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In Flex 2 we've made a minor enhancement to the way data binding works with styles. Now you can bind a style property (CSS) just the way you'd normally bind an ActionScript property.

Here's a little example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2005/mxml">
  <mx:Panel title="Panel" backgroundColor="{colorControl.value}">
    <mx:ControlBar>
      <mx:Label>Background Color:</mx:Label>
      <mx:ColorPicker id="colorControl" selectedColor="red" />
    </mx:ControlBar>
  </mx:Panel>
</mx:Application>

Note how the backgroundColor style of the Panel is bound to the ColorPicker value.

Selecting a new colour from the dropdown immediately updates the Panel.

This allows for much cleaner code than listening for a change event and calling setStyle in the handler (though that's what happens internally).

This trivial-looking feature involved delving into the MXML compiler source, and that's what inspired me to write about keep-generated-as a few months ago.

I'll try to write about the new enhancements in Flex 2 as I find time in between attending sessions at the conference. Stay tuned!