[flexcoders] Styling AdvancedDataGridItemRenderer

[Amy]

I'm trying to extend AdvancedDataGridItemRenderer to allow the 
styleFunction to set both the backgroundColor and the alpha of the 
item in.  I've used a combination of the custom style example in the 
docs and the example here http://flexpearls.blogspot.com/2008/02/row-
background-color-in.html.  The problem I'm having is that it doesn't 
matter what you set the alpha property to, it doesn't affect the 
visual appearance of the component.

I tried using the graphics object to draw the box, but it seems like 
the base component doesn't support this.  If anyone has any ideas, 
please share.

Does anyone else have the problem where if you want to do anything 
whatsoever in Flex you wind up having to roll your own version, and 
then none of the pieces work exactly the way they're documented?  
Some days I feel like even the simplest task is amazingly hard in 
Flex.


Thanks;

-Amy