AS3 Inspectable Font Chooser

Question

I'm building a component and need to be able to select fonts from a font list. I have the font list showing up but I'm unsure of what the proper datatype is or how I should be setting it. I've tried String and Font and I seem to be getting an error.

private var _tfFormat:TextFormat;
_tfFormat = new TextFormat();

This will produce an 1067: Implicit coercion of type String to unrelated flash.text:Font.

private var _font:Font = null;
_tfFormat.font = font.fontName;
[Inspectable(type="Font Name", name="font", defaultValue="Arial")]
public function get font():Font 
{
    return _font;
}

public function set font(value:Font):void 
{
    _font = value;
    invalidate();
}

This gives me a 1065 Variable is not defined.

private var _font:String = "";

var __cls:Class = getDefinitionByName(font) as Class;
var __fnFont:Font   = new __cls() as Font;              
_tfFormat.font  = __fnFont.fontName;

[Inspectable(type="Font Name", name="font", defaultValue="")]
public function get font():String 
{
    return _font;
}

public function set font(value:String):void 
{
    _font = value;
    invalidate();
}

I feel I'm pretty close and it's something ridiculously easy that I'm overlooking. Any set of eyes would be appreciated. Thanks.

Well in the first chunk of code, you've got `value` in your setter function defined as a `Font` while it should be a `String`, hence the implicit coercion error. As for the second one, I could be wrong, but perhaps you should define those variables as `private var` rather than just `var`. Even if it doesn't fix the problem it's generally better to specify the scope. Also I don't know if you did it intentionally or not, but `__cls` and `__fnFont` have two underscores. — puggsoy, Feb 04 '13 at 15:48
Thanks for the reply, the formatting and scope(s) are fine. I just didn't post the whole class, double underscores are part of our coding standards to make "reading" the code quicker/easier. — gin93r, Feb 04 '13 at 16:51

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 04 '13 at 16:56

Ok I solved the issue.

I changed the data type of the font back to String. As it turns out, if using an embedded font, Flash adds an asterisk to the name; eg: ArialBold* But that asterisk isn't included in the linkage identifier for the font. So in my setter I removed the asterisk and then create a class from string as normal. Here's the (shortened) code.

If there's a better way, I'm still all ears. :)

private var _font:String = "";
private var _tfFormat:TextFormat;
_tfFormat = new TextFormat();
var __cls:Class = getDefinitionByName(font) as Class;
var __fnFont:Font = new __cls() as Font;
_tfFormat.font = __fnFont.fontName;

[Inspectable(type="Font Name", name="font", defaultValue="")]
public function get font():String 
{
    return _font;
}

public function set font(value:String):void 
{
    _font = value.split("*").join('');
    invalidate();
}

AS3 Inspectable Font Chooser

1 Answers1