Sprite won't display on stage.

Question

I'm sure you're expecting me to have forgotten to use addChild. I wish it was that easy. I will say I'm very new to AS3.0. I have a movie clip in my library that contains a small PNG file and a text label. The linkage properties are: Class: shapes.HorizontalIcon, Base class: flash.display.Sprite.
The Horizontal Icon class isn't doing much yet.
package shapes {
    import flash.display.Sprite;
    public class HorizontalIcon extends Sprite{
        private var type:String = "horizontal";
        public function HorizontalIcon(){
            super();
            this.x = 33;
            this.y = 104;
            trace( "horizontal" );
And then there's the code in the parent sprite:
import shapes.*;
var horiz:HorizontalIcon = new HorizontalIcon();
addChild(horiz);
As far as I can tell this should work. There are no errors. The trace statement above shows up in the output. The parent sprite is also an item from the library. It shows up on the stage. I tried adding a random TextField to the parent sprite it showed up on the stage just fine.
Something isn't working right, but I don't know where to start debugging this. Any insight or pointers will be greatly appreciated.
-Sean

Answer 1

Well, the first thing I did, was make sure the constructor for HorizontalIcon was being called. In the interest of being able to give as much info as possibile I went back in can traced everthing. ADDED_TO_STAGE is firing alright, but it seems to be firing twice.
So what I'm trying to do is create an accordian navigation element. The Accordian class kicks everything off with
function init( e:Event ):void{
     trace( "Accordian:init" );
     panelArray[0] = new SPanel( true, this.firstPosition );
     panelArray[1] = new CPanel( false, this.hiddenPosition );
     panelArray[2] = new DPanel( false, this.hiddenPosition );
     panelArray[3] = new BPanel( false, this.hiddenPosition );
     panelArray[4] = new CPanel( false, this.hiddenPosition );
     panelArray[5] = new EmPanel( false, this.hiddenPosition );
     panelArray[6] = new EtPanel( false, this.hiddenPosition );
     panelArray[7] = new PPanel( false, this.hiddenPosition );
     panelArray[8] = new TPanel( false, this.hiddenPosition );
     for( var i = 0; i < 9; i++ ){
          trace( "   " + this.panelArray[i] );
          this.addChild( this.panelArray[i] );
Each of the panels created here is a subclass of AccordianPanel. AccordianPanel looks like this:
public class AccordianPanel extends Sprite {
     public function AccoridanPanel( showing:Boolean, y_pos:Number ){
     this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init);
     protected function init(event:Event):void{
     trace("AccordianPanel.init");               
And SPanel like this:
public class SPanel extends AccorianPanel {
     public function SPanel( showing:Boolean, y_pos:Number ){
          super( showing, y_pos );
          trace( "SPanel" );
     override protected function init(event:Event):void {
          trace("SPanel.init: "+event.target);               //these two are different because I was
          trace("SPanel.init: "+event.currentTarget);        //wondering if event bubbling was the cause
          var horiz:HorizontalIcon = new HorizontalIcon();   //for dups. Doesn't seem to be.
          trace("adding");
          this.addChild(horiz);
All the other panels look just like SPanel. The only difference is they only have a single trace statement in init. I never see the trace statement from AccordianPanel.init as expected, but the trace statements from all the AccordianPanel subclasses show up twice.
Here's the trace output (with comments I've added):
Accordian
Accordian:init                          // this is where the loop in Accordian starts
SPanel
   [object SPanel]                      // these [objects] are the trace statements in the loop
SPanel.init: [object SPanel]
SPanel.init: [object SPanel]
horizontal                              // this is a trace statement from HorizontalIcon's constructor
adding
   [object CPanel]
CPanel.init
   [object DPanel]
DPanel.init
   [object BPanel]
BPanel.init
   [object CPanel]
CPanel.init
   [object EmPanel]
EmPanel.init
   [object EtPanel]
EtPanel.init
   [object PPanel]
PPanel.init
   [object TPanel]
TPanel.init                             // so far so good. This is what I would expect to see.
ShapePanel.init: [object ShapePanel]    // But wait there's more! What is up with all these?
ShapePanel.init: [object ShapePanel]    // The trace statements from the loop aren't here, so it's
horizontal                              // not the loop again.
adding
ColorPanel.init
DesignPanel.init
BronzePanel.init
CarvingPanel.init
EmblemPanel.init
EtchingPanel.init
PortraitPanel.init
TextPanel.init
As far as I can tell the code is correct. It doesn't seem to be running twice, but the event ADDED_TO_STAGE is firing twice. This is odd to me, but that may just because I'm new to AS3.0. Does it help explain why the HoriztonalIcon never appears on the stage?
kglad, I appreciate you taking the time to walk me through this.
-Sean