In Part 1 of this series I showed you how to make an inline itemRenderer—that is, an itemRenderer whose MXML tags and ActionScript code are in the same file as the list using the itemRenderer. The code is inline with the rest of the code in the file.

You'll also recall that I said you should think of inline itemRenderers are being separate classes. The Flex compiler in fact extracts that inline code and makes a class for you. The benefit of inline itemRenderers is that the code is in the same place as the list, but that's also a drawback when the itemRenderer becomes complex. What I'm going to show you in this article is how to make the class yourself.

Extracting the itemRenderer into an external file has several benefits:

• The itemRenderer can easily be used in multiple lists
• The code is easier to maintain
• You can use Flex Builder's Design View to sketch out the initial itemRenderer

This series includes the following articles:

• Part 1: Inline renderers
• Part 2: External renderers
• Part 3: Communication
• Part 4: States and transitions
• Part 5: Efficiency

Requirements

In order to make the most of this article, you need the following software and files:

Flex Builder 3

• Try
• Buy

Prerequisites:

To benefit most from this article, it is best if you are familiar with Flex Builder and ActionScript 3.0.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

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