Parenting and child control with AS3

Question

Hi,
I'm new to AS3 and although I can see some good practice and functionality I'm constantly getting stucked and can't yet make things that I would do so easily with AS2 - I almost need to relearn it from scratch!. Still I would appreciate some help and guidance on this...
I made a class that creates a "kind" of menu with data from a XML file and basically what it does when it is called is create a emptyMC (a container), add a childMC (a square) and add another child (a text label). When I create the container I'm trying to add a MouseEvent that can act on each the container instances but all I can get is a MouseEvent on object containing all the added MCs. The code follows.
Can anyone enlight me with this issue or explain what am I doing wrong.
I can't understand well the dynamic parenting with AS3 and the lack of using instance names and dot parenting doesn't help.
Thanks in advance.
Note to Adobe: Previous versions of Flash Help Files and AS reference were by far more helpful than in CS4!
In the timeline:
import assets.myDynMenu;
var theMenu:myDynMenu = new myDynMenu("menu.xml");
stage.addChild(theMenu)
stop();
In the class:
package assets
     import flash.display.*;
     import flash.events.Event;
     import flash.events.MouseEvent;
     import flash.text.TextField;
     import flash.net.*;
     public class myDynMenu extends Sprite {
          // INIT EXTERNAL DATA LOAD
          public function myDynMenu(theData) {
               // LOADS THE MENU DATA FROM PREFORMATTED XML
               var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
               var url:URLRequest = new URLRequest(theData);
               loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, buildTheMenu);
               loader.load(url);
          // XML MENU DATA LOAD CHECK - ON COMPLETE BUILD OBJECT AND CHILDREN
          public function buildTheMenu(event:Event):void {
               var xml:XML = new XML(event.target.data);
               for (var i=0; i<xml.menuData.menuItem.length(); i++) {
                    // ADDS A CONTAINER
                    var itemContainer:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
                    itemContainer.name = "menu" + i;
                    // THE NEXT LINE DOESN'T ACT AS I WISHED?!
                    // IN THE FUNCTION CALLED I NEED TO CONTROL THIS ITEM AND ITS CHILDREN
                    itemContainer.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, onMouseOver);
                    itemContainer.x = 100 * i;
                    itemContainer.y = 0;
                    itemContainer.mouseEnabled = true;
                    itemContainer.mouseChildren = false;
                    addChild(itemContainer);
                    // ADDS A CHILD TO CONTAINER (a square)
                    var itemBase:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
                    itemBase.graphics.beginFill(xml.menuData.mConfig.mainItemColor);
                    itemBase.graphics.drawRect(0,0,xml.menuData.mConfig.mainItemW,xml.menuData.mConfig.mainIt emH);
                    itemBase.graphics.endFill();
                    itemBase.name = "base" + i;
                    itemBase.mouseEnabled = false;
                    itemBase.mouseChildren = false;
                    itemContainer.addChild(itemBase);
                    // ADDS ANOTHER CHILD TO CONTAINER (a text label)
                    var theLabel:TextField = new TextField();
                    theLabel.x = 5;
                    theLabel.y = 5;
                    theLabel.selectable = false;
                    theLabel.mouseEnabled = false;
                    theLabel.border = true;
                    theLabel.text = xml.menuData.menuItem[i].mName;
                    itemContainer.addChild(theLabel);
          // THIS IS THE MOUSE OVER THAT I NEED TO ACT ON EACH itemContainer (AND CHILDREN)
          private function onMouseOver(event:MouseEvent):void {
               event.stopPropagation();
               trace("You are over " + this.name );

Answer 1

use:
package assets
     import flash.display.*;
     import flash.events.Event;
     import flash.events.MouseEvent;
     import flash.text.TextField;
     import flash.net.*;
     public class myDynMenu extends Sprite {
          // INIT EXTERNAL DATA LOAD
          public function myDynMenu(theData) {
               // LOADS THE MENU DATA FROM PREFORMATTED XML
               var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
               var url:URLRequest = new URLRequest(theData);
               loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, buildTheMenu);
               loader.load(url);
          // XML MENU DATA LOAD CHECK - ON COMPLETE BUILD OBJECT AND CHILDREN
          public function buildTheMenu(event:Event):void {
               var xml:XML = new XML(event.target.data);
               for (var i=0; i<xml.menuData.menuItem.length(); i++) {
                    // ADDS A CONTAINER
                    var itemContainer:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
                    itemContainer.name = "menu" + i;
                    // THE NEXT LINE DOESN'T ACT AS I WISHED?!
                    // IN THE FUNCTION CALLED I NEED TO CONTROL THIS ITEM AND ITS CHILDREN
                    itemContainer.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, onMouseOver);
                    itemContainer.x = 100 * i;
                    itemContainer.y = 0;
                    itemContainer.mouseEnabled = true;
                    itemContainer.mouseChildren = false;
                    addChild(itemContainer);
                    // ADDS A CHILD TO CONTAINER (a square)
                    var itemBase:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
                    itemBase.graphics.beginFill(xml.menuData.mConfig.mainItemColor);
                    itemBase.graphics.drawRect(0,0,xml.menuData.mConfig.mainItemW,xml.menuData.mCon fig.mainItemH);
                    itemBase.graphics.endFill();
                    itemBase.name = "base" + i;
                    itemBase.mouseEnabled = false;
                    itemBase.mouseChildren = false;
                    itemContainer.addChild(itemBase);
                    // ADDS ANOTHER CHILD TO CONTAINER (a text label)
                    var theLabel:TextField = new TextField();
                    theLabel.x = 5;
                    theLabel.y = 5;
                    theLabel.selectable = false;
                    theLabel.mouseEnabled = false;
                    theLabel.border = true;
                    theLabel.text = xml.menuData.menuItem[i].mName;
                    itemContainer.addChild(theLabel);
          // THIS IS THE MOUSE OVER THAT I NEED TO ACT ON EACH itemContainer (AND CHILDREN)
          private function onMouseOver(event:MouseEvent):void {
               event.stopPropagation();
               trace("You are over " + event.currentTarget.name );