Develop Reference

How to call an Action from a different class in Java

How would I call an Action from another class in Java? I got a CloseTabButton class online that allows a simple close tab button on each JTabbedPane, but when the tab is closed, I would like a dialog to pop up based on information (if file is not saved, ask to save it, etc.). This is the file:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
class CloseTabButton extends JPanel implements ActionListener {
private JTabbedPane pane;
public CloseTabButton(JTabbedPane pane, int index) {
this.pane = pane;
setOpaque(false);
// CloseIcon class just had a button with an x painted on it
Icon closeIcon = new CloseIcon();
JButton close = new JButton(closeIcon);
close.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(closeIcon.getIconWidth(), closeIcon.getIconHeight()));
close.addActionListener(this);
add(new JLabel(pane.getTitleAt(index), pane.getIconAt(index), JLabel.LEFT));
add(close);
pane.setTabComponentAt(index, this);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
int i = pane.indexOfTabComponent(this);
String fileName = pane.getToolTipTextAt(i);
// Where I want to ask if user wants to save, etc.
if (fileName == "Untitled") {
// Do stuff
}
pane.remove(i); // Removes the tab
// If tab count < 1, then disable the save and save as buttons on menu
if (pane.getTabCount() < 1) {
JFrame frame = (JFrame) pane.getParent().getParent().getParent().getParent().getParent(); // Yes, there is that many in my code to get the parent JFrame
int menuCount = frame.getJMenuBar().getMenuCount();
for (int a = 0; a < menuCount; a++) {
int itemCount = frame.getJMenuBar().getMenu(a).getItemCount();
for (int b = 0; b < itemCount; b++) {
Component component = frame.getJMenuBar().getMenu(a).getMenuComponent(b);
if (!(component instanceof JSeparator)) {
// Not a seperator
String itemName = frame.getJMenuBar().getMenu(a).getItem(b).getAccessibleContext().getAccessibleName();
if (itemName == "Save As..") {
frame.getJMenuBar().getMenu(a).getItem(b).setEnabled(false);
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
In my main class I have actions listed like this:
static Action Close = new AbstractAction("Close") {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
closeCurrentWindow(); // function that will close tab
}
}
The other menu items are Actions as well, and as you can see, what I'm currently doing in the CloseTabButton class is quite frustrating, and most likely the wrong way to code it. Is there a much simpler way to do what I'm doing?

The first thing I might do is provide ActionListener support to the CloseTabButton, for example...
public class CloseTabButton extends JPanel {
private JTabbedPane pane;
public CloseTabButton(JTabbedPane pane, int index) {
this.pane = pane;
setOpaque(false);
// CloseIcon class just had a button with an x painted on it
Icon closeIcon = new CloseIcon();
JButton close = new JButton(closeIcon);
close.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(closeIcon.getIconWidth(), closeIcon.getIconHeight()));
close.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
fireActionPerformed();
}
});
add(new JLabel(pane.getTitleAt(index), pane.getIconAt(index), JLabel.LEFT));
add(close);
pane.setTabComponentAt(index, this);
}
public void addActionListener(ActionListener listener) {
listenerList.add(ActionListener.class, listener);
}
public void removeActionListener(ActionListener listener) {
listenerList.remove(ActionListener.class, listener);
}
protected void fireActionPerformed() {
ActionListener[] listeners = listenerList.getListeners(ActionListener.class);
ActionEvent evt = new ActionEvent(this, ActionEvent.ACTION_PERFORMED, "You could provide you own action command for each tab here");
for (ActionListener listener : listeners) {
listener.actionPerformed(evt);
}
}
}
Basically, this now allows you to register your own ActionListeners to the CloseTabButton
Next, this, fileName == "Untitled", is not how you compare Strings in Java, you should be using something more like "Untitled".equals(fileName)
If you're menus are based on actual Actions, then you can simply disable the Actions themselves. This would require a little bit of work, but a lot less of "guess" work then you're doing now.
Basically, you would monitor the JTabbedPane itself, monitoring for changes to the selected tab and updating the states of the individual Actions themselves
There a number of ways you could do this, like passing a reference of the JTabbedPane to the Actions so they can perform there own monitoring (but I'd use some kind of management interface which could more easily provide information to the Actions and decouple the code and the reliance on JTabbedPane directly, then you could be free to use JInternalFrames instead).
You could have a "menu manager" which did a similar job, monitoring changes to the document container and changing the state of the menu Actions based on the current state, as an example
Updated
If you're making use of the Action API (which I would recommend), then you could simply do something like...
public class CloseTabButton extends JPanel {
private JTabbedPane pane;
public CloseTabButton(JTabbedPane pane, Action action, int index) {
this.pane = pane;
setOpaque(false);
// CloseIcon class just had a button with an x painted on it
Icon closeIcon = new CloseIcon();
JButton close = new JButton(action);
close.setIcon(closeIcon);
close.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(closeIcon.getIconWidth(), closeIcon.getIconHeight()));
add(new JLabel(pane.getTitleAt(index), pane.getIconAt(index), JLabel.LEFT));
add(close);
pane.setTabComponentAt(index, this);
}
}
Passing in the Action for the close operation, then use the same action for both the JMenuItem and JTabbedPane.
The "core" issue would be how you would identify the "current" tab and document in a uniform manner

JPanel Action Listener

I have a JPanel with a bunch of different check boxes and text fields, I have a button that's disabled, and needs to be enabled when specific configurations are setup.
What I need is a listener on the the whole JPanel looking for events, whenever anything changes.
I believe I need an action listener but I can't find anything to bridge the action Listener with the JPanel
JPanel Window = new JPanel();
Window.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
//Check if configurations is good
}
I figure I can copy and paste my code a bunch of times into every listener in the panel, but that seems like bad coding practice to me.

First off as #Sage mention in his comment a JPanel is rather a container than a component which do action. So you can't attach an ActionListener to a JPanel.
I figure I can copy and paste my code a bunch of times into every
listener in the panel, but that seems like bad coding practice to me.
You're totally right about that, it's not a good practice at all (see DRY principle). Instead of that you can define just a single ActionListener and attach it to your JCheckBoxes like this:
final JCheckBox check1 = new JCheckBox("Check1");
final JCheckBox check2 = new JCheckBox("Check2");
final JCheckBox check3 = new JCheckBox("Check3");
final JButton buttonToBeEnabled = new JButton("Submit");
buttonToBeEnabled.setEnabled(false);
ActionListener actionListener = new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
boolean enable = check1.isSelected() && check3.isSelected();
buttonToBeEnabled.setEnabled(enable);
}
};
check1.addActionListener(actionListener);
check2.addActionListener(actionListener);
check3.addActionListener(actionListener);
This means: if check1 and check3 are both selected, then the button must be enabled, otherwise must be disabled. Of course only you know what combination of check boxes should be selected in order to set the button enabled.
Take a look to How to Use Buttons, Check Boxes, and Radio Buttons tutorial.

A suggestion could be to derive a class from each of the components you're using and add an ActionListener that bubbles up the Container tree and looks for the first Container that implements a custom interface like this:
public interface MyCommandProcessor {
void execute(String actionCommand);
}
public class MyButton extends JButton {
public MyButton(string actionCommand) {
setActionCommand(actionCommand);
addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
Container traverser = MyButton.this;
while (traverser != null && !(traverser instanceof MyCommandProcessor))
traverser = traverser.getParent();
if (traverser != null)
((CommandListener)traverser).execute(ae.getActionCommand());
}
});
}
}
public class MyApp extends JFrame implements MyCommandListener {
public MyApp() {
JPanel panel = new Panel();
panel.add(new MyButton("MyButton got pressed"));
}
public void execute(String actionCommand) {
System.out.println(actionCommand);
}
}

You need to create custom component listener. Look here:
Create a custom event in Java
Creating Custom Listeners In Java
http://www.javaworld.com/article/2077333/core-java/mr-happy-object-teaches-custom-events.html
I do it throw the standard ActionListener
Example
public class MyPanel extends JPanel {
private final JComboBox<String> combo1;
private final JButton btn2;
.......
//catch the actions of inside components
btn2.addActionListener(new MyPanelComponentsActionListener());
........
//assign actionlistener to panel class
public void addActionListener(ActionListener l) {
listenerList.add(ActionListener.class, l);
}
public void removeActionListener(ActionListener l) {
listenerList.remove(ActionListener.class, l);
}
//handle registered listeners from components used MyPanel class
protected void fireActionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
// Guaranteed to return a non-null array
Object[] listeners = listenerList.getListenerList();
ActionEvent e = null;
// Process the listeners last to first, notifying
// those that are interested in this event
for (int i = listeners.length-2; i>=0; i-=2) {
if (listeners[i]==ActionListener.class) {
// Lazily create the event:
if (e == null) {
String actionCommand = event.getActionCommand();
if(actionCommand == null) {
actionCommand = "FontChanged";
}
e = new ActionEvent(FontChooserPanel.this,
ActionEvent.ACTION_PERFORMED,
actionCommand,
event.getWhen(),
event.getModifiers());
}
// here registered listener executing
((ActionListener)listeners[i+1]).actionPerformed(e);
}
}
}
//!!! here your event generator
class MyPanelComponentsActionListener implements ActionListener {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
//do something usefull
//.....
fireActionPerformed(e);
}
}
....
}

Java Applet Text highlights on rollover

I'm trying to figure out how to make non-editable text (not a JTextField) whose background color changes when the mouse rolls over it. I tried using JButton implementing ActionListener and hiding elements to make the button appear to be just text, but it only allows me to change icons on rollover and detect when the button is clicked. Another thought was to use MouseListener and declare the specific coordinates of a rectangle around the text, where upon mouseMoved it could initiate the highlight. But w/ that there's a problem for varying string lengths and word wrap etc. What is the best object, and listener combo to achieve the effect of a highlighted text field on mouse rollover?

Hmm maybe use a foucs listener and when the field gains foucs select all the text?
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TextField extends JTextField {
public TextField(String text) {
super(text);
addFocusListener(new FocusAdapter() {
#Override
public void focusGained(FocusEvent fe) {
selectAll();
}
});
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
JFrame f = new JFrame();
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JTextField tf = new JTextField("normal field");
f.add(tf, BorderLayout.CENTER);
TextField ftf =
new TextField("funny text field");
f.add(ftf, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
f.pack();
f.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}
EDIT:
Hmmm actually found an even better way with the above method you'd have to click on the textfield to gain focus, now i've used a thread to check when the mouse is over the components co-ordinates and then to highlight the field, I used a boolean to control the highlighting as constant highlighting throws an error. Hope this is what you want:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TextFieldHighlight extends JTextField {
static JTextField ftf;
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
JFrame f = new JFrame();
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
ftf = new JTextField("Highlight");
ftf.setEditable(false);
f.add(ftf, BorderLayout.CENTER);
f.pack();
f.setVisible(true);
Thread thread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
boolean focused = false;
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
if (mouseIsOverDisplayPanel()) {
if (ftf.hasFocus() && focused == false) {
ftf.selectAll();
focused = true;
} else if (!ftf.hasFocus()) {
focused = false;
}
}
}
}
});
thread.start();
}
});
}
private static boolean mouseIsOverDisplayPanel() {
if (MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation().x >= ftf.getLocationOnScreen().x
&& MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation().x <= ftf.getLocationOnScreen().x + ftf.getWidth()
&& MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation().y >= ftf.getLocationOnScreen().y
&& MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation().y <= ftf.getLocationOnScreen().y + ftf.getHeight()) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
}

JComboBox not showing arrow

I have been searching this site and google for a solution to my problem, and I can't find anything. I think it's supposed to just work; however, it doesn't. The arrow icon for my JComboBox doesn't show up, and I can't find anywhere to set its visibility to true.
Here's my code:
public class Driver implements ActionListener {
private JTextField userIDField;
private JTextField[] documentIDField;
private JComboBox repository, environment;
private JButton close, clear, submit;
private JFrame window;
public Driver()
{
window = makeWindow();
makeContents(window);
window.repaint();
}
private JFrame makeWindow()
{
JFrame window = new JFrame("");
window.setSize(500,300);
window.setLocation(50,50);
window.getContentPane().setLayout(null);
window.setResizable(false);
window.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
window.setVisible(true);
return window;
}
private void makeContents(JFrame w)
{
makeDropDowns(w);
w.repaint();
}
private void makeDropDowns(JFrame w)
{
String[] repositoryArray = {"Click to select", "NSA", "Finance", "Test"};
repository = new JComboBox(repositoryArray);
repository.setSelectedIndex(0);
repository.addActionListener(this);
repository.setSize(150,20);
repository.setLocation(175,165);
repository.setEditable(false);
w.add(repository);
String[] environmentArray = {"Click to select", "Dev", "Test", "Qual"};
environment = new JComboBox(environmentArray);
environment.setSelectedIndex(0);
environment.addActionListener(this);
environment.setSize(150,20);
environment.setLocation(175,195);
//environment.setEditable(false);
w.add(environment,0);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
String repositoryID = "null", environmentID = "null";
if (e.getSource() == repository)
{
repositoryID = (String)repository.getSelectedItem();
}
if(e.getSource() == environment)
{
environmentID = (String)environment.getSelectedItem();
}
}
}
Here's a link to a picture of the problem:
If anyone could help that would be awesome.

It doesn't appear to be the issue you were suffering from, but I found this post due to the same resulting issue of the arrow disappearing.
In my case it was due to me mistakenly using .removeAll() on the JComboBox rather than .removeAllItems() when I was attempting to empty and then reuse the JComboBox after a refresh of the data I was using. Just thought I'd include it as an answer in case someone else comes across this thread for similar reasons.

The code you show works, but it looks like you're fighting the enclosing container's default layout. Here, ComboTest is a JPanel which defaults to FlowLayout.
Addendum: In general, do not use absolute positioning, as shown in your update. I've changed the example to use GridLayout; comment out the setLayout() call to see the default, FlowLayout.
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
/**
* #see https://stackoverflow.com/a/10824504/230513
*/
public class ComboTest extends JPanel {
private JComboBox repository = createCombo(new String[]{
"Click to select", "NSA", "Finance", "Test"});
private JComboBox environment = createCombo(new String[]{
"Click to select", "Dev", "Test", "Qual"});
public ComboTest() {
this.setLayout(new GridLayout(0, 1));
this.add(repository);
this.add(environment);
}
private JComboBox createCombo(String[] data) {
final JComboBox combo = new JComboBox(data);
combo.setSelectedIndex(1);
combo.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println(e.getActionCommand()
+ ": " + combo.getSelectedItem().toString());
}
});
return combo;
}
private void display() {
JFrame f = new JFrame("ComboTest");
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.add(this);
f.pack();
f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
f.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new ComboTest().display();
}
});
}
}

I had the same issue. I fixed it by revalidating and repainting the panel with the following code :
myPanel.revalidate();
myPanel.repaint();

Maybe a little late, but for those who are still looking for an easy and fail-safe way to use the JComboBox can use this:
public class FixedJComboBox<E>
extends JComboBox<E> {
// Copied constructors
public FixedJComboBox() {
super();
}
public FixedJComboBox(ComboBoxModel<E> aModel) {
super(aModel);
}
public FixedJComboBox(E[] items) {
super(items);
}
public FixedJComboBox(Vector<E> items) {
super(items);
}
#Override
public void setBounds(int x, int y, int width, int height) {
super.setBounds(x, y, width, height);
// The arrow is the first (and only) component
// that is added by default
Component[] comps = getComponents();
if (comps != null && comps.length >= 1) {
Component arrow = comps[0];
// 20 is the default width of the arrow (for me at least)
arrow.setSize(20, height);
arrow.setLocation(width - arrow.getWidth(), 0);
}
}
}
As described here, the bug is caused by incorrectly setting both the location and the size of the arrow to (0,0), followed by some repainting issues. By simply overriding the setBounds() function, the arrow is always corrected after the UI/layout manager has wrongly updated the arrow.
Also, since new components are added after the old ones (i.e. higher index), the arrow will always be at the first element in the array (assuming you don't remove and re-add the arrow).
The disadvantage is of this class is that the width of the arrow is now determined by a constant instead of the UI/layout manager.

WindowListener does not work as expected

I want my GUI to make some checks when a JOptionPane appears.
Because I can't find any other way, I though I can do those each time the application window loses focus(its just checking a string). For that reason I added the following code on my JFrame:
appFrame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
#Override
public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e) {
System.out.println("Focus Lost");
}
#Override
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
//some other stuff here that work
}
});
The window closing listener works fine. Although when the JFrame isn't focused nothing happens. Shouldn't "Focus Lost" be printed each time I switch from JFrame to some other window? Also, will this method be triggered when a JOptionPane is shown?

The key to me is that you want a change in the GUI triggered by a change of a String variable. The best way I see to solve this is to make the String variable a bound property by using PropertyChangeListenerSupport. This way you can have the GUI attach a PropertyChangeListener to the class that holds the String variable and then be notified when it changes allowing you to update the GUI appropriately.
If you go this route, consider giving the observed class a SwingPropertyChangeSupport field so that the listeners will be notified on the Swing event thread and hopefully avoid any Swing concurrency issues.
Here's a brief example:
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.beans.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.SwingPropertyChangeSupport;
public class ShowPropertyChangeSupport {
#SuppressWarnings("serial")
private static void createAndShowGui() {
final MainGUI mainGui = new MainGUI("Title");
final ObservedClass observedClass = new ObservedClass();
observedClass.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent pcEvt) {
if (pcEvt.getPropertyName().equals(ObservedClass.BOUND_PROPERTY)) {
mainGui.setTitle(pcEvt.getNewValue().toString());
}
}
});
mainGui.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
mainGui.pack();
mainGui.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
mainGui.setVisible(true);
int timerDelay = 6000; // every 6 seconds
new Timer(timerDelay, new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
String result = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(mainGui,
"Please enter a String", "Set GUI title", JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE);
if (result != null) {
observedClass.setBoundProperty(result);
}
}
}){{setInitialDelay(1000);}}.start();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowGui();
}
});
}
}
// ** note that I don't like extending JFrame,
// but will do this for sake of example simplicity
class MainGUI extends JFrame {
public MainGUI(String title) {
super(title);
}
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(400, 300);
}
}
class ObservedClass {
public static final String BOUND_PROPERTY = "bound property";
private String boundProperty = "";
private SwingPropertyChangeSupport spcSupport = new SwingPropertyChangeSupport(
this);
public SwingPropertyChangeSupport getSpcSupport() {
return spcSupport;
}
public void setSpcSupport(SwingPropertyChangeSupport spcSupport) {
this.spcSupport = spcSupport;
}
public String getBoundProperty() {
return boundProperty;
}
public void setBoundProperty(String boundProperty) {
String oldValue = this.boundProperty;
String newValue = boundProperty;
this.boundProperty = newValue;
spcSupport.firePropertyChange(BOUND_PROPERTY, oldValue, newValue);
}
public void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener) {
spcSupport.addPropertyChangeListener(listener);
}
public void removePropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener) {
spcSupport.removePropertyChangeListener(listener);
}
}
The key to all this in my mind is to use the listener so that the class with the bound property -- the String being listened to -- has no knowledge of the GUI, the listener, and the GUI, likewise has no knowledge of the class with the bound property. They are fully decoupled.

I'm not going to go into why you are doing what you are doing, but it is not working as you expect for the following reason:
WindowAdapter is a convenience class so you can create one listener and register it for multiple types of events. You have only registered it for one set of events, you need to also register it for focus events via: Window.addWindowFocusListener()
WindowAdapter adapter = new WindowAdapter() {
#Override
public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e) {
System.out.println("Focus Lost");
}
#Override
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
//some other stuff here that work
}
};
appFrame.addWindowListener(adapter);
appFrame.addWindowFocusListener(adapter);

1) JOptionPane / modal JDialog have got modality issue, but modality could be advantage if all containers have got own owner, for real workaround you need to know (I'll talking about how can I do test that)
numbers of Window[], and if isDisplayable(), then you can use follows
you can get SwingUtilities#getAccessibleIndexInXxx can returns AccessibleState
KeyboardFocusManager (very interesting methods for multi-touch) returns getXxxFocusXxx methods
Focus, FocusSubsystem is pretty asynchronous,
2) Please, with due respect, I don't know why you needed that, for why reasons I need to know about that, there is about business rules, you always need to know ...., and if is done on EDT
Focus, FocusSubsystem is pretty asynchronous,