How does setFocus() method work in AS3?

[FlashTapper]

Hi everyone. I will try to keep this as simple as i can.

I'm trying to use the setFocus method for highlighting the default text in a text input field.

So bascially when user clicks on that text field - the text is highlighted and they can type over it. Currently have about 16 text fields with something akin to 'insert text here' as a prompt for our lower ICT demographic of users and it's a bit tedious to expect the user to highlight the text in each field and then type over it.

Can be performed awesomly if you tab through the text fields but I would not expect many users to use this method.

I've looked around on the net for solutions to this using as3 but I haven't found anything that has worked for me. I'd be very grateful for a suggestion or a point in the right direction....

Thanks

[Ned Murphy · Accepted solution]

If you want to have clicking a textfield end up with the text inside it selected, try the following...

tf1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, selectText);

tf2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, selectText);

tf3.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, selectText);

etc...

function selectText(evt:MouseEvent):void {
    evt.currentTarget.setSelection(0,evt.currentTarget.length-1);
}

[FlashTapper]

Thanks Ned...did the trick

Although I'm not sure what you mean about the 'lenght-1' but - I jsut got rid of the -1 as it was not selecting all of my text.

Also I think I'm going to set up an array and run a for while loop to assign the functions to all of my textfields - there are about 19 of them!

There is now way I'm going to set up all the even listeners for all of them individually.

Cheers.

[Ned Murphy]

You're welcome.  If you look up the setSelection method of the TextField class you might be able to understand why the -1 was used.  If you name the textfields using a numeric progression you won't need to create an array.  You can use bracket notation to target them in that loop.

[FlashTapper]

That's true but I decided to go with using array and naming them. Easier for me to refer to them later with name and not number.

May get confused with numbering system. I will look up the setSelection method as you indicated. So far removing the '-1' from the function has worked for me.

[FlashTapper]

I looked around on the net and on the flash help file but could not find reference to the 'length-1' reference.

Could you provide a link about this at all? just very curious.

Thanks

[Ned Murphy]

'length-1' is not likely to have a reference - it is merely performing math.  The key to understanding why -1 is used is in understanding what the arguments are in the setSelection method.