How can I detect when the last container in my flow is full?

[Poobeard]

I have a bunch of linked containers which I am flowing text through. How can I detect when the text has filled a container? there's an overflowPolicy so I assume this can be detected.

[Jacques TRIPOZ · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I used this :

private function IsOverset(textFlow:TextFlow):Boolean

{

var zeComposer:IFlowComposer=textFlow.flowComposer;

var iTextLen:int=textFlow.textLength;

var iNoController:int=zeComposer.findControllerIndexAtPosition(iTextLen - 1);

return (iNoController == -1);

}

HTH,

J.

[Poobeard]

Hey! That might just work! thanks for your response.

🙂

[Poobeard]

short lived I'm afraid. I only ever get -1 with this ...

var containerIndex:int = textFlow.flowComposer.findControllerIndexAtPosition(textFlow.textLength);
                    if(containerIndex==-1) textFlowCompleteHandler();

I'm detecting this as the flow is created. The textFlow.length is being set correctly.

Any ideas?

[Poobeard]

So I fixed that issue ...

var containerIndex:int = textFlow.flowComposer.findControllerIndexAtPosition(textFlow.textLength-1);
                if(containerIndex==-1) textFlowCompleteHandler();

... by using textLength-1 to give me the last character in my flow.

BUT it now doesn't give me -1 ever. Even when the text has flown through the last container. I guess my container is still being used by the flow. Do I need to set the container so it doesn't allow scrolling or something like that?

[rdermer]

I'd do this a different way.  Not exactly what you want but similar.  This code adds containers until all the text in the TextFlow belongs to some container.

for (;;)

{

    var controller:ContainerController = textFlow.flowComposer.getControllerAt(textFlow.flowComposer.numControllers-1)

    if (controller && controller.absoluteStart+controller.textLength == textFlow.textLength)

        break;  // ALL DONE

    controller = new Controller(new Sprite,somewidth,someheight)

    // turn off scroll policy else all overflow text goes in the last container

    controller.verticalScrollPolicy = controller.horizontalScrollPolicy = ScrollPolicy.OFF;

    textFlow.flowComposer.addController(controller);

    textFlow.flowComposer.updateAllControllers();

}

Didn't compile this but I just wrote something similar (its on a different machine that I can't get to right now).

Also reccomend getting TLF 1.1 for this algorithm as its much more efficient for this type of thing than TLF 1.0.

Hope that helps,

Richard

[Jacques TRIPOZ]

Yes, if my memory is right, you need to disable scrolling in the container. Otherwise, the whole text will flow in the container and there will never be an overflow of course...

I used this when adding controller :

var

aCC:ContainerController=new ContainerController(aFrame.zeSprite, iCW, iCH);

aCC.verticalScrollPolicy=

'off';

Maybe some problems may occur because of possibly asynchronous composition (but I'm not really sure).

J.

[Poobeard]

I've just tested this and you're correct. I set the Scrollpolicy to OFF for

all my controllers and now when I run this code after each FlowElement

object is created and added to my TextFlow it will detect when the element

is no longer within a container ...

var containerIndex:int =

textFlow.flowComposer.findControllerIndexAtPosition(textFlow.textLength-1);

if(containerIndex==-1) textFlowCompleteHandler();

Thanks for the help guys.

Also, I found that this ...

config.overflowPolicy = OverflowPolicy.FIT_DESCENDERS;

... now works as expected. Before I set the scroll policy to OFF the last

line of my flow was cut off at the bottom of the container.