Class display objects visible=false

Question

Hi there,
I have an app that displays XML as items. I am taking the createLayout() and trying to create a class that i can call from my custom component rather than having tons of code in the same file. The issue i am having is that when i call it, and run/debug, the display objects (text,links,date..) all have their visible property set to false. This happens even though I set the property to true in my code. Please help!
package com.ryancanulla.utils
     import flash.display.Sprite;
     import flash.events.MouseEvent;
     import flash.net.URLRequest;
     import flash.net.navigateToURL;
     import flash.text.TextFormat;
     import mx.collections.XMLListCollection;
     import mx.containers.Canvas;
     import mx.containers.HBox;
     import mx.containers.VBox;
     import mx.controls.CheckBox;
     import mx.controls.ComboBox;
     import mx.controls.LinkButton;
     import mx.controls.Text;
     public class CreateLayout extends Sprite {
     //     Display Vars
          private var vBox:VBox;
          private var hBox:HBox;
          private var titleText:LinkButton;
          private var itemInfo:Text;
          private var abstract:Text;
          private var archive:CheckBox;
          private var rateItem:ComboBox;
          private var category:ComboBox;
          private var container:VBox;
          private var clickURL:Text;
          private var canvas:Canvas;
          private var titleFormat:TextFormat;
          public function CreateLayout(listCollection:XMLListCollection)
               listCollection = listCollection;
               container = new VBox();
               var categoryLabels:Array = new Array("Health","Industrial","Emerging Tech","Food & Ag");
               var rateLabels:Array = new Array("Positive","Neutral","Negative");
               for(var i:int=0; i<listCollection.length; i++) {
                    canvas = new Canvas();
                    hBox = new HBox();
                    titleText = new LinkButton();
                    titleFormat = new TextFormat();
                    itemInfo = new Text();
                    abstract = new Text();
                    archive = new CheckBox();
                    rateItem = new ComboBox();
                    category = new ComboBox();
                    clickURL = new Text();
                    titleText.label = listCollection.getItemAt(i).title;
                    titleText.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, getURL);
                    titleText.width = 400;
                    clickURL.text = listCollection.getItemAt(i).clickurl;
                    clickURL.visible = false;
                    clickURL.includeInLayout = false;
                    itemInfo.text = listCollection.getItemAt(i).source + " | " + listCollection.getItemAt(i).date;
                    itemInfo.y = 25;
                    abstract.text = listCollection.getItemAt(i).abstract;
                    abstract.y = 42;
                    abstract.visible = true;
                    abstract.includeInLayout = true;
                    abstract.width = 400;
                    abstract.height= 60;;
                    archive.label = "Archive";
                    category.prompt = "Category";
                    category.dataProvider = categoryLabels;
                    category.rowCount = categoryLabels.length;
                    category.visible = false;
                    category.includeInLayout = false;
                    category.width = 95;
                    category.height = 20;
                    rateItem.prompt = "Rate";
                    rateItem.dataProvider = rateLabels;
                    rateItem.visible = false;
                    rateItem.includeInLayout = false;
                    rateItem.width = 95;
                    rateItem.height = 20;
                    canvas.addChild(titleText);
                    canvas.addChild(clickURL);
                    canvas.addChild(itemInfo);
                    canvas.addChild(abstract);
                    canvas.addChild(hBox);
                    hBox.addChild(archive);    
                    hBox.addChild(category);
                    hBox.addChild(rateItem);
                    hBox.y = abstract.y + 60;
                    hBox.percentWidth = 80;
                    hBox.percentHeight = 80;
                    //archive.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, toggleArchive);    
                    container.addChild(canvas);         
               container.x = 10;
               container.y = 10;
               container.visible = true;
               addChild(container);
        // Called when someone clicks on the titleLink. This function pulls the
        // origional website URL up in a seperate browser window
        private function getURL(e:MouseEvent):void {
                  var link:LinkButton = e.currentTarget as LinkButton;
                  var canvas:Canvas = link.parent as Canvas;
                  var clickURL:Text = canvas.getChildAt(1) as Text;
                  var url:URLRequest = new URLRequest(clickURL.text);
                  navigateToURL(url);
               trace(clickURL.text);
Where I instantiate the class. List collection is an XMLListCollection which contains XML data.
private var createLayout:CreateLayout;
createLayout = new CreateLayout(listCollection);

Answer 1

container is from the Vbox class so I don't see that here and there might be something in there that is causing some problem.
But I don't think that is the only problem. I think this seems like the same problem that you have going in your other post.
I don't see anyplace that you addChild your CreateLayout instance. container has been added to your CreateLayout instance, but where is the CreateLayout instance added to some other display list.
Also it looks like almost everything you add to canvas is set to be invisible. So without knowing what is in a Canvas instance it is hard to know what would show up anyways.