Place a dynamically created text field where clicked

[hoaglandjl]

I have a simple drawing program. I want to add a text field wherever the user clicks on the whiteboard. Here is the code

function writeText(e:MouseEvent):void

{

var textfield = new TextField();

board.addChild(textfield);

textfield.x = mouseX;

textfield.y = mouseY;

textfield.defaultTextFormat = textformat;

textfield.setTextFormat(textformat);

textfield.embedFonts = true;

textfield.antiAliasType = AntiAliasType.ADVANCED;

textfield.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;

textfield.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;

textfield.selectable =false;

textfield.width = 300;

textfield.wordWrap = true;

textfield.textColor = activeColor;

board.focus = textfield;

}

textfield.x = mouseX and textfield.y = mouseY do place a texfield on the screen. But, have to click in two spots to make it work; basically at a x and y location with the y location being lower and to the right of  the the x location; clicking any other way has unpredictable results. What am I missing? Thanks, Jon

[kglad · Accepted solution]

if board has the mouse listener, you should use e.localX and e.localY.

i don't see where you're assigning text or htmlText

you probably want to enable the multiline property of your textfield.

and, you probably want to do something to handle multiple clicks so you have some way to control the created textfields.

[hoaglandjl]

Hello kglad,

I used e.localX and e.localY and it solved the strange clicking issue.

I added the multiline property, though for the intended use, it's more or less just dressing.

I have not handled mutiple text field creations because of the intended use. The purpose of the drawing feature is to anoint images under the whiteboard. Typically, the user would type a few words and then draw a line to whatever they are focused on. But, you can never guess just where something will go when it leaves your hands. I do have a reset all button that completely resets the page (I am using class navigation, so is easy to do). I know from testing, the page can get really filled up with visible and invisible (erased) text fields. Not sure even how I could control dynamically created text fields.

I did not assign text because the text field is empty; the user can type in whatever they want to. Is there value to assign empty text to the field, i.e. " " ?

Thanks much, Jon

[kglad]

there's no value to assigning "" to your textfield's text property if that's going to be replaced by user input.