We start by adding the following two helper functions for locating the Flex components by id in a file named testAPI.as.
You can copy this code from this page or download the source file here.
import mx.core.UIComponent; /** * Find a UIComponent using its id attribute, wherever it is in the application * @param id id attribute of the UIComponent to return * @return the UIComponent corresponding to the id, or null if not found */ private function getElementById(id:String):UIComponent { return getElementByIdRecursive(id, this); } private function getElementByIdRecursive(id:String, root:UIComponent):UIComponent { for(var i:int = 0; i<root.numChildren; i++) { try { var child:UIComponent = UIComponent(root.getChildAt(i)); if(child.id == id) return child; var node:UIComponent = getElementByIdRecursive(id, child); if(node!=null) return node; } catch(e:Error) { } } return null; }