AS3 Text Input accents - actionscript-3

Question

I create an AS3 TextField set to Input mode dynamically through code, but when the user tries to input some special characters (eg. á à é è í ì ó ò ú ù ç) they simply do not appear on the TextInput.
Copying and pasting them to the textfield works, but I'd prefer if the user could directly type them.
Here's a quick test demonstrating this:
package
{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.text.TextFieldType;
public class TextInput extends Sprite
{
public function TextInput()
{
super();
var t:TextField = new TextField;
t.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;
addChild(t);
}
}
}
This creates a textfield where the user can type, but I can't type special characters like à.
Many thanks.

Answer 1

If you can paste it into the Input field, you should be able to type it.
If you start a new Flash document, using the same font as you are above create an Input textfield on the stage with the following settings:
Embed the normal glyphs
Embed the extended latin glyphs
And this should work, as:
Now if all this works, it might have something to do with the way the class is written.
Writing classes that embeds fonts is frankly a pain. Make sure you embed the font in the library and export it for action script:
Following that, you need to use the following code:
// The name of the font class
var _font:Calibri = new Calibri();
var _textFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
_textFormat.font = _font.fontName;
_textFormat.size = 16;
// For some weird reason the ordering here is important. I remember mucking around with this for ages for an old project. EmbedFonts must come last
var _textField:TextField = new TextField();
_textField.defaultTextFormat = _textFormat;
_textField.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;
_textField.embedFonts = true;
addChild(_textField);
And that should have it all working:
** EDIT **
To those using FlashDevelop, etc you can use the following method:
public class Main extends MovieClip {
[Embed(source='assets/HOBOSTD.OTF', fontName='_hobo', embedAsCFF="false")] public static const HOBO:Class;
public function Main() {
var _font:Font = new HOBO() as Font;
var _textFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
_textFormat.font = _font.fontName;
_textFormat.size = 22;
var _textField:TextField = new TextField();
_textField.embedFonts = true;
_textField.defaultTextFormat = _textFormat;
_textField.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;
_textField.antiAliasType = AntiAliasType.ADVANCED;
_textField.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;
addChild(_textField);
}
}
And you will get the following:
Now note, the font file must be either relative to your project, or the source can point to the C:\windows\font folder if you choose. In the above example, I copied the font to my assets folder.