Flex 4 custom component with RichEditable text

Well I guess the problem is that in the design mode the editor has to do the same layout calculations that flex does when executing the application. In contrast to the running application the editor knows nothing about the data in the components. Therefore it cannot correctly calculate the sizes.

You can immagine that the layout would look a little different, depending on if the fons size is 4 or 400. Perhaps you should assume a default value:

fontSize="{(lhFontSize)?lhFontSize:10}"

this is a shorthand if-statement. If lhFontSize is not deifned, it assumes a fontSize of 10, if a value is provided, then this is used.

Unforutnately still no joy with either your solution or assigning a default value when the variable is declared.

Perhaps FlashBuilder doesn't like variables at this location. Simply try with a constant value.

fontSize="10"

And set the font size in your code. In the above code I go two ways to initialize the component. This is because eventually you created your component programatically and set the value. In this case the RTE is not yet created and you would receive Nullpointer Exceptions. In this case the fontSize value is saved in a private variable. As soon as the RTE is created, the initRTE callback sets the font size.

On the other side if the RTE was allready created, then the font size would not be updated, because the creationComplete callback is not issued. This is why in this case the value is set immediately.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:SkinnableContainer xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
                                          xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
                                          xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" width="400" height="132" xmlns:styles="components.styles.*" xmlns:components="components.*">
        <fx:Declarations>
                <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
        </fx:Declarations>
        <fx:Script>
                <![CDATA[
                        import spark.components.RichEditableText
                                
                        private var _fontSize:int;

                        public function set lhFontSize(val:int):void {
                            _fontSize = val;
                            if(myRTE) {
                                myRTE.fontSize = val;
                            }
                        }

                        public function get lhFontSize():int {
                            return _fontSize;
                        }

                        private function initRTE():void {
                            myRTE.fontSize = _fontSize;
                        }                        
                ]]>
        </fx:Script>
        <s:RichEditableText id="myRTE" text="RichEditableText" width="100%" height="100%" left="0" top="0" fontSize="10" creationComplete="initRTE()"/>
</s:SkinnableContainer>

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Thank for the continued help.

Your code is similar to what I originally started out with, but in this situation it does not work as I cannot gain reference any of the RTE's properties, ie myRTE.fontsize gives me a 1119 error Access of possibly undefined property fontSize through a reference with static type spark.components.RichEditableText even though we set the id .

Ok ... I think I know what's going on :-) ... finally ...
fontSize is not a real property but a style. Try this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:SkinnableContainer xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
                                          xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
                                          xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" width="400" height="132" xmlns:styles="components.styles.*" xmlns:components="components.*">
        <fx:Declarations>
                <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
        </fx:Declarations>
        <fx:Script>
                <![CDATA[
                        import spark.components.RichEditableText
                                
                        private var _fontSize:int;

                        public function set lhFontSize(val:int):void {
                            _fontSize = val;
                            if(myRTE) {
                                initRTE();
                            }
                        }

                        public function get lhFontSize():int {
                            return _fontSize;
                        }

                        private function initRTE():void {
                            myRTE.setStyle("fontSize", _fontSize);
                        }                        
                ]]>
        </fx:Script>
        <s:RichEditableText id="myRTE" text="RichEditableText" width="100%" height="100%" left="0" top="0" fontSize="10" creationComplete="initRTE()"/>
</s:SkinnableContainer>

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Yes that worked. Thank you so much for your time, but if you have time  before I close the question could you just give me a couple of brief answers to the following and then I will leaveyou in peace :0 .If no time then dont worry.

With reference to the if statement , its the first time i have come across it used in this way. I presume it is checking that myRTE is the caller, but where does this happen in the lifecycle and what is it passing if anything.

Also if I wanted to allow changes to other properties/styles do I just add some more getter/setter and update the init function accordingly even though every time one property value changed, it would reset all.

Thanks again

Thank you for your time and patience, its good to know there are still people out there that are willing to go that extra mile to help others