Flash 8 Cookbook

15.2. Applying Styles to Component Groups

Problem

You want to apply the same style settings to more than one component instance, or you want to apply a lot of styles to a single component instance.

Solution

Create a new ActionScript style object, assign the style values, and then apply it to the component instance or instances.

Discussion

The setStyle( ) technique discussed in Recipe 15.1 is great if you want to apply just a few styles to a single component. However, if you want to apply those same settings to other components, the first technique doesn’t provide you with a very convenient way to do that. Furthermore, although you can apply as many styles as you want to a single component by calling the setStyle( ) method many times, this approach is slightly inefficient. Each time the setStyle( ) method is called for the component instance, it is redrawn. If you are applying 10 style settings, the component will be redrawn 10 times, even though it really needs to be redrawn only once—after all the settings have been made. Although there is no visible effect that the user can see, it is a rather inefficient use of processing.

Creating and applying an ActionScript style object resolves both of the aforementioned issues. By working with a style object, you can define the settings once, and then apply them to as many component instances as you want. Additionally, because a style object is defined and then applied to the component or components, no matter how many styles you set, the component ...