Is it possible to have a while loop connected to the mouseover state in an OpenLaszlo app?

Question

Is it possible to do something like this

while (view.mouseover == true) {
    preform action
}

I want to have an action repeat for as long as the mouse is over a specific view.
(asked on the laszlo-user mailing list)

Answer 1

Well, it looks like you answered your own question while I was testing my solution to make sure it worked correctly, but here is an alternative solution that works under OpenLaszlo 4.9.0 SWF10 and OpenLaszlo 4.9.0 DHTML run-times:

<canvas width="1000" height="665" debug="true">

  <view id="v" bgcolor="0xcccccc" width="200" height="200">

    <!--- @param boolean mouseisover: true when the mouse is over -->
    <attribute name="mouseisover" type="boolean" value="false" />

    <!--- @keywords private -->
    <!--- @param lz.Delegate dlgt_repeat: stores the lz.Delegate object --> 
    <attribute name="dlgt_repeat" type="expression" />

    <!--
    Called when the 'onmouseover' event occurs
    -->
    <handler name="onmouseover">

      // Step 1) unregister any existing delegate 
      // mark it for garbage collection 
      // and prevent its event from triggering:

      if (this['dlgt_repeat'])
        this.dlgt_repeat.unregisterAll(); 

      // Step 2) update this.mouseisover flag:

      if (!this.mouseisover)
        this.setAttribute('mouseisover', true);

      // Step 3) create an event Delegate and call it 
      // on the next application idle event:

      var objDlgt = new lz.Delegate(this, 'doSomething');       
      this.setAttribute('dlgt_repeat', objDlgt);

      lz.Idle.callOnIdle(this.dlgt_repeat);

    </handler>

    <!--
    Called when the 'onmouseout' event occurs
    --> 
    <handler name="onmouseout">

      // Step 1) unregister any existing delegate 
      // mark it for garbage collection 
      // and prevent its event from triggering: 

      if (this['dlgt_repeat'])
        this.dlgt_repeat.unregisterAll();   

      // Step 2) Update this.mouseisover flag:

      if (this.mouseisover)
        this.setAttribute('mouseisover', false);    

    </handler>

    <!--- @keywords private -->
    <!--- 
    Called on application idle event by lz.Idle repeatedly 
    when the mouse is down.

    @param ??? objDummy: required for SWF9+ run-times for methods 
    called by delegates due to AS3 (ActionScript3 compiler 
    requirements). Just set default to null to make compiler 
    happy and ignore...
    -->
    <method name="doSomething" args="objDummy=null">
    <![CDATA[

      // Note: CDATA allows '&&' to be used in script below, 
      // alternatively omit CDATA and use '&amp;&amp;' instead
      // of '&&'

      // Step 1) Execute your code you want to run here:  

      if ($debug) Debug.debug('Do something...');

      // Step 2): If mouse is still over and the event 
      // delegate exists then schedule the event to be 
      // executed upon the next application idle state:

     if (this.mouseisover && this['dlgt_repeat'] != null)
       lz.Idle.callOnIdle(this.dlgt_repeat);

   ]]>
   </method>

    <text text="Move mouse over" />

  </view>

</canvas>