How to pass arguments in JavaFX - java

So, it's a little confusing but here is the thing:
I created a window with SceneBuilder, and created the controller and everything, there is a button in the window.
The button setOnAction() method makes the program open another window, the thing is, this other window is another class and I want to pass information to this other window, but it seems I cannot. Here's some code example:
MainWindow:
confirm.setOnAction(event->{
try {
LibraryWindowController lwc = new LibraryWindowController();
lwc.setDay(day.getValue());
lwc.setMonth(month.getValue());
lwc.setYear(Integer.parseInt(year.getText()));
lwc.setClient(login.getText());
lwc.start(new Stage());
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("An error has occured!");
}
});
LibraryWindowController (variables and setters):
private int day, month, year;
private String client;
public void setDay(int day){
this.day = day;
}
public void setMonth(int month){
this.month = month;
}
public void setYear(int year){
this.year = year;
}
public void setClient(String login){
this.client = login;
}
The thing is, inside the Controller's initialize method there is a System.out.println(client);
and the problem is that the output is null, so, why is that happening and how to fix it?

I recommend you use the fx:root construct to prevent issues like this. I find it helps greatly with structuring your app. It is described in the Custom Components section of the FXML docs. If you use this approach, all your screens/panes are simple subclasses of some Pane class in JavaFX. And because the FXML loading is encapsulated in the class, you can simply use the constructor to create new instances (see the example in the documentation I linked to) and set them up as you would any object.
For example (assume MyPane is a Pane you designed using this approach):
MyPane mp = new MyPane();
mp.setWhatever(whatever);
Stage newWindow = new Stage();
newWindow.setScene(new Scene(mp));
newWindow.show();
All you have to change in SceneBuilder is remove your controller class (you no longer need it, class MyPane itself becomes the controller) and check the "Use fx:root" checkbox.
For a complete example of how to use fx:root, see this example I made for my students. It comes with the complete source code (on GitHub).
With regard to your code: you call LibraryWindowController a controller, but from the looks of it I assume it's an Application? You don't need to create separate applications to create multiple windows. Simply create a new stage with a scene and a root node. However, the steps you used should have worked, even if they aren't recommended. I'm guessing either login.getText() returns null or you have an error elsewhere in your code.

Related

Toggling Menu Items in JavaFX

I have created a class which extends JavaFX's MenuBar that creates a menu bar for my application.
By default I won't specialized operations, like opening/saving a file and running a simulation, to be disabled (and they are). When a user runs the app they can select an item in the menu File>New>, and based on which component they select it will toggle on the appropriate menu options.
I was planning on doing this by having each component give a list of which items it toggles on, and then activating the appropriate items when the component is created.
However, I cannot access the list of menus from within in a function (am trying to do it with this.getMenus() but from within the function the only function that is recognized it this.getClass()).
Does anyone know why I cannot call getMenus() and how I could get access to it?
Alternatively, if you have a better idea for how I can toggle these menu items, I'd love to hear. I don't think this is a good way to do it, but it is the best idea we have come up with.
private void fileNew()
{
Menu fileNew = new Menu("New");
menuFile.getItems().add(fileNew);
for(String k: CLHM.keySet())
{
CComponent comp = CLHM.get(k);
if(comp.supportedFeatures().contains((new SupportsNew())))
{
MenuItem i = new MenuItem(comp.getName());
fileNew.getItems().add(i);
i.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>()
{
#Override
public void handle(ActionEvent event)
{
CComponent ctemp = CLHM.get(i.getText());
ArrayList<String> menuItems = (ArrayList) ctemp.getMenuItems();
for (String s : menuItems)
{
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(s).useDelimiter("\\s>\\s");
String menu = scanner.next();
//Menu temp = this.getMenus();
/*
Here the program will parse the string of the
Menu path (e.g. File>Open) and activate the
relevant item, if it exists.
*/
}
borderPane.setCenter((Node) ctemp);
}
});
}
}
}
When you use this inside an anonymous class, it actually refers to the anonymous class instance. So in your case, this is an instance of EventHandler, which is why there are so little methods that you can call (because it is an interface type).
What you are looking for is YourExtendedMenuBar.this.getMenus(). This will tell the compiler that you are looking for the enclosing instance. Alternatively, you can simply drop the this keyword (i.e. getMenus()). Doing so will allow you to use/call any accessible members of the anonymous class and its enclosing class.
On the side note, if you replaced that anonymous class with a lambda expression, then this would have meant YourExtendedMenuBar. It is not possible to access any members of the class that the lambda expression represents, at least not directly.
P.S. I have no idea what your toggling is all about, so I can't answer until I figured out what you mean.

Display Exact Copy of Stage

I am working on a new project that will need to show a separate stage on the secondary monitor. This will be a non-interactive stage (only used to display nodes). I will follow this approach to handle that part.
However, I also want to have a duplicate copy of that stage visible within a pane in my main app. It would need to update itself at the same time the stage does.
Where would I start learning how to implement this? Does Java provide a built-in API to display realtime screenshots of a stage, by chance?
I am no expert but I think there are two ways to do it.
Method 1
Wrap everything of that stage into a main FXML/controller file/class (as a View). Then you need to load that FXML file twice, once in the new stage, the other in a dedicated space you have prepared in your main stage.
The reference of both controller instances should ideally be held at the same object, either in your application class or the class hosting your main stage.
From there, you can either bind values and let the binding API do the work for you.
Example:
Main View:
public class MainView {
private Model model = new Model();
private Pane space; // Dedicated space
public void spawnView() {
FXMLLoader spawnViewLoader = new FXMLLoader(getClass().getResource("View.fxml"));
Parent spawnView = spawnViewLoader.load(); // Need to catch IOException
ViewController spawnController = spawnViewLoader.getController();
spawnController.setup(model);
new Stage(new Scene(view));
FXMLLoader dupViewLoader = new FXMLLoader(getClass().getResource("View.fxml"));
Parent dupView = dupViewLoader.load(); // Need to catch IOException
ViewController dupController = dupViewLoader.getController();
dupController.setup(model);
space.getChildren().setAll(dupView);
}
}
Model:
public class Model {
private final StringProperty title = new SimpleStringProperty();
private final StringProperty titleProperty() { return title; }
private final String getTitle() { return title.get(); }
private final void setTitle(final String title) { this.title.set(title); }
}
View controller:
public class ViewController {
#FXML private Label label;
private Model model;
public void setup(Model model) {
if (model == null)
throw new NullPointerException();
this.model = model;
label.textProperty().bind(model.titleProperty());
}
// Other stuff
}
Be careful of the binding though - I'm quite sure whatever I wrote is going to cause memory leak; both Views will not clean up as long you're holding a reference of model. You can always do it without binding, but it's going to be more tedious to update values.
Method 2
This method is more complex and is likely to be several frames slower. I'm not going to post sample codes as this is not that straight-forward.
You need to have a reference of the Scene of that stage, and use an AnimationTimer to call the snapshot method of the scene object.
Then you need to use an ImageView in your main stage to display the snapshots returned.
Seriously, I think this method would cause the duplicate View to be several frames slower than the original's.

Libgdx updating a label in a table

Having an issue with tables and updating a label! Here is the dilemma, I have a sell button in my game that is updating the player's coins whenever they sell an item, that part is working perfectly. The issue I am having is trying to get the coin value to update on the screen while there in this separate menu (see pic attached, coins in the top left). The problem is that the coin value is in another stage in another class. This is because I have different tables that pop up in the middle when I click the different buttons at the bottom. I have tried helper methods for going in and clearing that table and updating it and then sending me back to this item page but it is not working, I can post any code needed but this is more of a general question on how to update a label within a table in a stage.
Update: So to kinda sum up my question, I have a Screen and I have have three tables in it the bottom table the top left and the top right. Then I add the table to the stage in the middle when they press the inventory or shop button etc. What I am looking to do is to keep the item page open and simply just update the value of the Coin label, I know I can change the text using .setText(); Im just not sure how I can update that portion of the screen etc..
Update 2: If I just set the screen back to a new screen of this screen it updates the coin value but then I am not on the item page anymore which is not ideal.
Update 3: Thanks for the help so far guys, #John your answer is super helpful aswell. Im still not getting this working though here is a little bit of the code where the label is being handled.
playerCoinLabel = new Label(playerSave.getCoinsString(),skin,"defaultMiddle");
This is where it is getting added to the table.
tableLeft = new Table(skin);
stage.addActor(tableLeft);
tableLeft.setBounds(0,0, Gdx.graphics.getWidth(), Gdx.graphics.getHeight());
tableLeft.setFillParent(true);
tableLeft.top().left();
tableLeft.add(healthNonButton).size(84,80).left().padLeft(10).padTop(5);
tableLeft.add(playerHealthLabel).left().padLeft(15);
tableLeft.row();
tableLeft.add(levelNonButton).size(74,70).center().padLeft(10);
tableLeft.add(playerLevelLabel).left().padLeft(19);
tableLeft.row();
tableLeft.add(coinNonButton).size(74,70).center().padLeft(10);
tableLeft.add(this.playerCoinLabel).left().padLeft(15); //This line
tableLeft.row();
Then I have this method for updating my label using the setText like you guys were telling me about.
public void updatePlayerCoins() {
playerCoinLabel.setText(playerSave.getCoinsString());
}
and if I call this method anywhere, render() or where im setting the new coin value it is not updating/changing the label in the top left of my screen. I can post all the code to a github if I need to just posted the things involving the label. This is just a project im working on to increase my skill set so sorry if I sound amateur, it is because I am!
Thanks everyone!
It seems like you're asking two things- how do I update a label? and How do I structure my code? It's hard to tell what's going wrong with the former since we can't see your code, but #Tenfour04 is right- you want to retain a reference to the label somewhere and call setText() when you want to change the amount.
As far as structuring your code, I would suggest a simple OOP design and then evolve it like so:
First, we need an object to represent the player:
class Player {
private int coins; // Pretend there are getters / setters.
private int health;
private int level;
}
Now you probably have more than one way that you want to represent this player information, so we'll split the rendering code into a separate class or set of classes:
class StatWidget {
private Stage stage;
private Player player;
private Label lblCoins;
public StatWidget(Player player) { // Pseudo-code
this.player = player;
this.stage = new Stage();
Table tbl = new Table();
this.lblCoins = new Label(); // Notice we keep a reference to the label
tbl.add( this.coins );
}
public void update() {
lblCoins.setText(player.getCoins());
}
}
Now you can sync the UI with your player object's state simply by calling Player#update(). But when do you call it?
You could call update() in your render method. This is a little inefficient because you're updating the object whether it needs to be updated or not, but it's dead simple, and if you're only updating a few UI elements this way it probably doesn't matter. Personally, I'd stop here.
If you want to be more precise, you would only call update() when you actually make a change to the Player's coins. You can do this by finding the places in your code where you set the player's coins and add the update call like so:
player.setCoins( A_LOT_OF_MONEY );
statWidget.update();
Problem is this gets more cumbersome as you add more widgets- all your game logic now has to know about StatWidget and make calls to it. We could cut this dependency a little bit by using an event-driven architecture. Essentially, whenever player's state changes, it would send an event to interested parties notifying them of the change. You could use the pseudo-code below:
interface Publisher {
void subscribe(Subscriber subby);
void unsubscribe(Subscriber subby);
}
class Player implements Publisher {
private List<Subscriber> subscribers;
private int coins;
// ...
public void setCoins(int amount) {
this.coins = amount;
for(Subscriber subscriber : subscribers) subscriber.notify("COINS", amount);
}
public void subscribe(Subscriber subby) {
this.subscribers.add(subby);
}
public void unsubscribe(Subscriber subby) {
this.subscribers.remove(subby);
}
}
interface Subscriber {
void notify(String event, int qty);
void dispose();
}
class StatWidget implements Subscriber {
private Publisher player;
private Label label;
// ...
public StatWidget(Player player) {
this.player = player;
this.player.addSubscriber(this);
void notify(String event, int qty) {
if(event.equals("COINS")) label.setText(qty);
}
void dispose() {
this.player.unsubscribe(this);
}
}
The event system above could certainly be polished, and you could likely do clever things with generics (or use a library that has thought all this out for your), but hopefully it illustrates the concepts.

Find swing component using ComponentFinder

I have a code (swing):
javax.swing.JButton loginbutton = new javax.swing.JButton("Login");
loginbutton.setName("LoginButton126");
and test for it:
ComponentFinder finder = BasicComponentFinder.finderWithCurrentAwtHierarchy();
javax.swing.JButton loginbutton = (javax.swing.JButton) finder.findByName("LoginButton126");
but unfortunatelly I have:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/fest/util/Strings
What should I change ?
Best regards
I think this should work fine
By creating a new ComponentFinder that only has access to the GUI components created after it. In the following example, finder has access to MainFrame but not to LoginFrame.
// new LoginFrame();
ComponentFinder finder = BasicComponentFinder.finderWithNewAwtHierarchy();
finder.findByName("login", true); // will fail finding component of login frame
// new MainFrame();
finder.findByName("pw", true); // will work finding label of main frame
The easiest solution is to make all of the component variables be class variables so that you can access them anywhere. However, not everyone wants to do that, and some (like myself) are using GUI Editors that don't generate the components as class variables.
My solution is simple, I'd like to think, and doesn't really violate any programming standards, as far as I know (referencing what fortran was getting at). It allows for an easy and straightforward way to access components by name.
Create a Map class variable. You'll need to import HashMap at the very least. I named mine componentMap for simplicity.
private HashMap componentMap;
Add all of your components to the frame as normal.
initialize() {
//add your components and be sure
//to name them.
...
//after adding all the components,
//call this method we're about to create.
createComponentMap();
}
Define the following two methods in your class. You'll need to import
Component if you haven't already:
private void createComponentMap() {
componentMap = new HashMap<String,Component>();
Component[] components = yourForm.getContentPane().getComponents();
for (int i=0; i < components.length; i++) {
componentMap.put(components[i].getName(), components[i]);
}
}
public Component getComponentByName(String name) {
if (componentMap.containsKey(name)) {
return (Component) componentMap.get(name);
}
else return null;
}
Now you've got a HashMap that maps all the currently existing components in your frame/content pane/panel/etc to their respective names.
To now access these components, it is as simple as a call to getComponentByName(String name). If a component with that name exists, it will return that component. If not, it returns null. It is your responsibility to cast the component to the proper type. I suggest using instanceof to be sure.
If you plan on adding, removing, or renaming components at any point during runtime, I would consider adding methods that modify the HashMap according to your changes.

Serialize JavaFX components

I'm trying to develop a little drag & drop application under Java FX. User will drop JFX components like Buttons, Menus, Labels on certain positions. When done, he will save this layout and later on he will reopen the layout and he will use it again.
Its important to store the information about all objects that are dropped on some position.
I decided to use serialization for this purpose. But I'm not able to serialize JavaFX components. I tried to serialize Buttons, Scenes, Stages, JFXPane but nothing seemed to work (I obtained NotSerializableException).
Any suggestions how to save all the components and then retrieve them ?
P.S.: I was trying to find out some method with FXML but I did not succeed.
Thank you very much for your answers :)
You are correct, JavaFX (as of 2.1) does not support serialization of components using the Java Serializable interface - so you cannot use that mechanism.
JavaFX can deserialize from an FXML document using the FXMLLoader.load() method.
The trick though, is how to write your existing components and states out to FXML?
Currently, there is nothing public from the platform which performs FXML serialization. Apparently, creating a generic scenegraph => FXML serializer is quite a complex task (and there is no public 3rd party API for this that I know of). It wouldn't be too difficult to iterate over the scenegraph and write out FXML for a limited set of components and attributes.
If the main goal of saving user components on the servers side - is to have a possibility to show the same interface to the user - why not to save all descriptive information you need about users components, and when it is needed - just rebuild user interface again, using stored descriptive information? Here is primitive example:
/* That is the class for storing information, which you need from your components*/
public class DropedComponentsCoordinates implements Serializable{
private String componentID;
private String x_coord;
private String y_coord;
//and so on, whatever you need to get from yor serializable objects;
//getters and setters are assumed but not typed here.
}
/* I assume a variant with using FXML. If you don't - the main idea does not change*/
public class YourController implements Initializable {
List<DropedComponentsCoordinates> dropedComponentsCoordinates;
#Override
public void initialize(URL url, ResourceBundle rb) {
dropedComponentsCoordinates = new ArrayList();
}
//This function will be fired, every time
//a user has dropped a component on the place he/she wants
public void OnDropFired(ActionEvent event) {
try {
//getting the info we need from components
String componentID = getComponentID(event);
String component_xCoord = getComponent_xCoord(event);
String component_yCoord = getComponent_yCoord(event);
//putting this info to the list
DropedComponentsCoordinates dcc = new DropedComponentsCoordinates();
dcc.setX_Coord(component_xCoord);
dcc.setY_Coord(component_yCoord);
dcc.setComponentID(componentID);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private String getComponentID(ActionEvent event){
String componentID;
/*getting cpmponentID*/
return componentID;
}
private String getComponent_xCoord(ActionEvent event){
String component_xCoord;
/*getting component_xCoord*/
return component_xCoord;
}
private String getComponent_yCoord(ActionEvent event){
String component_yCoord;
/*getting component_yCoord*/
return component_yCoord;
}
}

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