Concept of Subroutine or Method in MXML?

Question

Hi. Does Flex MXML have the concept of a subroutine (like VB) or a method (like ActionScript)?
Reason I ask is that I have some MXML code which will be duplicated (yecch!) unless I can refactor it into a subroutine of some sort.
Ben Ethridge
Senior Java Developer / Flex Newbie

Answer 1

I have this coded and it compiles ok but returns an error in AS at runtime:
TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert incl::IncludeEmulator@700a479 to mx.effects.Effect.
    at mx.effects::CompositeEffect/getChildrenTargets()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\f ramework\src\mx\effects\CompositeEffect.as:400]
    at mx.effects::CompositeEffect/captureStartValues()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\f ramework\src\mx\effects\CompositeEffect.as:294]
    at mx.core::UIComponent/commitCurrentState()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framewor k\src\mx\core\UIComponent.as:7163]
    at mx.core::UIComponent/setCurrentState()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framework\s rc\mx\core\UIComponent.as:7113]
    at mx.core::UIComponent/set currentState()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\UIComponent.a s:4361]
    at EastRidgeSoftware/__btnRestart_click()[C:\Users\Ben\workspace\EastRidgeSoftware\src\EastR idgeSoftware.mxml:267]
Here is the associated code in the parent:
            <mx:Transition fromState="Designing" toState="Initial">
                <mx:Sequence>
                    <!-- fadeout what is shown -->
                    <mx:Fade duration="{fadeDuration}" targets="{[designingImage,designingText,designingText1,designingText2]}" alphaFrom="1.0" alphaTo="0.0"/>
                    <mx:SetPropertyAction name="visible" targets="{[designingImage,designingText,designingText1,designingText2]}"/>
                    <inc:IncludeEmulator initialImage="{initialImage}" initialText="{initialText}" initialText1="{initialText1}" moveDuration="{moveDuration}"/>   
                </mx:Sequence>
            </mx:Transition>
...and the child:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Module xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" width="400" height="300">
<mx:Script>
    <![CDATA[
        import mx.controls.Text;
        import mx.controls.Image;
        [Bindable]
        public var initialImage:Image;
        [Bindable]
        public var initialText:Text;
        [Bindable]
        public var initialText1:Text;
        public var moveDuration:Number;
    ]]>
</mx:Script>
                        <!-- Fadein what should now be shown. -->
                    <mx:Fade duration="1" targets="{[initialImage,initialText,initialText1]}" alphaFrom="0.0" alphaTo="1.0"/>
                    <mx:SetPropertyAction name="visible" targets="{[initialText,initialText1,initialImage]}"/>
                    <!-- Move it across the screen into reading position. -->
                    <mx:Move duration="{moveDuration}" targets="{[initialText,initialText1,initialImage]}"/>
</mx:Module>
So it appears that a generic "Module" is not allowed, i.e. it wants a true "Component" one flavor or another.  Looking at the error above, my top guess is that AS cares about the component type, i.e. since it's running within a Transition, the only components allowed are Effects? Unfortunately, mx.effects.Effect is not in the list, i.e. not in <mx:> namespace.  I tried Canvas just for laughs, but same error, so I'm stuck.  Is there a way to inherit from Effect in MXML maybe?
Ben