Question

Say, I have a datagrid with checkboxes, and each time a checkbox is marked I store the object in the data property of flex ResultEvent

public class MyItemRenderer extends ItemRenderer{

   public static var CLICK:String = "CheckBoxClick";      

   protected function itemRendererClickListener(data:Object):void{

    dispatchEvent(new ResultEvent(MyItemRenderer.CLICK, data))
    }

}

I handle the result here.

protected function checkbox_clicked(event:ResultEvent):void{
    //Here I do everything I want with the data.
    Alert.show(event.result.toString());
}

This is what I’ve been using for months, but I never wondererd if this was a bad practice.

Or let alone bad practice, what is the optimal way to do this?

Answer 1

it’s not really ‘bad’. But it does create an additional reference to an object that can potentially keep that object in memory longer (or indefinitely if not managed well).

Generally speaking, you should only store data related to the event itself in the event instance. You can use the event.target and event.currentTarget properties to reference back to the object that dispatched the event and get data that way.

In your case, your event is a check box state change. The event itself (being checked) doesn’t need any data associated with it besides the item being checked (which you can get with ‘target’ or ‘currentTarget’). So it would be more appropriate in my opinion to do the following:

Alert.show(MyItemRenderer(event.currentTarget).data.toString());

This keeps your events more reusable