I see that Jesse and Ben just pimped their own sessions for 360Flex, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon. My session is titled Building Components that use Item Renderers. It’ll be divided into two parts. The first part will involve several examples in MXML and ActionScript demonstrating how to build item renderers. Part two will feature some tips about how you can build completely custom components that use item renderers.

Abstract

Item renderers provide a powerful way for developers to completely change the way a component displays each item from a data provider. After looking at how item renderers can be used with existing components, you’ll gain an understanding of all the classes and interfaces an item renderer system needs.

From there, Josh exposes the dirty details of how to build a component that supports drop-in renderers, what properties and methods should be exposed to the developer, and how to implement renderer caching to maximize performance. Highlights include peeks into how the Flex framework uses item renderers, how to use custom item renderers with existing Flex components, and how to build a component from scratch to use item renderers.

The session takes place Tuesday morning, February 26th, at 8:30am. I’ll forgive you if that’s too early to be fully awake, but I hope you’ll stop by with coffee and a muffin to see some code. You’re registered to go to 360Flex, aren’t you? Of course you are. Don’t be the guy who misses the best Flex event of the year!