A very common UI element found in many applications are those little square handles around an on-screen object that allow you to move & resize it. I haven't been able to find anything like that pre-built in flex, so I've started a project to develop one. It behaves as a container object so you can put any other flex component inside it and get the resizeable functionality right away.

As of November of 2007 ObjectHandles has been downloaded over 25,000 times!

We just started a page on the google wiki to show off projects using ObjectHandles. If you're using it we'd love to put a link up. Visit http://code.google.com/p/flex-object-handles/wiki/ObjectHandlesUsage and post a comment, we'll update the wiki page next time we see it.

I use ObjectHandles in a project scheduling application called AgileAgenda, currently in beta you should give it a try.

  • Move & Resize Functionality for any flex component
  • Ability to limit movement and/or resizing in both vertical and horizontal directions
  • Ability to limit movement and/or resizing along an anchor
  • Simple 1-file (.swc) install
  • Mouse cursors change when over different handles
  • Graphical handle support
  • Aspect ratio support
  • Initial rotatation support has been added

The basic functionality all works. Now I need to deal with things such as:

  • Dragging one component over another correctly and maintaining z-order of the "current" item.
  • Snapping to a "grid", maybe adding in some ability to line different objects up.

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First, download the .swc above. Then add it to your FlexBuilder project library path. Then you can use it to your heart's content in your mxml.

In the example below you'll see two buttons in a vbox that can be moved together. This is the mxml to achieve that: 

<oh:ObjectHandles x="10" y="158" width="107" height="108" minHeight="30" minWidth="30">
	<mx:VBox borderStyle="none"  top="0" left="0" right="0" bottom="0">
		<mx:Button width="100%" height="50%" />
		<mx:Button width="100%" height="50%" />
	</mx:VBox>
</oh:ObjectHandles>

You can get the full mxml source for the application below here.

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This component is licensed under the MIT license.

Copyright (c) 2007 Marc Hughes

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