Anuj Gakhar

If you are a Flex developer, you are probably aware of what FlexSpy is. FlexSpy is an inspection tool for Flex applications, similar to what Firebug is for HTML applications. FlexSpy is distributed as a .swc file (Flex Library file) which you can simply put under your projects’ “libs” folder and it will become available to use in your project. Once you trigger FlexSpy , you can inspect and change the properties and styles of the visual components in your Flex application. Pretty useful tool, makes life very easy for a developer.

All the examples I have seen so far, there is either a Button or some kind of visual element to bring up the FlexSpy window from within your application. However, I realize, that is not always desired. I normally associate a keyboard shortcut for this very purpose. So, I as a developer can bring it up when I want and no one notices that its there.

The code for this looks like this :-

[xml highlight=”11″]
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import com.flexspy.FlexSpy;

private function init():void{
this.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, onKeyUp);
}

private function onKeyUp(e:KeyboardEvent):void
{
if(e.ctrlKey && e.shiftKey && e.keyCode == 188)
{
FlexSpy.show();
}
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
[/xml]

What this code does is, you press CTR+SHIFT+COMMA together, FlexSpy window shows up. You can choose whatever key combination you want. However, do note that I had to hardcode the value 188 for comma key. If you want to find which key has which keyCode , simply do a trace(e.keyCode) in your handler function.

For some reason, if you are doing this in a Flex Project, the Keyboard class does not contain all your keyboards’ keys. But if you are in an AIR project, you could have written the same code like below:-

[xml highlight=”11″]

<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import com.flexspy.FlexSpy;

private function init():void{
this.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, onKeyUp);
}

private function onKeyUp(e:KeyboardEvent):void
{
if(e.ctrlKey && e.shiftKey && e.keyCode == Keyboard.COMMA)
{
FlexSpy.show();
}
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
[/xml]

Note, how Keyboard class shows up all the keyboards’ keys . In this case, Keyboard.COMMA. I am not sure why these particular keys are “AIR only” though.