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How to Perform Multiple Action on Single Click in Java Swing

I have a Question on performing other buttons action with single button click. Some example code for three buttons:
JButton a = new JButton("a");
a.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// Action of a is Here
}
});
JButton b = new JButton("b");
b.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// Action of b is Here
}
});
Those should come together, like:
JButton c = new JButton("c");
c.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// Action of c is Here
// Action of a
// Action of b
}
});
In the above example i have three buttons a,b,c with its own action; but as you can see, C also has to run the actions of A and B. What are good ways to address this?

The other answers are all correct, but there is one important aspect missing here: be careful about dong "too many things" on the AWT event dispatcher thread.
Meaning: when a button is clicked, an event gets created, and the UI framework uses that special thread to trigger the registered listeners. If one of the listeners now decides to do a intensive computation ... the UI event threads stays busy doing "that". And while doing "that thing"; this thread isn't available to dispatch any other UI event.
So, this is "not only" about creating methodA(), methodB(), methodC() and invoking them in your third action listener. It is also about understanding if combining multiple calls becomes subject to "I should better run those things in a separate thread; to not block the event dispatcher thread".
In that sense: the other answers tell you where to go from here; but be really careful about the "amount of activity" that your "joined actions" button is about to create!

1) Methods
Use methods for each action and call those in the ActionListener.actionPerformed
public void methodA(){}
public void methodB(){
methodA();
}
2) Action instance
You could create your own classes of ActionListener to perform the actions
First action :
class ActionA implements ActionListener{
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
...
}
}
An improved action
class ActionB extends ActionA{
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
super.actionPerformed(e); //Will call the first action
...
}
}
This is limited since you can't have multiple extends but is also a nice solution
3) Click
Last but I don't like it, use AbstractButton.doClick to dynamicly click on other buttons.
4) Add multiple action
Just notice that the methods is not a setActionListener but a addActionListener meaning that it will accept multiple ActionListener.
So define create two instances
ActionListener listenerA = new ActionLisener ..
ActionListener listenerB = new ActionLisener ..
buttonA.addActionListener(listenerA);
buttonB.addActionListener(listenerB);
buttonC.addActionListener(listenerA);
buttonC.addActionListener(listenerB);
With a small test, I notice that the actions are execute in the order B -> A (might not be a generality).
As said in comment, this should be us knowing the risk, this will . If an action failed because of an exception, should the next one be executed ? By default it won't because the process will not hide exceptions.
I would restrict this solution to GUI management like reseting fields, disabling, ... that could be use in different buttons.

Whatever you want to do on Button click a, you can put in a method and call it from wherever you want.
public void methodForA(){
// do here what you want
}
You can call this now in the methods you want it to call from. In your case from button click A and button click C
JButton a = new JButton("a");
a.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
methodForA();
}
});
// and also in your c-Button
JButton c = new JButton("c");
c.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// Action of c is Here
methodForA();
}
});

Create 3 methods for each button indepently from the actionListeners action Perform method and call them from the actionPerfomed methods:
private void btnAClicked(){};
private void btnBClicked(){};
private void btnCClicked(){};
JButton c = new JButton("c");
c.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
btnCClicked();
btnAClicked();
btnBClicked();
}
});

How to avoid to work two JButton at the same time

I'm writing a simple paint program with Java. As all paint applications there are buttons for brushTool, sprayTool, sprayTool... This tools have their own class which extends to MouseAdapter. They are working as they should. However, the problem starts when I choose a tool after choose another tool, both buttons and their ActionListeners keep executing and they do what they are written for at the same time. I mean if I choose lineTool(which draws straight line) with rectangleTool I hava a diagonal too. here is example of my two button. What I'm tring to do is stop the current action when I click another button. Can you guys help me
brushBotton.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
pen = new PenTool(mainDrawArea);
mainDrawArea.addMouseListener(pen);
mainDrawArea.addMouseMotionListener(pen);
}
});
rectangleButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
shapeToolbar.setVisible(false);
rect = new RectangleTool(mainDrawArea);
rect.setStrokeSize(strokeInt);
mainDrawArea.addMouseListener(rect);
mainDrawArea.addMouseMotionListener(rect);
}
});

You can't keep adding a MouseListener to the drawing area every time you click a button.
Instead you need to keep track of the current MouseListener. Then when you click a button you need to:
remove the current MouseListener
add the new MouseListener

I would replace the button action listener for a set of Toggle Buttons in a group
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/buttongroup.html
Then you move everything in a single mouse listener.
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
this.drawingState = !this.drawingState
if ( isRightCLick(e) ) resetAllPendingOperation();
if (drawingState) {
this.startPoint = getPointFromEvent(e);
switch(toolbarGetCurrentTool()) {
case "line":
registerMouseLineListener(startPoint);//here you draw live preview
break
case "rectangle":
registerMouseRectangleListener(startPoint); //here you draw live preview
break;
}
} else {
//user clicked the second time, commit changes
//same switch as above
this.endPoint = getPointFromEvent(e);
switch(toolbarGetCurrentTool()) {
case "line":
commitLine(startPoint, endpoint);//here you draw live preview
break
case "rectangle":
commitRectangle(startPoint, endpoint); //here you draw live preview
break;
}
}
}

You are currently binding the listeners to the mainDrawArea, not setting an action for each individual button.
Note that the codes you write within actionPerformed() for each button's actionListener is the action you want to trigger everytime that button is clicked. You do not want to add a new listener to the mainDrawArea everytime we click the buttons.
You can a create a state for your current action, for example:
brushBotton.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
state = BRUSH;
}
});
lineBotton.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
state = LINE;
}
});
state can be an integer and BRUSH and LINE are constant such as 0 and 1.
Then in the listener (for the mainDrawArea), check the current state
switch (state){
case BRUSH: //trigger action needed for brushing;
break;
case LINE: //trigger action needed for drawing line;
break;
}

Count number of button clicks in given time

JButton btnNewButton = new JButton("CLICK ME!");
btnNewButton.setBounds(134, 142, 274, 77);
btnNewButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
clicked++;
String x=Integer.toString(clicked);
textArea.setText(x);
}
});
I'm stuck here I want to create a program in GUI that counts the number of button click in specific time for example the timer start then count the number of clicks when the loop stop the button click is not working or stop counting the clicks

There are two possible solution
1.Make the button clickable when timer starts and unclickable when timer stops
Or
2.also u can use flag to check whether timer is running Or not.If timer is running make flag true when gets over make it false. Somthing like below snipet
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (flag) {
clicked++;
String x=Integer.toString(clicked);
textArea.setText(x);
}
else
{
// doSomething
}
}

You can have some boolean variable which says if it's time for clicking (set on true when timer is started and on false when time's up). Then count clicks when this variable is true:
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (timeIsRunning) {
clicked++;
String x=Integer.toString(clicked);
textArea.setText(x);
}
}

https://stackoverflow.com/a/9413767/1306811
Have a click counter.
private int clickCounter = 0; // as an example
Create get/set methods for it.
Add a MouseListener to your JButton so you can effectively track click events (MouseEvent arg0, arg0.getClickCount(), etc). At the end of each call to mouseClicked increment the clickCounter (clickCounter += arg0.getClickCount(), as an example).
Modify the answer linked so that clickCounter is set to 0 at every "time step" (however long you want it to be).
Voila.

JButton: Simulate JButton press without the action firing

My use case is I have some JButtons that fire actions to an ActionListener. I also use keystrokes to fire some of the same action commands to the AcionListener. When the keystroke shortcut fires an action that is also done by one of the buttons I want the button to look as though it was pressed but not to fire the event.
So I have looked into the AbstractButton API and I tried some of the methods there like setSelected but it didn't have the desired effect. Finally I have looked at the method doCLick to see if I could use remove the action firing part but this also doesn't work
367 public void doClick(int pressTime) {
368 Dimension size = getSize();
369 model.setArmed(true);
370 model.setPressed(true);
371 paintImmediately(new Rectangle(0,0, size.width, size.height));
372 try {
373 Thread.currentThread().sleep(pressTime);
374 } catch(InterruptedException ie) {
375 }
376 model.setPressed(false);
377 model.setArmed(false);
378 }
I had thought of removing all the listeners. Running the doClick and then adding them again but I thought something more elegant should be available.
A SSCE would be
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException{
JFrame jf = new JFrame();
jf.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
JButton jb = new JButton("Test Button");
jb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("I don't want this to fire");
}
});
jf.getContentPane().add(jb);
jf.pack();
jf.setVisible(true);
Thread.sleep(1000);
clickWithoutFiringAction(jb);
}
public static void clickWithoutFiringAction(JButton button){
Dimension size = button.getSize();
ButtonModel model = button.getModel();
//I tried changing these combinations but I could not get the desired effect
model.setArmed(true);
model.setPressed(true);
button.paintImmediately(new Rectangle(0,0, size.width, size.height));
try {
Thread.sleep(68);
} catch(InterruptedException ie) {
}
model.setPressed(false);
model.setArmed(false);
}
}

JButton uses DefaultButtonModel which has setPressed(boolean) function for generating action performed event using fireActionPerformed(ActionEvent e) function. You will need to extend this model and provide custom implementation for setPressed(boolean b) function for avoiding action event firing. Please refer to the source code of this model class for more details.
class CustomModel extends DefaultButtonModel
{
#Override
public void setPressed(boolean b){
if((isPressed() == b) || !isEnabled()) {
return;
}
if (b) {
stateMask |= PRESSED;
} else {
stateMask &= ~PRESSED;
}
fireStateChanged();
}
}
now, you can set the model: jButton.setModel(new CustomModel());

When you want an action listener to be used by left clicking on a JButton, and you want to perform the action without left clicking on a JBUtton, you write a separate public method that performs the action.
Like you did with the clickWithoutFiringAction method.
So now, all your action listener has to do is perform the separate public method.
final JButton jb = new JButton("Test Button");
jb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
clickWithoutFiringAction(jb);
}
});

Heh I didn't read carefully, like Sage wrote you must provide custom implementation of setPressed().
Your example works just fine. You don't see the effect because delay between model.setPressed(true); and model.setPressed(false); is to short, just 68 milisecounds. Increase value in Thread.sleep(); to couple seconds and you will see the effect.
model.setArmed(true);
model.setPressed(true);
button.paintImmediately(new Rectangle(0,0, size.width, size.height));
try {
Thread.sleep(68); // to short delay.
} catch(InterruptedException ie) {
}
model.setPressed(false);
model.setArmed(false);

mouseDragged not returning appropriate button down

How can I know the button that was pressed from within a mouseDragged event?
I'm having an issue in mouseDragged() because the received MouseEvent returns 0 for getButton(). I have no problem with the mouse location, or even detecting mouse clicks. The mouseClicked() event returns the appropriate button for getButton().
Any suggestions on how I can do this? I assume I could do a work-around using mouseClicked, or mousePressed, but I would prefer to keep this all within mouseDragged.
Thanks for your time and answers.

As pointed out in comments and other answers, SwingUtilities provides three methods for cases like this, which should work for all MouseEvents:
SwingUtilities.isLeftMouseButton(aMouseEvent);
SwingUtilities.isRightMouseButton(aMouseEvent);
SwingUtilities.isMiddleMouseButton(aMouseEvent);
As for what the problem with your approach is, the javadoc of getButton() says:
Returns which, if any, of the mouse buttons has changed state.
Since the state of the button doesn't change while it is being held down, getButton() will usually return NO_BUTTON in mouseDragged. To check the state of buttons and modifiers like Ctrl, Alt, etc. in mouseDragged, you can use getModifiersEx(). As an example, the below code checks that BUTTON1 is down but BUTTON2 is not:
int b1 = MouseEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK;
int b2 = MouseEvent.BUTTON2_DOWN_MASK;
if ((e.getModifiersEx() & (b1 | b2)) == b1) {
// ...
}

Jacob's right that getButton() doesn't get you the button by design. However, I found a cleaner solution than bit operations on getModifiersEx(), that you can also use within mouseDragged:
if (SwingUtilities.isLeftMouseButton(theMouseEvent)) {
//do something
}
Similar methods exist for the middle button and the right button.

int currentMouseButton = -1;
#Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
currentMouseButton = e.getButton();
}
#Override
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
currentMouseButton = -1;
}
#Override
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
if (currentMouseButton == 3) {
System.out.println("right button");
}
}

This could be possibly a problem of your java sandbox.
The following code works well all the time (almost, as you can see).
#Override
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
e.getButton();
}
Please try your code on a different machine.