Java swing three relative comboboxes - java

I have three relative comboboxes lists that take data from the database, and if I change one, the other also changes through SetModel () method. The problem is that whenever a new pattern, the data in the other lists are changed, the listener again reacts to them. How can I solve this problem? Thanks in advance.

the listener again reacts to them
remove the listener
do your processing
add the listener back to the component

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Adding KeyListener to TitleAreaDialog

I have a TitleAreaDialog with a TableViewer which allows the user to select a row from the table. The problem is, that the content of the table may change over time. I would like to implement a refresh behaviour commonly found in browsers (e.g. by pressing F5 the content of the table should refresh).
Below is a screenshot which should hopefully make the scenario a little clearer:
It looks like there is a possible solution in this question, but I think it is flawed for several reasons:
The listener isn't properly detached (e.g if I reopen my dialog I have two filters on my Display)
It doen't add the listener to the TitleAreaDialog or a Widget where I believe it belongs from an architectural point of view.
I would like to avoid manual listener-attaching/detaching (e.g. the listener should get disposed together with the TitleAreaDialog)
Long story short: What is the proper way of adding a KeyListener to a TitleAreaDialog (or Dialog in general) without using the filter mechanism as described in the aforementioned question?
I know that this question somehwhat fails in the SSCCE department, but any pointers into the right direction are highly appreciated.
Adding a Listener for key events is a tricky thing. You want the Listener to be fired when none of the contained Controls has focus and you want it to fire even if a child of the Dialog has focus.
There are basically two solutions to this problem:
The obvious choice: Use addFilter when the Dialog is created and removeFilter when the dialog is closed (in close()).
Create a Listener for SWT.KeyUp and add it to ALL children of the Dialog. This is necessary for the event to fire independent of the focus control.
I prefer solution 1, since it's less clutter and SWT will take care of everything (well, except for adding and removing the filter). Adding a Listener to all child controls is nothing you really should do, but it would do the job as well.
If you don't want to add and remove the filter each time, create a subclass Dialog or TitleAreaDialog that does it once, and reuse it by subclassing again.
If adding and removing the filter is too much hassle in general, then I'm afraid there is no easier solution.

Design for a component with 2 listeners and 2 "setters" (Swing application)

I'm making a map editor using java swing for my tile based java game. the swing application has two major components, the "upper" component is the game map preview, and the "lower" component is modifyable properties of the map, like its height and width.
Currently the user types in to a jtextfield for the map width, then I use a change listener to set that value to the GameMap object. The GameMap object when changed fires a notification event to GameMapListeners, the primary listener it has is the preview display of the map inside the swing application.
This lets the user change the map width and instnatly see the results in a preview pane.
Now I want to go to the other way. I want the user to be able to click and drag the edges of the map in the preview pane, but then the results need to then be sent to the properties panel so it shows the updated width value.
This is where the problem is, if I update the jtextfield it'll fire a change event, which would update the GameMap and update the preview display, and then that would fire an event that changes the jtextfield again (so on and on until the program crashes due to stack overflow)
Are there any kind of design patterns i could use instead, or is there some common way to solve this issue?
In this type of case, you have at least two choices...
You Could
Remove the listener to the other component when you want to trigger a change, adding it back after you've raised the event...
You Could
Change the state of a flag to indicate that you should ignore any changes that might come in, resetting after you're raised the event...
Which one you choose will depend on how much code you want to add and how readily available the reference to the listeners in question are (ie, if you don't have a reference to the listener you want to remove, it's kind of hard to implement)
If I update the jtextfield it'll fire a change event, which would update the GameMap and update the preview display, and then that would fire an event that changes the jtextfield again (so on and on until the program crashes due to stack overflow).
When you have a situation like this, you can temporarily remove event listeners, fire the change event, and add the event listeners back. Yes, this is as much of a pain as it sounds, but it's a good way to prevent the stack overflow.
You can see a detailed explanation as well as a working example of managing event listeners in my Sudoku Solver Swing GUI article.
You can use action events for a JTextField. Action events don't trigger when you change the component programmatically.

Instanceof, Enum Or Multiple Listeners for JButtons

On my swing GUI I have lines of data and a number of buttons, the user selects a number of items and then then selects a button.
Each button applies a different rule to the data and so different functions need to be called for every button, I'm using an MVC design pattern and my question is such, How should I handle the different needs of every button?
Create a class 'MyButton' which extends JButton then give this some sort of Enum, I can then create 1 action listener and then check which button has been pressed in the ActionListener by inspecting the Enum.
Similar to above but with a different class for each button then using instanceof to determine which has been pressed.
Implement a separate ActionListener for each button
Other?
Which is the best method to use if any? Any advice would be greatly received!
Implement a separate listener for each button.
First because it's the usual solution. Second, between there's no reason to extend JButton just to do something else when it's clicked. That's the role of the ActionListener. Swing components are designed to be used as is, and you should generally not extend them.
It's MVC: you separate the logic (in Actions) and the view (the button).
There is no need to use an enum or to subclass JButton. What you can do to keep things clean when you have dozens of buttons, is a factory class to create Action instances.
If I get your question correctly, you mean to say, you have a data in line items and every line items have a button, which when pressed invokes a rule pertaining to the line item.
If so, then
If you take the 2nd approach, you need to code inside your action listener every time a new line item added in future.
Third approach will also have same implication as above
First approach sounds quite good. You can have a Factory which may have a hashmap keyed with the enum variables and the respective rule. Inside the action listener get the rule from the factory and invoke it.
This way you get a proper separation of concerns and your action listener will act as a controller, having no knowledge of rules and data items.

How to avoid infinite update loops in Swing?

I have a JPanel with a set of items (for example combo boxes and text fields). Some action listeners are implemented on those items to register user updates.
If the user selects a value in a JComboBox (for example), the action listener captures the event. The corresponding underlying bean method is called and the panel is refreshed. Changing can have an impact on other fields displayed in the pane.
The problem is that when the panel is refreshed, all listeners are triggered, and they call for a refresh themselves. This leads to an infinite loop.
How can I avoid this? I can't get rid of the listeners, because I need to capture user updates, but I don't want these to fire when I am only refreshing the panel content.
One option is to have a central boolean value or some indicator that each listener can check to prevent the chaining of events.
Another option is to not refresh the field if the value does not change. That way each component is updated at most once per refresh.
I can't get rid of the listeners, because I need to capture user updates, but I don't want these to fire when I am only refreshing the pane content
Then remove the listeners, refresh the pane content and then restore the listeners. This way the listeners only fire when a user change is made.
I think that if your problem is in combobox it just points to a bug. Really, if user changes the value of the combobox, that somehow triggers refresh of the pane the value of the combo box should not be changed second time! So if it is onValueChanged() (or something like this) it should not be called at all when pane is being refreshed.
But if for some reason it happens you can verify whether the old and new values are the same and exit the listener.
If this still does not help I'd suggest you some non-standard solution: try to investigate the stack trace into the listener. Can you identify whether the listener was called as a direct reaction to user's action or after the pane refresh? In this case you can create utility method and put it in the beginning of all relevant listeners.
My applications also suffered from this problem, and solution with the flag, that I should check in every listener and enable/disable in code, feels not very good for me. I always forgot to set this flag to true/false in necessary places.
That is why I decide to implement another solution.
I just subclass all default swing components that I am using often, and implemented custom ValueChanged event that I fire after mouse/keyboard/clipboard/etc events. Now I am always know, that if ValueChanged event is fired, it means, that value was issued by user, not by code. Event handling in this way much more cleaner. This solution solves my problem.

Anyway to control the order events fire in Swing

Is there anyway that I can control the order in which events are fired in my Swing application?
For example, I have a MouseListener and an ActionListener for a component. Can I make it so the MouseListener always fires before the ActionListener?
Seems to me if I add the MouseListener before the ActionListner, I am just praying that they will fire in that order.
Now I understand that coding this way is bad practice and that you should not count on the order of events firing, but for this situation I am encountering, it is a must.
Thanks
If you have an action triggered off of a one listener that needs to happen before the other then change your logic.
Either combine the listeners so that a single listener gets both events and holds onto one temporarily if needed. Or only add one listener and have it call the appropriate method or create a new event after it finishes.
Wrap the ActionListener code in a SwingUtilities.invokeLater(...). The code will be added to the end of the EDT.
I would still have both listeners in the same class so the dependency is well documented.

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