Trigger ComboBox change handler before application displays

Question

I have a ComboBox in a foods catalog, with has a list of categories, say, like this:
All Categories
Meats
Fish
Pasta
All categories are loaded at first, then, on the change event in the ComboBox, the food catalog is filtered and only foods in the selected category are displayed.
I want to eliminate the "All Categories" choice and just have the other three options in the ComboBox – On initial display, the ComboBox selectedItem would be Meats (selectedIndex = 0) but all the catalog items appear because the entire catalog is created on Application creationComplete.
The ComboBox is in a custom component.
The change handler is defined in that same component.
So, what I really need is to trigger that change handler before the display appears.
How do I achieve this?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Carlos

Answer 1

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Greg Lafrance
www.ChikaraDev.com
Flex Development, Training, and Support Services
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml">
  <mx:Script>
    <![CDATA[
      import mx.events.ListEvent;
      private function changeFunc(evt:ListEvent):void{
        switch(evt.currentTarget.selectedLabel){
          case "All Categories":
            vs.selectedChild=all;
            break;
          case "Meats":
            vs.selectedChild=meats;
            break;
          case "Fish":
            vs.selectedChild=fish;
            break;
          case "Pasta":
            vs.selectedChild=pasta;
            break;
    ]]>
  </mx:Script>
  <mx:ComboBox id="cmbx" change="changeFunc(event);"
    creationComplete="cmbx.selectedItem='Meats';cmbx.dispatchEvent(new ListEvent(ListEvent.CHANGE))">
    <mx:dataProvider>
      <mx:String>All Categories</mx:String>
      <mx:String>Meats</mx:String>
      <mx:String>Fish</mx:String>
      <mx:String>Pasta</mx:String>
    </mx:dataProvider>
  </mx:ComboBox>
  <mx:ViewStack id="vs">
    <mx:VBox id="all" width="300" height="200" backgroundColor="0x000000"/>
    <mx:VBox id="meats" width="300" height="200" backgroundColor="0xFFFFFF"/>
    <mx:VBox id="fish" width="300" height="200" backgroundColor="0x0000FF"/>
    <mx:VBox id="pasta" width="300" height="200" backgroundColor="0xFF0000"/>
  </mx:ViewStack>
</mx:Application>