Right-click Item Selecting and Context Menu Manipulation in List Control

FIrst we need to create our GUI (note: warnings will occur since Object's "label" property is not bindable...this is done to make this example as easy as possible):

<mx:List id="_list">
    <mx:dataProvider>
        <mx:Array>
            <mx:Object label="Apples"/>
            <mx:Object label="Oranges"/>
            <mx:Object label="Peaches"/>
            <mx:Object label="Plums"/>
        </mx:Array>
    </mx:dataProvider>
    <mx:itemRenderer>
        <mx:Component>
            <mx:Label text="{data.label}"/>
        </mx:Component>
    </mx:itemRenderer>
</mx:List>

Next we need to set up our context menu with items and make it our List's menu:

private var cm:ContextMenu;
private var cmi:ContextMenuItem;

private function init():void
{
    cmi = new ContextMenuItem("Some Context Item");
    cmi.enabled = false;
    
    cm = new ContextMenu();
    cm.hideBuiltInItems();
    cm.customItems = [cmi];
    cm.addEventListener(ContextMenuEvent.MENU_SELECT, onMnuSelect);
    
    _list.contextMenu = cm;
}

Lastly, we need to create a listener function for our context menu. Here we try to locate our Label object and adjust our context menu item(s) accordingly:

private function onMnuSelect(event:ContextMenuEvent):void
{
    var obj:InteractiveObject = event.mouseTarget;
    var item:Object;
    
    while (obj.parent) {
        if (obj is Label) {
            item = (obj as Label).data;
            _list.selectedItem = item;
           
            cmi.caption = "Context Item: " + item.label;
            cmi.enabled = true;
            return;
        }
       
        obj = obj.parent;
    }
    
    cmi.caption = "Some Context Item";
    cmi.enabled = false;
}

Here's a complete app code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
                creationComplete="init()">
    
    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.controls.Label;
           
            private var cm:ContextMenu;
            private var cmi:ContextMenuItem;
           
           
            private function init():void
            {
                cmi = new ContextMenuItem("Some Context Item");
                cmi.enabled = false;
               
                cm = new ContextMenu();
                cm.hideBuiltInItems();
                cm.customItems = [cmi];
                cm.addEventListener(ContextMenuEvent.MENU_SELECT,
onMnuSelect);
               
                _list.contextMenu = cm;
            }
           
           
            private function
onMnuSelect(event:ContextMenuEvent):void
            {
                var obj:InteractiveObject = event.mouseTarget;
                var item:Object;
               
                while (obj.parent) {
                    if (obj is Label) {
                        item = (obj as Label).data;
                        _list.selectedItem = item;
                       
                        cmi.caption = "Context Item: " +
item.label;
                        cmi.enabled = true;
                        return;
                    }
                   
                    obj = obj.parent;
                }
               
                cmi.caption = "Some Context Item";
                cmi.enabled = false;
            }
           
        ]]>
    </mx:Script>
    
    <mx:List id="_list">
        <mx:dataProvider>
            <mx:Array>
                <mx:Object label="Apples"/>
                <mx:Object label="Oranges"/>
                <mx:Object label="Peaches"/>
                <mx:Object label="Plums"/>
            </mx:Array>
        </mx:dataProvider>
        <mx:itemRenderer>
            <mx:Component>
                <mx:Label text="{data.label}"/>
            </mx:Component>
        </mx:itemRenderer>
    </mx:List>
    
</mx:Application>