Java keyListener with multiple JPanel - java

I'm having a problem with Java KeyListener when adding adding another JPanel with 5 JLabels, I've searched around this website, and most solutions to this problem involve switching from KeyListener to KeyBindings. This wont work for me because I need to know exactly when a key is pressed, released and held down. To my knowledge, KeyBindings does not provide all those.
I've tried to use
this.requestFocus();
after creating the new JPanel, but it didn't work, however when I use the same line inside the paintComponent(), it works. Which brings me to my questions: How does this reflect on performance? My paintComponent() is called about 60 times/sec. Is there a way to call it once and still have this working? I see that requestDefaultFocus() from the type JComponent is deprecated...
I've also tried adding same KeyListener to the second JPanel, but that didn't help. Im guessing one of the JLabels is the one that gets focus?

This wont work for me because I need to know exactly when a key is pressed, released and held down. To my knowledge, KeyBindings does not provide all those.
Yes it does. You have an Action for "pressed" and "released". There is no such Action as "held down" (even for a KeyListener), you just get multiple events generated.
this.requestFocus();
That is not the proper method to use for requestion focus on a component. Read the API for that method and it will tell you the proper method to use.
however when I use the same line inside the paintComponent(), it works.
This is because you can't request focus on a component until the frame has been realized, which means you've invoked pack() or setVisible() on the frame.
Is there a way to call it once and still have this working?
See the RequestFocusListener class in Dialog Focus.
The proper solution is to use Key Bindings so you don't need to use these work arounds.

Related

How to make JTextFields clickable?

I posted a similar question a year ago, but it was not really well written and I didn't get an answer I could work with. Now I stand in front of the same problem. I got a JPanel (my content pane), where a MouseListener is implemented.
Everywhere I click, I get the exact coordinates of my mouse click. Except my JTextField components. When I click on those, the MouseEvent isn't even triggered. H
ow do I do this, so my mouse clicks on those will also call the mouse event?
Tried: setEnable(false) and setHighlighter(null)
Sorry thought I fixed the X/Y problem.
The X/Y problem simply means you are telling us what your attempted solution is without telling us what your requirement is. We can't suggest a different approach if we don't know what you are trying to do.
I want to open a menu,
Now we know what the requirement is.
The solution is to add the MouseListener to the text field, not the panel. If you have the same popup of the panel and the text field, then you still need to add the listener to both the panel and the text field.
You can do this in one of two ways:
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on Bringing up a Popup Menu for a working example.
Note the above tutorial is a little old, you can also check out the setComonentPopuMenu(...) method of the JComponent class. This approach will create the listener for you.

Puzzle game with KeyListener using Java GUI?

I want to implement key listener on my puzzle game.
i have done it with action listener but now want to move on with key listener.
My logic for action listener was that:
when a specific button is clicked
it checks if is adjacent button's icon is null
if it is null then their icons will be swapped
Now, how can I do it with key listener?
Thank you.
if( b1==e.getSource()){
if(b2.getIcon()==null){
b2.setIcon(b1.getIcon());
b1.setIcon(null);
}
else if(b5.getIcon()==null){
b5.setIcon(b1.getIcon());
b1.setIcon(null);
}
}
You tell us that you have implemented a KeyListener but it's not working. Without code, all we can do is guess, so here's mine:
KeyListeners require focus to work, and so if your GUI has any components that steal the focus, such as JButtons, all JTextComponents such as JTextArea or JTextField, JComboBoxes, JLists,... then your KeyListener won't work.
One kludge is to force the component with the KeyListener to have the focus and to greedily hold on to the focus. This is not advisable since it will force your program to behave abnormally since most users expect buttons to have and retain focus when pressed, and text components won't work if they're not allowed focus.
Again, often the best solution is to use Key Bindings since these can work without requiring focus and are a cleaner way to capture keystrokes. Please look at the Key Bindings Tutorial and then have a look at my example code for using Key Bindings here and here.
Again for better and more specific help, then please tell us more of the details and show us your pertinent code, preferably as a minimal example program or MCVE.

What's the difference between setVisible(true), repaint() and validate()?

I create a little program that load a frame in which I added some panels.
When I click on some button it should show some panels and hide other.
I'm experiencing some difficult to do it, even because I don't really figure out the diference between setVisible(true), repaint() and validate() (that some friends of mine suggested to me).
I hope you can make me to understand!
Thank you.
Carefully read the API for JComponent. The usages are:
setVisible - it will hide or show your component altogether. If you set it as false, you won't see it at all.
repaint() - is called when the actual pixels need to be redrawn, this is done automatically. It's used, for example, when you move a window on top of your GUI and then move it away. The part that was covered needs to be redrawn.
validate() - you should call this when the layout of your GUI has changed and you need the manager to replace and redraw your GUI.
It's a bit more complicated than that, so again, carefully read the API.
setVisible(true): sets the component so that it's visible.
repaint(): calls the paint method on the component.
revalidate(): updates the component based on the root component

Adding tooltip text to JLabel prevents containing JPanel from throwing MouseEvents

I have a JPanel (pNums) which contains another JPanel (pGrid). pGrid itself contains a grid (JLabel[][] in a GridLayout) of labels. There is a mouse listener which catches events from pGrid and does fairly important stuff with them (as in, the entire functionality of the program relies on the mouseClicked() event). This works perfectly, exactly the way I wanted it to... until I add tooltips to the labels.
As soon as I call JLabel.setToolTipText("SomeString") the listener stops reacting to events (I have tried most, if not all of the mouse events, none of them seem to be called).
I am sure that it is the tooltips by the way, commenting out the setToolTipText() completely fixes the problem. Of course, since I needed the tooltips, it also causes a whole host of other problems.
I've looked around and while I haven't found anything quite right, I get the impression that I just chose a really bad way to do what I wanted. But I also want to know for sure.
Can I get both the event and the tooltip or should I go back to the drawing board.
I think you might be able to "fix" this issue, with setting delay on tooltip appearance. But once it will appear user will have to click to hide it anyway.
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/ToolTipManager.html
The reson for this might be, that tooltip itself needs mouse click, to hide.

Java KeyListener is not working

I've just managed to get KeyListener to work in an empty application, but then I tried to implement it in my application and it simply doesn't work, no matter how much I enter keys!
A friend told me it's because I have buttons (JButton) on the application (and I implement the actionPerformed method,) can anyone explain to me why this is happening (and how to fix it) ?
EDIT:-
Yes, the problem is about focus, and I found the solution in some forums, and the solution is very simple. It`s by adding:
setFocusable(true); after, setVisible(true); in the class that extends JFrame.
To wich component are you adding the KeyListener? i think that if you want to listen the KeyEvents in the whole calculator you must add it to the Container in wich the buttons are.
But i belive that only the component who has the focus recive the KeyEvents, so that i dont know if the container can has the focus or if the events are promoted to their parent if the focus is on the buttons of the calculator.
You can solve this adding a keyListener to the container doing the stuff (printing the characters i suposse), and to the buttons and the textfield, promoting the event to it's container

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