Dynamically Add/Remove Layers on Widget Open/Close

Question

I am creating a modified Edit widget allows one to specify which layers will be added to the map and be made available for editing.

I want to dynamically add the referenced layers when the widget is opened and remove them when it is closed.

The code below works but when I reopen the widget the layers are not added to the map which makes sense as that is done in init(). However, moving it to the widgetOpenedHandler causes the layers to be redundantly added.

I see a couple of threads regarding "really closing" widgets.

Any assistance with this would be greatly appreciated.

[Bindable]
            private var featureLayersToAdd:Array = new Array;
            [Bindable]
            private var layerArray:Array = new Array;

private function init():void
            {
                if (configXML) // checking for valid content in the configuration file
                {    
                    var lyrList:XMLList = configXML..layer;                
                    var URL:String;
                    var name:String;
                    var layerid:String;    
                    for (var i:Number = 0; i < lyrList.length(); i++){
                        URL = lyrList.@url;
                        name = lyrList.@name;
                        layerid = lyrList.@name;
                        layerArray.push({iLayerName:name,iLayerURL:URL,iLayerID:layerid});
                    }                
                    for (i = 0; i < layerArray.length; i++)
                    {
                        var layerToAdd:FeatureLayer = new FeatureLayer;
                        layerToAdd.url = layerArray.iLayerURL;
                        layerToAdd.name = layerArray.iLayerName;
                        layerToAdd.id = layerArray.iLayerID;
                        map.addLayer(layerToAdd);
                        featureLayersToAdd.push(layerToAdd);
                    }    
                    editor.featureLayers = featureLayersToAdd;    
                }                
            }
                        
            private function widgetClosedHandler(event:Event):void
            {
                for (var i:Number = 0; i < layerArray.length; i++)
                {
                    var layerToRemove:Layer = new Layer;
                    layerToRemove = map.getLayer(layerArray.iLayerID);
                    map.removeLayer(layerToRemove);
                }    
                editor.featureLayers = []; 
            }

RyanColeman · Answer

thanks for the quick reply. That fixes the error but the widget still does nothing when clicked. It doesn't even show a problem in fiddler

ReneRubalcava · Answer

Try to cast the layer to coerce the result you want.
Bindable]
private var annexLayer:FeatureLayer = FeatureLayer(map.getLayer("Annexations"));

If you read the docs on the Map::getLayer() method, you'll see it will always return a base Layer that you would need to cast to the proper type in most cases.

RyanColeman · Answer

I'm using this to open an annexations history layer with the TimeWidget but it's not working right            [Bindable]
            private var annexLayer:FeatureLayer = map.getLayer("Annexations");

gives me the error: Implicit coercion of a value with static type com.esri.ags.layers:Layer to a possibly unrelated type com.esri.ags.layers:FeatureLayer.    
I have both             import com.esri.ags.layers.FeatureLayer;
            import com.esri.ags.layers.Layer;

and if I change private var annexLayer:FeatureLayer to just Layer it will compile but the widget will do nothing when clicked. The code that is supposed to open the layer is this...
            protected function widgetOpenedHandler(event:Event):void
            {
    
                map.timeSlider = timeSlider;
    map.addLayer(annexLayer);

}

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?