jMenuItem doesn't appear - java

I've just starting using Java Swing and I have a issue.
I tried to do a simple menuBar and a menuItem 'Exit', but before linking the button to the action the menuItem appeared, now that I've linked the button to a System.exit(0) action it disappeared. Help?
The code is the following:
in MainPanel (the autogenerated code from swing is excluded):
public void init() {
initComponents();
initActions();
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
private void initActions() {
this.menuItemExit.setAction(Application.getInstance().getPanelControl().getActionExit());
}
In PanelControl:
public class PanelControl {
private Action actionExit;
public Action getActionExit() {
return actionExit;
}
public class ActionExit extends AbstractAction{
public ActionExit(){
putValue(Action.NAME, "Exit");
putValue(Action.SHORT_DESCRIPTION, "Exit from the application");
putValue(Action.ACCELERATOR_KEY, KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("ctrl e"));
putValue(Action.MNEMONIC_KEY, KeyEvent.VK_E);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
}
In Application:
private void init() {
viewMainPanel = new MainPanel();
controlPanel = new ControlPanel();
viewMainPanel.init();
}
i think the problem is somewhere in here but i can't figure out where. any help?
(there's other code but i just put the more relevant part, also i translated the code from italian so i'm sorry if there are any problems or a few names dont match up)

private Action actionExit;
public Action getActionExit() {
return actionExit;
}
Your actionExit variable is null.
Nowhere in your code do you create an instance of your ActionExit class.
Somewhere you need:
actionExit = new ActionExit();
Your design seems a bit complicated, I have no idea why you have a panel just to create an instance of the ActionExit class.
I would suggest you just create the ActionExit instance in your main class and get rid of the PanelControl class.
Instead of using an IDE to generate confusing code you should consider learning how to write the code yourself so you can better structure your classes. Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Menus for a working example to get you started.

A menu item has to be added to a Native Java Swing component. You have to add it to a JFrame. You can't add a MenuItem to a Panel. The Parent 'root' container in any Java Swing application is 'native' and a JFrame. Everything else in that container is 'drawn' into the rectangle using the look and feel of your choosing.
Then you CREATE a MenuItem using your TAbstractAction item. That object CAN be used to create a JButton, JMenuItem or ToolBar button. Keeping a reference to your TAbstractAction in your code, you can enable/disable the object and it implements an 'observable' pattern where it will enable/disable ALL UI controls you used to build with it. I actually wrote a Java Swing framework for doing Java Applications. It used to be on the Sun Open Source web site. If you wish I can put it up on GitLab for you to play with. Java Swing is nice but JavaFX should be the long term goal for UI on a JVM.
In your JFrame object you need to do this:
_menuBar = new JMenuBar();
// add controls to the frame
setJMenuBar(_menuBar);
Then you need to add your 'exitMenuItem' to your _MenuBar control.
Cheers

Related

Can I add my ActionListeners to separate class windows?

I currently have all my action listeners declared under my constructor, but I'm starting to get a lot of them building up. Is it possible to create a new classes (via the default package window) and have them all there separately?
This seems obvious to me, I have tried this and I get no errors, but my application wont load when I do, it says its open but theres nothing there.
Here is a link to my code that is compilable.. I have commented out anything that uses other classes (there isn't much), if I have missed any just comment them out.
https://shrib.com/Tum8kjgH?v=nc
Thanks!
The most simple solution is to declare your listeners each in their own class. For example, for some button:
public class SomeButtonActionListener implements ActionListener{
private InternalFrame iFrame;
public SomeActionListener(InternalFrame iFrame){
this.iFrame = iFrame;
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
//TODO
//Example: iFrame.getSomeButton().doSomething();
}
}
Note that in this way, you need to expose getter methods for all swing components you need to access from your listeners (an alternative is to send the specific components needed as arguments to the listener when constructor is called).
In your InternalFrame you can add the listeners as:
someButton.addActionListener(new SomeButtonActionListener(this));
Also you can put all your listeners in a specific package like yourapp.listeners.
EDIT
A more specific example:
public class AddRoomListener implements ActionListener{
private InternalFrame iFrame;
public AddRoomListener(InternalFrame iFrame){
this.iFrame = iFrame;
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
iFrame.getIntFrame2().setVisible(true);
iFrame.getIntFrame2().toFront();
}
}
In this case you need to declare the getIntFrame2() getter in the InternalFrame class.

Dealing with MVC model, jbuttons and ActionListener's getSource() method

So i just stumbled upon this problem while coding my program using MVC.
I have a private JButton in the View class. I wrote the method to add the listener to all respective buttons. However, when i'm trying to code the ActionPerformed() part it throws an error about JButton not being visible.
Setting JButton to public solves the problem completly, but is it the right thing to do? Is there another way of setting the ActionListener without making the JButton public?
public class learningView extends JFrame {
private JButton viewButton = new JButton("View Resources");
public void addButtonListener(ActionListener listenerForButtons) {
viewButton.addActionListener(listenerForButtons);
saveButton.addActionListener(listenerForButtons);
addButton.addActionListener(listenerForButtons);
}
}
public class learningController {
private learningModel theModel;
private learningView theView;
public learningController(learningModel theModel, learningView theView) {
this.theModel = theModel;
this.theView = theView;
this.theView.addButtonListener(new buttonListener());
}
class buttonListener implements ActionListener {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (e.getSource() == theView.viewButton) {// This is where problem arises
}
}
}
}
Hastebin for view and controller classes (without model) for the convienience.
http://www.hastebin.com/ecawolusal.avrasm
Since viewButton has private access to LearningVew, it will simply be inaccessible out of that classes context.
Now, before you change the access level, you might consider changing your approach.
Rather then adding an ActionListener to each button which notifies an external source, it might be simpler to have the view to monitor the buttons itself.
Before you get up in arms over how this would break the MVC, the idea would be to then have the view raise a simpler, more dedicated event for the button in question, for example, viewButton could raise viewWasActivated or something, to which the controller would then respond.
This would require you to define a interface contract for both the view and the controller so they knew what information they were capable of passing to each other and what events might be triggered. This protects the view controls and means you don't need to expose the unnecessarily.
Which is demonstrated in more detail here.
The other choice would be to use the actionCommand property of the buttons instead of comparing references of the buttons to the event source, but you would first need to check that the source of the action event was a button ... and I personally don't like "bulk" ActionListeners, they get messy real quickly...

Java handle Private Method/Object in a Library

I am using GWT and would like to call the Popup.Hide() method in the Library class MenuBar but it is private and the Object is private too...
so what is the best way to get the method:
If I create a complete new class which inherits from MenuBar, will not work I have to create 10 other classes which depend on the MenuBar, for example MenuItem, since MenuItems also hold private static variables, which seems too involved.
unzip the .jar and change the method to public.
another way?
there's no Hide() uppercase method in java, did you read the javadoc? hide() is also a lowercase method. Do you use eclipse with the Google plugin?
Button b1 = new Button("Click me to show popup");
b1.addClickHandler(new ClickHandler() {
public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
// Instantiate the popup and show it.
new MyPopup().show();
}
});
http://www.gwtproject.org/javadoc/latest/com/google/gwt/user/client/ui/PopupPanel.html

Java swing -- Jpanel not rerendering/repainting itself

Im using a JPanel with propertyChangeListener and want it to rerender itself based on whenever a particular variable model changes. My code for the same is as follows --
public class LabelMacroEditor extends JPanel implements PropertyChangeListener {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private LabelMacroModel model;
public LabelMacroEditor(LabelMacroModel bean) {
this.model = bean;
model.addPropertyChangeListener(this);
setupComponents();
validate();
setVisible(true);
}
public void setupComponents()
{
Box allButtons = Box.createVerticalBox();
JScrollPane macroModelScroller = new JScrollPane(allButtons);
macroModelScroller.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 200));
for(MacroModel macroModel : model.getMacroModelList())
{
LabelMacroEditorEditableEntity macroEditorEntity = new LabelMacroEditorEditableEntity(macroModel);
Box entityBox = Box.createHorizontalBox();
entityBox.add(macroEditorEntity.getUpButton());
entityBox.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(15));
entityBox.add(macroEditorEntity.getMacroDetailsButton());
entityBox.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(15));
entityBox.add(macroEditorEntity.getDownButton());
allButtons.add(entityBox);
}
add(macroModelScroller);
}
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent arg0) {
revalidate();
repaint();
}
}
When i use the debug mode in eclipse i can see that whenever there is a change to model it triggers off the call propertyChange and it also runs over revalidate and repaint but only the JPanel display remains the same. It does not seem to be rerendering itself.
Anything fundamental that I'm missing here ?
EDIT :
An example snippet of a property im changing is as follows --
labelMacroModel.addMacroModel(addedMacroModel);
where labelMacroModel is of the type LabelMacroModel and addedMacroModel is of the type Macro
Now the relevant part of LabelMacroModel class that fires off the property change is as follows --
private List<MacroModel> macroModelList;// this is the list of all MacroModels
public void addMacroModel(MacroModel macroModel) {
macroModelList.add(macroModel);
pcs.fireIndexedPropertyChange("LabelMacroModel", macroModelList.size(), null, macroModel);
}
Its not clear how you are changing the components in the panel. If panel is not updated then repaint/revalidate will have no effect. I think you should not need revalidate/repaint to be called explicitly if you are not modifying the way components are laid out. JButton.setText should for example change the label of the button without need of calling repaint.
To expand on the answer by AKJ above, I think you should be reconstructing your components on property change. So doing a remove all then readding is one way to do this. Once you get this working you could be more selective about pushing the model update into the GUI eg if a new entry has been added then just add a new component to reflect this. The remove all / readd is fine for a lot of cases though. HTH.

How to access multiple JPanels inside JFrame?

I have a JFrame that contains a "display" JPanel with JTextField and a "control" JPanel with buttons that should access the contents of the display JPanel. I think my problem is related on how to use the observer pattern, which in principle I understand. You need to place listeners and update messages, but I don't have a clue where to put these, how to get access from one panel to the other and maybe if necessary to introduce a "datamodel" class. For example, I want to access the contents of the JTextField from the control panel and I use an anonymous action listener as follows:
JButton openfile = new JButton("Convert file");
openfile.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
openButtonPressed();
}
});
You need to reduce the coupling between these objects.
You can have a master object, that owns all the text fields and the button ( the panels are irrelevant )
Then a separete actionlistener within that master object ( I call it mediator see mediator pattern )
That action listener performs a method on the mediator which in turn take the values from the textfields and create perhaps a transfer object.
This way you reduce the coupling between the panels, textfields etc. and let the control in one place ( the mediator ) that is, you don't let them know each other.
You can take a look at the code in this question:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/324554/#324559
It shows these concepts in running code.
BTW the observer pattern is already implemented in the JTextField, JButton, ActionListener etc. You just need to add the hooks.
I hope this helps.
EDIT Joined two answers into one.
This is the code.
class App { // this is the mediator
// GUI components.
private JFrame frame;
private JTextField name;
private JTextField count;
private JTextField date;
// Result is displayed here.
private JTextArea textArea;
// Fired by this button.
private JButton go;
private ActionListener actionListener;
public App(){
actionListener = new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e ){
okButtonPressed();
}
};
}
private void okButtonPressed(){
// template is an object irrelevant to this code.
template.setData( getData() );
textArea.setText( template.getTransformedData() );
}
public void initialize(){
frame = new JFrame("Code challenge v0.1");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
name = new JTextField();
count = new JTextField();
date = new JTextField();
textArea = new JTextArea();
go = new JButton("Go");
go.addActionListener( actionListener ); // prepare the button.
layoutComponents(); // a lot of panels are created here. Irrelevant.
}
}
Complete and running code can be retrieved here:
It is important to favor composition over inheritance when possible.
It does make the code cleaner if you create the models in one layer and add a layer or two above to create the components and layout. Certainly do not extend the likes of JFrame and JPanel.
Do not feel the need to make the composition hierarchy in the model layer exactly match the display. Then it's just a matter of taking the text from the Document and performing the relevant operation.
Okay, perhpas not that simple. Swing models are a little bit messy. In particular ButtonModel is brain damaged, and the controller area of code might not be entirely pure.
We have so called builders, which will build the parent panel out of the children. In this builder you will have access to all the subcomponents you need to listen to and can thus can implement any logic there.
Finally the builder will then return the parent panel with the complete logic.
Once you've got the parent panel it's really a mess getting to the child components and have them do anything.
thanks. I added a datamodel layer which handles somehow the communication between the panels.
I also found this link on Listeners on JTextField usefull:
link text

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