dynamically created textfields problem

Hi people,

 I have a strange problem here: I want to create textfields dynamically that 
are just big enough to hold the text to display. The textfields use a font from 
the library. I get the metrics of the text with TextFormat.getTextExtent(), it 
seems to work ok. However, the last letters of the text are missing in the 
textfield after assigning the text, when the text needs more than 1 line. The 
textfield is sized for 2 lines, but the 2nd line is just empty. I applied 
wordWrap, but the text doesn't show at the 2nd line. This seems to be connected 
to the font that is used: I tested about a dozen different types, and only 1 of 
them displays always the full text, with all other fonts, the last 6 or so 
letters are missing. The text property of the textfields holds the complete 
text; where are the last letters?

 So, are there any known issues with textfields created dynamically? Or any 
trick to display all of the text? I'd like to use a monospaced font, but all I 
have tested have this strange problem.

 Attached is the code used for creatiing the textfields.

 :confused;
 blemmo



 var tf:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
 tf.font = "chatfont";
 tf.size = 8;
 tf.color = 0x990000;

 // get text metrics
 var tfobj:Object = tf.getTextExtent(text,150);

 // create textfield
 
this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].createTextField("tf",0,0,0,150,tfobj.textFieldHeight-
tfobj.descent);
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.embedFonts = true;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.selectable = false;
 //this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.multiline = true;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.background = true;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.backgroundColor = 0xCCCCCC;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.border = true;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.borderColor = 0x990000;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.wordWrap = true;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.antiAliasType = "advanced";
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.gridFitType = "pixel";
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.sharpness = 400;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.text = text;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.setTextFormat(tf);

what happens if you dont use the calculated height (from getTextExtent) or 
maybe cheating it higher by a few pixels?

 and what about autoSizing?, if you set the textfield height to 1, and the 
width to 150, with muliline and text wrapping on, it should size it exactly for 
you.

 From my experiences getTextExtent isn't always accurate and different fonts 
behave differently

Good hint checking the height... I misunderstood the meaning of 'descent', so 
the textfield was simply too small because the height was set to 
tfobj.textFieldHeight - tfobj.descent. So the last line didn't have the space 
to display the content... d'oh. Set the height back to tfobj.textFieldHeight, 
now it's fine. =)

 greets,
 blemmo

great - but is there a reason not to use
autoSize=true

Yep, the reason is I never tried that. :)

 No... I'm just about to give it a try, but I want to draw a fancy border 
around the textfield (other than the border that comes with the textfield), so 
I guess I'll need the metrics info anyway. Another thing is that I want the 
width to be not more than 150, gotta check if that's possible with auto-size. 
Have to try that now... thx for the input!

 blemmo

if you have multiline and wordwrap on, autoSize will keep the width,
if wordWrap and multiline are off it will size the width

The autoSize property is quite handy, thx for the info. Attached is what I have 
now, works fine. The size fits the text when width < 150, else it wraps at 150. 
No missing letters =)

 cheers,
 blemmo



 var tf:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
 tf.font = "chatfont";
 tf.size = 8;
 tf.color = 0x990000;
 var tfobj:Object = tf.getTextExtent(text);

 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].createTextField("tf",0,0,0,150,12);
 if (tfobj.textFieldWidth > 150){					
 	this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.wordWrap = true;
 }
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.embedFonts = true;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.selectable = false;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.html = true;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.autoSize = "left";
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.antiAliasType = "advanced";
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.gridFitType = "pixel";
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.sharpness = 400;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.htmlText = text;
 this.mainMC["chatMC"+name].tf.setTextFormat(tf);