I am just learning AWT / Swift / JavaFx recently and I feel like I have learned a lot but have barely scratched the surface. There might be a much easier way to do this BUT, I am trying to make a GUI button in eclipse that calculates the distance between two objects that the user creates. Lets call them Robots for now. So, I have one button that allows the user to create the Robots and it stores them in a DefaultListModel (listModel) and displays them in a Jlist (list) below the buttons. When the user then clicks on a robot, another button becomes actice and allows them to calculate the distance between them (one of the parameters of the robots is their location on a grid). I have all that worked out but my problem is that I am trying to make it to where they have to select two different Robots. At first I thought I could let them select two Robots and then make the computeDistance button becomes active, but I am not really sure how to do that because the only way I can select more than one object in the JList is to cntrl click and I don't want the user to have to know that trick.
My next idea was to allow the user to have one Robot selected and then give them a popup window displaying the other Robots and have them select one. Via showOptionsDialog, I have discovered how to make a custom JOptionPane, so I thought, why not make them buttons (probably will look awful, but I don't know how to make anything other than JOptionPane.showXxx at this point (like I said, only skin deep so far). Have tried consulting the javadocs, but right now that is a LOTTT to take in and have read a decent amount, I thought.
Ok, sorry if this is long, but is there a way, using my DefaultListMethod to make custom buttons? I tried a bunch of ways by creating Object[] options = {list.elements()}; etc but that doesn't work. Any help would be much appreciated!
Related
Thanks for trying to help. First off, I'm trying to create a sort of list-program that can allow you to create, manage, and view various lists. However, I ran into a problem when I was deciding how to implement changing the lists. I wanted to do something similar to the way most internet browsers work in the form of tabs, or even the way Notepad++ works.. Just have all the opened lists displayed under/above the menu bar. However, I am unsure how to implement that. I don't know how to accurately create new instances of opened lists in the form of a clickable button, or even add those to the top. Any suggestions?
I want to create interactive drag and drop. What I mean is that i have 10 slots and 5 buttons, I want to make that user can drag and drop a button on the slot he wants to. I made it with ComboBox and it works fine but I want to make it more interactive. Is it possible in an easy way or I need a hard code? If so any good help on coding would be appreciated.
//Edit. I made it with ComboBox using setLocation(); with saved every slot position
//Edit again with photo:
You can see several example of Drag and drop in Java here and decide which kind of drag and drop you would like to do:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/examples/dnd/
This is a crosspost to the thread in Javaranch (includes some images): http://www.coderanch.com/t/567472/GUI/java/Optimal-solution-creating-multiple-dialog
I'm trying to develop a simple swing desktop application where I imagine alot of different dialog's jumping around to fetch user input. Would need to present labels, textfields, passwordfields, combobxes, checkboxes etc in various dialog windows.
For example: creating the database firsthand, creating the first admin account, adding users, changing user accounts etc.
I have an understanding that JOptionPane is used to create simple quick & easy modal dialog's. I would really like to know why one would choose one over another in this case. Which one is more preferable to use: JOptionPane vs. JDialog
Also I could use some pointers how one should appropriately design and implement this.
Thank you.
Here's a statement I found on the Java website that says one key point about the difference between the two.
How to make Dialogs
A Dialog can be modal. When a modal Dialog is visible, it blocks user input to all other windows in the program. JOptionPane creates JDialogs that are modal. To create a non-modal Dialog, you must use the JDialog class directly.
So it sounds like you would use JOptionPane if you want a user to have to make a choice and close the box before returning to the main screen. If you use a JDialog box, then they can just click around it and get back to the main screen without making a choice. For example, say you wanted to make a user choose the number of results before clicking submit, you wouldn't want them to be able to click around that window and click submit. You would use JOptionPane to force them to select a value first before going back to submit.
Check out http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/dialog.html it pretty much has everything you would need.
As i understand it, JOptionPane is great for what it can do, but you can't really change the functionality beyond that (not easily). JDialog is better to inherit from if you want to create your own custom Dialogs.
So this may seem strange, but I am trying to create a very basic game that works somewhat like what an older RPG game may have as the interface (think choosing attacks from a list (ex: Pokemon)).
Right now I have a class that extends JFrame, and it contains private variables of three panels: one for displaying the sprites at the top 75% of the screen, and the other two are the ones I wish to display text on (one for announcements like, "CRITICAL HIT" and the other for the selectable choices). The second of the text boxes would only be visible sometimes, but that is irrelevant.
Can anybody start me off or lend me a hand? I am finding many way but none that seem to work for my needs.
Edit: My game is laid out and the sprite panel works exactly as it should, as much as it may sound like it, I am not rushing into anything blindly. I have the game working except for displaying the dialogs in an effective way.
EDIT 2: Ok maybe I am being unclear, my basic concern is finding the best Java component to draw strings to the bottom panels. The strings will be changing regularly, so some methods that I have tried such as the Graphics drawString() are not very effective.
Thank you,
roflha
Well, your original question statement lacks any actual cohesive question, other than "Can anybody start me off or lend me a hand?" which makes it rather hard to figure out what you really need. I discerned that what you want help from us about is displaying dialogues that popup to the user when some event happens. If you don't care too much about special effects, there are three easy ways to do this:
1) Simply have sprites for your messages, and set them to visible as needed. If you have a limited number of important messages, this makes it easy to control the visibility/flashiness of the message.
2) JTextArea allows you to simply print some text to a box. It is useful if you have a wordy console or messages that can't simply be a few images. You would just have a JTextArea in your panel, and update it as needed:
JTextArea messageBox;
messagePanel.add(messageBox);
//displays a message
messageBox.setText("CRITICAL HIT!!!");
But the user may not notice when the text changes, since it changes instantly. Whether you want to flash the text, or display some animation on top of the text area is up to you.
3) If you want a more intrusive message, you can actually have a popup dialogue where the user would have to click "OK" to continue. This is relatively easy to do, and you can even put custom icons for the message:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/dialog.html
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(myFrame,
"You got a critical hit!!!",
"Critical Hit",
JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE,
criticalHitIcon);
I try to build a gui (Swing) for a simple java application. The application should have a start window like a menu. From there I would like to navigate to several other windows.
My question is what is the best-practice to achieve such a navigation? Should I build several JFrames and switch the visibility of them on/off when navigating OR should I better have one JFrame and add/remove JPanels in this single frame to navigate between the windows?
Thanks.
I recommend
Do not do a MDI application with sub-frames like those found in the old Windows days. They suck as they make the matter confusing.
Do design a tabbed interface. The welcome page/menu will be displayed on a first tab that is always created on the start.
All cool kids do that nowadays:
Visual Studio
Eclipse
Firefox
If each of your windows correspond to different task (possibly nested), you could present your application as a SDI, with on the left a task panel like:
Each of the task would display one JFrame with the associated window.
Other solution: a table of content like this picture on the left side
(note: it actually also displays a task panel in this example on the bottom right)
Multiple JFrames sounds like a better idea to me. Much more OO.
You must find a balance between these goals:
Not too many things in one "window"
The user must quickly be able to find the correct window to do the next step of work
All relevant information must be visible at any time
Eclipse solves this by creating many small editors where each editor shows some specific information and allows to modify it. Editors are then arranged within one OS window in tabs and "views". A view is always completely visible and they can be arranged. Think of a view as a way to cut an existing editor in half (horizontal or vertical) and then being able to replace one of the halves with another editor. Between each half, you have a splitter so you can adjust the sizes.
Arrangements of views are then saved in "perspectives".
This allows every user to create a perspective which contains all the necessary editors at the same time, arrange them as they need it and work effectively.