Capturing text input

By default, the type property of a text field is set to dynamic. If you set the type property to input using the TextFieldType class, you can collect user input and save the value for use in other parts of your application. Input text fields are useful for forms and any application that wants the user to define a text value for use elsewhere in the program.

For example, the following code creates an input text field called myTextBox. As the user enters text in the field, the textInput event is triggered. An event handler called textInputCapture captures the string of text entered and assigns it a variable. OpenFL displays the new text in another text field, called myOutputBox.

import openfl.display.Sprite;
import openfl.text.*;
import openfl.events.*;

class CaptureUserInput extends Sprite
{
    private var myTextBox:TextField = new TextField();
    private var myOutputBox:TextField = new TextField();
    private var myText:String = "Type your text here.";

    public function new()
    {
        super();
        captureText();
    }

    function captureText():Void
    {
        myTextBox.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;
        myTextBox.background = true;
        addChild(myTextBox);
        myTextBox.text = myText;
        myTextBox.addEventListener(TextEvent.TEXT_INPUT, textInputCapture);
    }

    function textInputCapture(event:TextEvent):Void
    {
        var str:String = myTextBox.text;
        createOutputBox(str);
    }

    function createOutputBox(str:String):Void
    {
        myOutputBox.background = true;
        myOutputBox.x = 200;
        addChild(myOutputBox);
        myOutputBox.text = str;
    }
}