What are the differences between ComboBox and ChoiceBox in JavaFX? I'm not entirely clear on that just from the Javadoc for both classes.
At the end of the day, I need a dropdown control that can be repopulated dynamically at runtime (I've got a database on the backend). For all cases in my application, I only need to select one item from the dropdown menus. The user also shouldn't be able to add an option to the dropdown menu from the screens they are visible on.
My understanding is that ComboBox allows the user to add items to the dropdown list and allows for selecting multiple items, but from the Javadoc it seems like it's possible to setup ComboBox in a way that meets my needs, so it seems like they're interchangeable to some extent. I guess ComboBox has a bit more overhead than I really need in this case, but is there anything else that only a ComboBox could do that would factor into this decision?
Edit
I guess I kind of answered my own question on the key differences, so is there something else I've not mentioned that differentiates the 2?
ComboBox supports a cellFactory which allows essentially an arbitrary UI for displaying the item in each cell. ChoiceBox does not have this functionality and will only display text in each cell (which you can configure using a converter).
See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javafx/user-interface-tutorial/combo-box.htm#BABJCCIB listing 16.5 for an example of a custom cell factory in a combo box.
Well ChoiceBox is of the idea showing you optional choices, and ComboBox well shows you a list of items, ChoiceBox is like ComboBox but ComboBox is for a really lengthy list as you can specify the number of items to display like 10 or more or less, but ChoiceBox does not have the option it list all options and if its very long you wouldn't like the look.
in short ChoiceBox, for small set of list less than 10, for more ComboBox
That is from my perspective the difference, as for styling you can style all.
Combo Box
A combo box is a typical element of a user interface that enables users to choose one of several options. A combo box is helpful when the number of items to show exceeds some limit, because it can add scrolling to the drop down list, unlike a choice box. If the number of items does not exceed a certain limit, developers can decide whether a combo box or a choice box better suits their needs.
Choice Box
This chapter describes choice boxes, the UI controls that provide support for quickly selecting between a few options.
http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/ui_controls/jfxpub-ui_controls.htm
We can simply differentiate ComboBox and ChoiceBox by their functionalities.Just have a look on deffintion.
The JavaFX ComboBox control enables users to choose an option from a predefined list of choices, or type in another value if none of the predefined choices matches what the user want to select.
The JavaFX ChoiceBox control enables users to choose an option from a predefined list of choices only.
Apart from the mentioned differences:
ComboBox can show a prompt with setPromptText (ChoiceBox doesn't provide that method)
ComboBox can show more than 10 rows with setVisibleRowCount (ChoiceBox doesn't provide that method)
Related
I want to create something similar to a listpreference menu item with a single selectable option out of four options. The problem is that descriptions are necessary for each selectable option and they are rather long. Shortening descriptions further isn't an option.
The Android app I'm working on currently uses a custom method for displaying a menu item's summary field. The summary calls an int which points to a string reference stored in a different file that displays a string. I tried using %s as the summary to update the summary with my selected option but that literally returned "%s". I don't think the current method supports dynamically loading summaries.
My next idea is to create a submenu with four selectable choices (maybe checkboxes?) and only allow one to be chosen. I think this is essentially a listpreference menu item but allows more space for separated descriptions. Is there a preferred way to accomplish this? I'm trying to avoid re-writing the original custom method for displaying descriptions as it works well for the rest of the app's menu needs.
EDIT 1: An image will help explain what I want. See Android sample settings menu. I want to create a section similar to the "embedded frame buffer" section in a submenu except only one of the three options are selectable. This approach will allow me to have more room for separated, long descriptions. Perhaps I'm looking for radio buttons with no popup and one selectable choice? Is this a thing in Java?
Not sure if I understand the question correctly but instead of a list of checkboxes where only one checkbox is checkable use a RadioGroup with Radiobuttons. You can have multiple RadioButtons which you add to a RadioGroup and then only one RadioButton can be selected.
I need to create a number of dialogs that are of the same basic structure that looks like this:
There will be a varying number of rows, each with a labeled checkbox and two combo boxes that have integers, the range of which varies. The check box just enables the combo boxes. When the selection in the first combobox is changed, the second one gets initialized and enabled.
Since I have to do over 50 over these I'd like automate the programming. I believe some of the code can be handled with loops, selecting combobox names from preset string arrays. What I can't figure out is how to parameterize things like action listeners.
First question is can this be done at all. If it can, how?
Ed
First create a notional RowModel containing a Boolean value for the checkbox, a String for the label and two instances of ComboBoxModel, one for each of the combos. Handle the combo dependency as shown here. Let your program maintain a List<RowModel> for each distinct dialog. You can manage an arbitrary number of rows in a suitable TableModel and display them is a JTable as shown here.
Actually, I just want to say that MadProgrammer provided an answer that worked for me in his Comment.
my SWT Combo has a lot of items and the dropdownlist always shows only 5 items at the same time. (yes I can scroll up and down to see all the other items)
I want the dropdown list to show more items at the same time e.g. 10 items at the same time.
How can I make the dropdown list, to show more items at the same time?
Has anyone an example?
Thanks
Jochen
Call the Combo setVisibleItemCount(int count) method to set the number of items that are shown.
Note that the JavaDoc says:
This operation is a hint and is not supported on platforms that do not
have this concept.
So it may not work on all platforms.
Alternatively use the CCombo control which also has a setVisibleItemCount that does work on all platforms.
I want to remove the scrollbar from the combobox and hence increase the height of the combobox when it is open. Meaning, i want to see all the items without scrolling.
Thanks!
If you don't want scrolling and the list options will remain few in number and relatively constant, you might actually want the ChoiceBox UI element. It has relatively the same function as the ComboBox without the scrolling capability.
...
choice boxes, the UI controls that provide support for quickly selecting between a few options.
Check out the Oracle docs on how to use them -- it's very similar to the ComboBox.
I need to create a ComboBox in Java that will have information in a column on the left and a Checkbox in a column on the right so that a user can select multiple items in the ComboBox. This needs to be a ComboBox because there could be 100 items in the list that may need to be checked but they cannot take up much space on the user interface.
Does anyone know how to do this?
Using a JList inside a JScrollPane seems more appropriate for dealing with that many items. It supports the standard CTRL-click to select multiple items.
A multi-selection combobox with 100 items sounds like a UI nightmare.