Exposing properties in mxml components

Question

I am tring to figure out how to create a property in a component so that I can set said property in the instance via mxml.
For example, I have an Group mxml component with a label and a text field.  I want to be able to set the text property of the label via the component defininition, as in something like:
<comp:MyGroup itemLabel="Enter number of apples:" />
I know I can do it with an ActionScript variable, such as:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Group xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
           xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
           xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx">
     <s:layout>
          <s:HorizontalLayout verticalAlign="middle"/>
     </s:layout>
     <fx:Script>
          <![CDATA[
               [Bindable] public var itemLabel:String;
          ]]>
     </fx:Script>
          <s:Label text="{itemLabel}" styleName="formLabels" width="200"/>
          <s:TextInput id="wallLength" width="100" restrict="0-9\\." text="0" focusIn="{event.currentTarget.text=''}"  />
</s:Group>
Can't this be done in all mxml?  Or is it better to do it like I have it?

Answer 1

something like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
   xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
   xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" 
   xmlns:ns1="*">
<fx:Script>
<![CDATA[
]]>
</fx:Script>
<ns1:SpecialLabel x="219" y="229" mySpecial="hello" EnterStuff="moretyping"/>
</s:Application>
component mySpecial
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Label 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="319">
<fx:Declarations>
<!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
</fx:Declarations>
<fx:Script>
<![CDATA[
private var _mySpecial:String;
public var EnterStuff:String;
public function set mySpecial(value:String): void
_mySpecial=value;
]]>
</fx:Script>
</s:Label>
Once you save the mxml component its properties become available in the property inspector as well as the code complete for the value declarations in the component.
David