /> </s:dataProvider> </s:List>   </s:Application>

And the external .XML file, nodesAndStuff.xml, is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/11/04/using-an-xml-data-provider-with-the-spark-list-control-in-flex-4/ --> <root> <node label="One" /> <node label="Two" /> <node label="Three" /> <node label="Four" /> <node label="Five" /> <node label="Six" /> <node label="Seven" /> <node label="Eight" /> <node label="Nine" /> </root>

Or, if you didn’t want to use data binding, Corey, you could set the data provider using ActionScript, as seen in the following example:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/11/04/using-an-xml-data-provider-with-the-spark-list-control-in-flex-4/ --> <s:Application name="Spark_List_dataProvider_XML_test" xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo" initialize="init();">   <fx:Script> <![CDATA[ private function init():void { xmlListColl.source = nodes.children(); } ]]> </fx:Script>   <fx:Declarations> <fx:XML id="nodes" source="nodesAndStuff.xml" /> </fx:Declarations>   <s:List id="lst" labelField="@label" horizontalCenter="0" verticalCenter="0"> <s:dataProvider> <s:XMLListCollection id="xmlListColl" /> </s:dataProvider> </s:List>   </s:Application>

This entry is based on a beta version of the Flex 4 SDK and therefore is very likely to change as development of the Flex SDK continues. The API can (and will) change causing examples to possibly not compile in newer versions of the Flex 4 SDK.