Develop Reference

How to close a called class using JFrame without closing the class that called it?

I seem to have a fairly unique problem, and I searched for a while for an answer on here without finding one. I have a class that has a simple JFrame with two buttons. Each button calls the Main method of a different class, as such:
checkRuling = new JButton("Check Your Deck's Rulings");
checkRuling.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e) {
ReadHtmlCardDatabase.main(null);
}
});
One calls a class that takes a series of inputs into a text field and creates a formatted html document from the inputs, and the other loads the html document into a JEditorPane. My problem is that when I close one of the JFrames for the subclasses (either the input or html loader one), it exits my program completely, and I want to keep the main class (with the two buttons) open. I've tried using:
close = new JButton("CLOSE");
close.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e) {
System.exit(1);
}
});
On a button in the subclasses, to no avail. When the button is clicked it simply exits everything. I've also tried using:
JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_EXIT
For the subclasses, but this causes the JFrames to go away without the subclasses actually closing, so the first one that saves the html document never actually saves it, and the second subclass that opens that same html document won't work, because it wasn't saved. Any help would be appreciated, because I can't figure out how to do this.

As Fast Snail says in the comments, you shouldn't be calling a main method. Instantiate a class that does each functonality. Set the frame to visible using setVisible(true) when you start using it, then setVisible(false) when you're done. So, in the action listener, just change the visibility.
Then, assuming you don't have anything too wild going on, the frame you just set to invisible should go out of scope and get freed so that memory isn't chewed up. You just instantiate a new copy of the ReadHtmlCardDatabase class each time you need one. Or you could have one static copy that you set visible/invisible as needed.

one of the JFrames
You should use only one JFrame in Your GUI. For other windows You can use for example JDialog or JWindow.
This should help, if not You can always use frame.setVisible(false) instead of dispose on close, but it' s not very neat.

Thanks to someone who posted a comment and then deleted it, I've figured out my own problem. I just had to replace my main call with this:
setDeck = new JButton("Set Deck");
setDeck.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e) {
WriteHtmlCardDatabase w = new WriteHtmlCardDatabase();
w.main(null);
}
});
Thank you!

How to close the active JFrame

I am trying to find a method that can close the active JFrame.
I am unable to use frame.dispose();, as I am declaring the action listener in a toolbar class and the frames I want to close are not static and are declared at runtime.
I have tried using:
java.awt.Window win[] = java.awt.Window.getWindows();
for(int i=0;i<win.length;i++){
win[i].dispose();
}
and whilst this does work, in certain circumstances it will close more than one window even though only 1 window appears to be open, so frames will flash open and closed many times depending on what actions the user has made.
For me to fully recreate my problem would involve posting a significant amount of code which would not be in line with MCVE principles.
I am hoping someone will know of a more simple and reliable way of closing the active frame in the mould of acitveframe.dispose(); - which I now is not a real solution!!

What happens if you try to get the Window ancestor of the source of the action event? i.e.,
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
Component comp = (Component) actionEvent.getSource();
Window win = SwingUtilities.getWindowAncestor(comp);
win.dispose();
}
This won't work if the source is not a Component or if it is not contained within the top level Window of interest.
Regarding:
For me to fully recreate my problem would involve posting a significant amount of code which would not be in line with MCVE principles.
I'll bet with a bit of effort you could create and post something that comes close.

I am hoping someone will know of a more simple and reliable way of closing the active frame
In your loop you can add:
if (window.isActive())
// do something
Or maybe a simpler approach is:
Window window = KeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().getActiveWindow();
Also, assuming your active window is a JFrame, instead of using window.dispose(), I have used code like:
WindowEvent windowClosing = new WindowEvent(frame, WindowEvent.WINDOW_CLOSING);
frame.dispatchEvent(windowClosing);
this will simulate the user clicking on the "Close" button which means that any WindowListener you added to the frame will also be executed. See Closing an Appplication for more information and ideas.

When you are declaring your JFrames, declre them as final if you cannot use static :
final JFrame f = new JFrame();
It would solve the problem.

Automatically close non-modal dialogs after specified time in swing 1.5

In Swing for Java 1.5 I want to create a dialog, which allows the user to do other things in background. I want this dialog to have one button, with which you can close the dialog. If the user doesn't close the dialog within X seconds, it should close itself. In both cases a routine has to be done after the dialog has been closed.
I tried to use Swing Timer with a modal dialog and it works. But, as I noticed above, I need a non-modal dialog. When I set the modal-Property to false, the dialog disappears immediately.
Does someone know, why this happens?
JOptionPane pane = new JOptionPane (text, JOptionPane.WARNING_MESSAGE);
pane.setOptions(new String[]{"Close"});
final JDialog dialog = pane.createDialog(frame, title);
//dialog.setModal(false);
Timer timer = new Timer(time, new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
dialog.setVisible(false);
}
});
timer.setRepeats(false);
timer.start();
dialog.setVisible(true);
//routine to do after the dialog disappears

for better help sooner post an SSCCE, there no code or descriptions about MultiThreading
don't create final JDialog dialog = pane.createDialog(frame, title); on runtime, create this JDialog one time and re_use that for another action, and / or by removing all childs from ContentPane
override proper event from WindowListener, there you can invoke your custom code before dipose(), setVisible() e.i.
(to point 2nd.) simply to override JDialog#setDefaultCloseOperation to HIDE_ON_CLOSE
all code that invoking a new Top-Level Container on runtime must be wrapped into invokeLater(), especially setVisible(true)
use Application Inactivity by #camickr

In this example, a modeless JDialog containing a direct JOptionPane counts down to zero before closing. A nearby JFrame containing a label remains responsive.
Addendum: As #mKorbel helpfully comments, your class can use a PropertyChangeListener to learn when the dialog's option pane closes. This is a convenient feature of JOptionPane, but you can add your own support, as shown here.

Why is componentShown() not called?

I have a CardDetailsPanel class which contains several JLabels and JTextFields. This class in contained in a AddCardsPanel and is initialized as follows:
cardDetailsPanel = new CardDetailsPanel(true);
add(cardDetailsPanel, java.awt.BorderLayout.CENTER);
I also have a JLabel that contains instructions. I want to update this label when the CardDetailsPanel first appears and when focus changes to each JTextField. I have found the addFocusListener() method that will work for the later. However, my compenentShown() method isn't working for the former:
addComponentListener(new java.awt.event.ComponentAdapter() {
public void componentShown(java.awt.event.ComponentEvent evt) {
formComponentShown(evt);
}
});
(Okay, I know this is ugly. It was generated by NetBeans.)
private void formComponentShown(java.awt.event.ComponentEvent evt) {
this.frame = (BaseballFrame) this.getParent().getParent().getParent().getParent().getParent().getParent();
}
(Yah, this is even uglier. I'll deal with the chained getParent() calls later. I want to do other things here as well.)
So why doesn't my listener get called? And how do I write a listener that will perform some actions whenever my CardDetailsPanel appears on the screen?

Use an AncestorListener as described in dialog focus.
When a JDialog (or JFrame for that matter) is made visible, focus is placed on the first focusable component by default. There may be times when you want to change this behaviour. The obvious solution would be to invoke the requestFocusInWindow() method on the component you wish to receive focus. The problem is that this doesn’t work all the time.
...
The problem is .. a component can’t request focus unless it has been added to a “realized” dialog. A realized dialog basically means that the Swing JDialog has been added to a peer component that represents a dialog on the underlying OS. This occurs when you invoke the pack() or setVisible(true) methods on the JDialog.
And that is where the ancestor listener comes in handy. For a component in a modal dialog, it will be fired once the component becomes visible, and is realized & focusable.
Edit:
The above comment applies to components in any Swing container, including JFrame and JPanel.

Java Swing: dispose() a JFrame does not clear its controls

I have a closeWindow() method which uses dispose() for the current JFrame to close down. When I show the window again, the controls (textboxes, lists, tables etc.) still have their previous values in place that were there when I dispose():d the frame... Why is that? Is there another way to completley close and clear a frame?
This is the code that another JFrame uses to show the other window, am I doing something wrong here?
#Action
public void showAddProductToOrderView() {
if (addProductToOrderView == null) addProductToOrderView = new AddProductToOrderView(this);
addProductToOrderView.setVisible(true);
}

Disposing a window will not clear its child text components. Dispose will release native resources. The javadoc for java.awt.Window also states:
The Window and its subcomponents can be made displayable again by rebuilding the native resources with a subsequent call to pack or show. The states of the recreated Window and its subcomponents will be identical to the states of these objects at the point where the Window was disposed (not accounting for additional modifications between those actions).
As suggested by others, create a new instance each time instead. If that's to expensive I believe your best option is to clear sub components when the view becomes visible, e.g. by overriding setVisible.
EDIT:
Remove the null check to create a new frame each time.
#Action
public void showAddProductToOrderView() {
addProductToOrderView = new AddProductToOrderView(this);
addProductToOrderView.setVisible(true);
}
I don't know about the rest of your code, if there's something else depending on the frame being reused. For example, if you have attached listeners, ensure they are unregistered to not leak them.

The simplest thing to do would be to re-create the whole frame (using its constructor) before using show() to show it again. That will give you a whole new set of components, assuming that the constructor creates and places them.