Populate Many Combos

[k_crider]

I am new to Flex, just getting my feet wet. As such I have a
single form I thought would be a good dry run to learn a bit.



The form has 53 drop down comboboxes. Most of the combos have
under 10 values, and all the values for all the combos are stored
in 1 table (Oracle) differentiated by a "CODE".



So, for example, one combo might be Gender, and in the
database it looks like:



[code]

CODE VALUE

GENDER Male

GENDER Female

etc.

[/code]



I have a database procedure that kicks out XML for the
databind - that works fine it just accepts "CODE" as a param...and
I have some Flex code to use an <mx:HTTPService> plus a
"result event" to (databind) populate the combos, but it would
require me to have separate HTTPService definitions/functions for
each CODE/Combo that I need to populate!



I know there's gotta be an easier+dynamic way...any ideas?

[Former Community Member]

If you can make your server side return one big XML file, and
if you have stuctured the XML appropriately, you should be able to
have one HTTPService result handler and use e4x syntax to access
the data for the multiple comboboxes. So on the server side you
might have multiple database queries, but then use PHP or something
to cobble it all together into one big XML object for
return.

[k_crider]

I think I see what you're saying...instead of querying for
each individual combo box source separately, just query once and
get all the data. Then I suppose I need help with the AS code for
parsing the xml and populating the combos...



I've tried this in my HTTPServer result event but it's not
giving me any result at all:



[quote]

public function httpResult(event:ResultEvent):void {

result = event.result;

//Do something with the result.

//txtOutput.text=String(result);

var thisColl:XMLListCollection;

thisColl.source = httpSvc.lastResult.category;

for each(var item:XMLNode in thisColl) {

trace(item.toString());

//Alert.show(item.toString());

}

[/quote]



My XML Looks like this:



[quote]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>

- <root>

- <category>

<UZVTREF_CAT>EthnicityCD</UZVTREF_CAT>

<UZVTREF_CODE>1</UZVTREF_CODE>

<UZVTREF_DESC>Am. Ind/Alaskan Nat</UZVTREF_DESC>


<UZVTREF_DEFAULT_IND />

</category>

- <category>

<UZVTREF_CAT>EthnicityCD</UZVTREF_CAT>

<UZVTREF_CODE>2</UZVTREF_CODE>

<UZVTREF_DESC>Asian</UZVTREF_DESC>

<UZVTREF_DEFAULT_IND />

</category>

- <category>

<UZVTREF_CAT>EthnicityCD</UZVTREF_CAT>

<UZVTREF_CODE>3</UZVTREF_CODE>

<UZVTREF_DESC>Black or African
Am.</UZVTREF_DESC>

<UZVTREF_DEFAULT_IND />

</category>

........................etc..

[/quote]

[Former Community Member]

Try this:



[Bindable] private var allColl:XMLListCollection;



public function httpResult(event:ResultEvent):void {

var result:XMLList = event.result..category as XMLList;

allColl:XMLListCollection = new XMLListCollection(result);

for each(var item:XML in allColl as XML) {

trace(item.toXMLString());

}

}

[k_crider]

Greg,



Thanks for the reply, that helps, but when I switched to
using an XMLList I could loop through no problem.



I've got it working to that point but still NOT working...
**sigh**



As soon as I call the next "PopTREF" (see below) function the
_previous_ Combobox's data gets wiped out.



This is so difficult I feel as though I must be missing
something conceptually with the way data operations work with Flex.
HTTPService+event messes with my head. It would be SO easy in PHP,
ASP, ASP.NET...etc...especially using techniques like dynamic SQL I
could code this in 10 lines. Just a simple call to a query function
to populate a dataset, then use the dataset to populate a
dropdown...what am I missing here??!?



I've got 53 comboboxes... I really don't want to code &
maintain 53 HTTPServices, 53 initiators, 53 result handlers and 53
error result handlers....................is that what I'm expected
to do in Flex?



Here's my code I'm using:



I do appreciate your help by the way...



====================================

private var httpSvc:HTTPService;

private var cboPop:ComboBox;

private var category:String;

private var result:Object;



private function init() : void {

// POP THE COMBOS

//Ethnicity

cboPop = cboStuEthnicity;

category="EthnicityCD";

PopTREF();

// Status

cboPop = cboStuStatus;

category="Enrolled";

PopTREF();

Alert.show('Welcome!');

}



public function PopTREF():void {

httpSvc = new HTTPService;

var params:Object = new Object();

params.tref_category=category;

httpSvc.clearResult(false);

httpSvc.url = "
http://mydomain.P_XML_LIST_TREF";

httpSvc.method = "GET";

httpSvc.resultFormat="e4x";

httpSvc.addEventListener("result", httpResult);

httpSvc.addEventListener("fault", httpFault);

httpSvc.send(params);

//Alert.show("Sent!");

}



public function httpResult(event:ResultEvent):void {

result = event.result;

//Do something with the result.

var thisXML:XMLList = XMLList(httpSvc.lastResult.category);

//txtOutput.text=thisXML;

//Alert.show(thisXML.length());



for ( var i:Number = 0 ; i < thisXML.length() ; i++ )

{

cboPop.dataProvider.addItem({label:thisXML
.UZVTREF_DESC.toString(), data:
thisXML.UZVTREF_CODE.toString()});



}

httpSvc.clearResult(false);

}



public function httpFault(event:FaultEvent):void {

var faultstring:String = event.fault.faultString;

Alert.show(faultstring);

}





Combo box looks like:



<mx:ComboBox id="cboStuStatus"
width="200"></mx:ComboBox>

[Former Community Member · Accepted solution]

Notice the structure of my data, and how I am assigning to
the various ComboBox data providers. You owe me one bud... :-)



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<topNode>

<comboBoxData>

<cbxItem>Cake</cbxItem>

<cbxItem>Cookies</cbxItem>

<cbxItem>Ice Cream</cbxItem>

</comboBoxData>

<comboBoxData>

<cbxItem>Meat</cbxItem>

<cbxItem>Fish</cbxItem>

<cbxItem>Chicken</cbxItem>

</comboBoxData>

<comboBoxData>

<cbxItem>Water</cbxItem>

<cbxItem>Juice</cbxItem>

<cbxItem>Milk</cbxItem>

</comboBoxData>

</topNode>

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="
http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"

creationComplete="dataRequest.send();">

<mx:Script>

<![CDATA[

import mx.collections.XMLListCollection;

import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;



[Bindable] private var allColl:XMLListCollection;

[Bindable] private var cbx1Coll:XMLListCollection;

[Bindable] private var cbx2Coll:XMLListCollection;

[Bindable] private var cbx3Coll:XMLListCollection;



public function httpResult(event:ResultEvent):void {

var result:XMLList = event.result..comboBoxData as XMLList;

allColl = new XMLListCollection(result);

cbx1Coll = new
XMLListCollection(allColl.getItemAt(0).cbxItem);

cbx2Coll = new
XMLListCollection(allColl.getItemAt(1).cbxItem);

cbx3Coll = new
XMLListCollection(allColl.getItemAt(2).cbxItem);

}

]]>

</mx:Script>

<mx:HTTPService id="dataRequest" resultFormat="e4x"
useProxy="false"

result="httpResult(event)" url="myXML1.xml"/>

<mx:HBox horizontalGap="20">

<mx:ComboBox dataProvider="{cbx1Coll}"/>

<mx:ComboBox dataProvider="{cbx2Coll}"/>

<mx:ComboBox dataProvider="{cbx3Coll}"/>

</mx:HBox>

</mx:Application>

[k_crider]

Thanks Greg with some modification your code helped a lot. Here's a cookie...