There are some things that i could see that maybe be wrong…

For first, if the container is an Sprite object, it´s not dynamic, so you cant access the children by using container[i].value, you can use container.getChildAt(i) to access the child…

Also it seems that you´re trying to set the value with two equals (==) it is for comparation only, when you set a property you use single equal (=)…

your code:
container[i].value == _old_value;
container[i].caption == _old_caption;

Correct:
container[i].value = _old_value;
container[i].caption = _old_caption;

Since it´s property you set this way, not like argument… it´s like a variable, but it´s a property so it activates a function…

So… try:

private function menuItemClick(e:MouseEvent):void{
if(e.currentTarget.value!=_value && e.currentTarget.caption!=txt.text){
dispatchEvent(new DropDownMenuEvent(DropDownMenuEvent.CHANGE,e.currentTarget.caption,e.currentTarget.value));
_old_value = _value;
_old_caption = txt.text;
_value=e.currentTarget.value;
txt.text=e.currentTarget.caption;
for(var i:int=0;i<container.numChildren;i++) {
if (Sprite(container.getChildAt(i)).caption == txt.text) {
Sprite(container.getChildAt(i)).value = _old_value;
Sprite(container.getChildAt(i)).caption = _old_caption;
break;
}
}
}

Maybe it work, i dont know how is the rest of your code, but if you need more help with this you can add group225300@groupsim.com in your msn or yahoo messenger, i am everyday there and i can help you more with this…

container[i].value(old_value);
container[i].caption(_old_caption);

Since the value is the same as the caption, I’m not worried about transferring the value (since “Select”’s parent is not a MenuItem object).

1) Initialization:
a) when the drop-down list is initialized, I got rid of ‘txt.text = “Select”‘ and instead I put in the first caption from the XML file. All subsequent caption/value pairs create a MenuItem object.

2) OK here is the problem: I am trying to figure out how to access the MenuItem object – already created – whose caption matches ‘e.currentTarget.caption’ in the menuItemClick function.
a) added set functions to MenuItem for both caption and value
b) in DropDownMenu.as, changed ‘menuItemClick’ as follows:

private function menuItemClick(e:MouseEvent):void{
if(e.currentTarget.value!=_value && e.currentTarget.caption!=txt.text){
dispatchEvent(new DropDownMenuEvent(DropDownMenuEvent.CHANGE,e.currentTarget.caption,e.currentTarget.value));
_old_value = _value;
_old_caption = txt.text;
_value=e.currentTarget.value;
txt.text=e.currentTarget.caption;
for(var i:int=0;i<container.numChildren;i++) {
if (container[i].caption == txt.text) {
container[i].value == _old_value;
container[i].caption == _old_caption;
break;
}
}
}

this does not change any of the existing MenuItem objects' captions. I even added an 'else' so that if there is no match, it should change each tested caption anyway to something like, 'tested'.

What am I missing here? Thanks in advance.

1. The point of this tutorial is really to create a custom object using xml external file, it´s much easyer you update an xml file instead of opening flash and change the values from there, that´s why exists the insteraction of flash and xml, for easyer updates, and this is the porpouse of this tutorial…

2. As you can see at step 5, we created a custom event for the menu, when it´s changed, and in step 8, i showed how to use this event to get the values from the drop down menu, instead of using trace, you can use whenever you want… for example in line:

private function d2Change(e:DropDownMenuEvent):void{
trace(e.caption+” = “+e.value);
}

instead of trace you can use gotoAndPlay(e.value);
but you would need to change the value in xml for a number value… OR also could it be a string value but the timeline would need to have a labeled keyframe… for example, in contactlist3.xml there is:

you could use:

or:

I hope this clear your doubts, if not, just ask again

Good tutorial but i have a couple of questions… (bare with me i’m new at this)

1. Can’t it use 1 xml file instead of multiple? Because if you want to update the data it is easier that way.

2. Instead of an external url can it take you to a different frame of the flash file?

but the same structure, just the caption for the first you change for “google” and it´s value change to http://www.google.com and for the second line of the xml file you change the caption to “yahoo” and it´s value to http://www.yahoo.com, and test it with the navigateToURL

I hope you put it working

You can create a XML file like this:

</menu

Them, in the Main.as file you have the line:

private function d2Change(e:DropDownMenuEvent):void{ trace(e.caption+" = "+e.value);
}

the e.caption will be the selected item caption, and the e.value will be the selected item value, so instead of using trace you can use for example navigateToURL…

so:

private function d2Change(e:DropDownMenuEvent):void{
navigateToURL(new URLRequest(e.value)); //it will open the selected url from the box
}

I’m referencing your tuturial for a project that I am doing, so far everything has been going great (so to say) when I stumbled upon a dead end.. and this is probably the stupidest question asked,

I am a noob at this so bear with me..

in your XML file, you have a value = “email address” from my understanding you’re able to change the email addy to a URL link, but how do I access the URL so that when I click on the links, it actually calls upon external links? I know it has something to do with the e.value variable but I can’t seem to get it to work..

Please help.

Thank you.