Gumbo FxApplication - (Mini) Functional and Design Specification

This is a mini-spec that is undergoing flux currently as more FxApplication design issues are vetted.

Gumbo's FxApplication (mx.components.FxApplication) is an FxContainer designed to be the top-level container for new Gumbo applications. The new class was needed so FxApplication can hold Gumbo graphic elements directly. The new FxApplication class is not feature-complete, and we will be modifying it later on.

Major Differences

From a user's perspective the Gumbo FxApplication should be the same as the Halo Application. Major differences are pointed out below:

• Top-level graphical elements are allowed since under the hood FxApplication is an FxContainer and all the children go into a Group
• The default layout is BasicLayout (absolute), not vertical layout
• To change the layout, instead of using layout="vertical", you have to set the layout property directly:

  <FxApplication>
    <layout><VerticalLayout /></layout>
  </FxApplication>

• FxApplication is now an FxContainer, which is a FxComponent, so a new Skin can be applied.
• There is no more application controlBar (it's skinnable!)
• There is no more creation queue
• backgroundColor is now a property and not a style. Once we have a proposal for skin styles, this will probably change.
• Lots of styles are missing and will be added in time.

Unfinished Areas

There are a few unfinished areas that need to be revisited.

• The compiler needs to be modified to support the new white default background color
• The compiler modifications needed for the generated class files should be revisited
• Need to remove the resetHistory and historyManagementEnabled properties and get rid of them
• Need to revisit places where we do if (x is Application) or Application.application.propertyName and other uses of the old Application.

Usage example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FxApplication xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
             backgroundColor="white"
             width="800" height="600">
    <layout>
        <VerticalLayout />
    </layout>
    <Ellipse width="10" height="10" y="3">
        <fill>
            <RadialGradient>
                <GradientEntry color="0xAAAAAA" />
                <GradientEntry color="0x336699" />
            </RadialGradient>
        </fill>
    </Ellipse>
    <Button label="halo button" />
    <FxButton label="gumbo button" />
</FxApplication>