This question already has an answer here:
How to stop Java from running the entire code with out waiting for Gui input from The user
(1 answer)
Closed 5 years ago.
I'm a rather basic programmer who has been assigned to make a GUI program without any prior experience with creating a GUI. Using NetBeans, I managed to design what I feel the GUI should look like, and what some of the buttons should do when pressed, but the main program doesn't wait for the user's input before continuing. My question is, how do I make this program wait for input?
public class UnoMain {
public static void main(String args[]) {
UnoGUI form = new UnoGUI(); // GUI class instance
// NetBeans allowed me to design some dialog boxes alongside the main JFrame, so
form.gameSetupDialog.setVisible(true); // This is how I'm trying to use a dialog box
/* Right around here is the first part of the problem.
* I don't know how to make the program wait for the dialog to complete.
* It should wait for a submission by a button named playerCountButton.
* After the dialog is complete it's supposed to hide too but it doesn't do that either. */
Uno Game = new Uno(form.Players); // Game instance is started
form.setVisible(true); // Main GUI made visible
boolean beingPlayed = true; // Variable dictating if player still wishes to play.
form.playerCountLabel.setText("Players: " + Game.Players.size()); // A GUI label reflects the number of players input by the user in the dialog box.
while (beingPlayed) {
if (!Game.getCompleted()) // While the game runs, two general functions are repeatedly called.
{
Player activePlayer = Game.Players.get(Game.getWhoseTurn());
// There are CPU players, which do their thing automatically...
Game.Turn(activePlayer);
// And human players which require input before continuing.
/* Second part of the problem:
* if activePlayer's strategy == manual/human
* wait for GUI input from either a button named
* playButton or a button named passButton */
Game.advanceTurn();
// GUI updating code //
}
}
}
}
I've spent about three days trying to figure out how to integrate my code and GUI, so I would be grateful if someone could show me how to make this one thing work. If you need any other information to help me, please ask.
EDIT: Basically, the professor assigned us to make a game of Uno with a GUI. There can be computer and human players, the numbers of which are determined by the user at the beginning of the game. I coded the entire thing console-based at first to get the core of the game to work, and have since tried to design a GUI; currently this GUI only displays information about the game while it's running, but I'm not sure how to allow the code to wait for and receive input from the GUI without the program charging on ahead. I've investigated other StackOverflow questions like this, this, this, or this, but I cannot comprehend how to apply the answers to my own code. If possible, I'd like an answer similar to the answers in the links (an answer with code I can examine and/or use). I apologize if I sound demanding or uneducated and confusing; I've been working diligently on this project for a couple weeks and it's now due tomorrow, and I've been stressing because I can't advance until I figure this out.
TL;DR - How do I get my main program to wait and listen for a button click event? Should I use modal dialog boxes, or is there some other way to do it? In either case, what code needs to be changed to do it?
Unlike console based programming, that typically has a well defined execution path, GUI apps operate within a event driven environment. Events come in from the outside and you react to them. There are many types of events that might occur, but typically, we're interested in those generate by the user, via mouse clicks and keyboard input.
This changes the way an GUI application works.
For example, you will need to get rid of your while loop, as this is a very dangerous thing to do in a GUI environment, as it will typically "freeze" the application, making it look like your application has hung (in essence it has).
Instead, you would provide a serious of listeners on your UI controls that respond to user input and update some kind of model, that may effect other controls on your UI.
So, to try and answer your question, you kind of don't (wait for user input), the application already is, but you capture that input via listeners and act upon them as required.
Related
im creating a game using java language. I am new to GUI. I want to be able to somehow loop a frame. For example, if the user pressed 2 players, the second frame should be able to show twice like "Player 1 name: " then after pressing enter "player 2 name: " should be the next one and then after pressing next another frame will show. I want to be able to update my GUI every time the enter button is clicked, and limit the update depending on how many players was chosen. The images shown below have different .java files
while(i < game.getnPlayers()) {
if (action.getActionCommand().equals("enter")) {
// codes
}
i++;
}
im trying to start with this code, but when i do. it doesnt get updated
I see you have tagged the post with IntelliJ-idea, so I am assuming you are using the GUI designer. Graphical user interfaces use listeners to listen for certain input (OnMouseClick, ActionListener and so on), and then performs methods you assign to the listener. I would suggest reading some documents or watching some videos on the topic before moving on with your game.
A source from oracle on writing Event listeners
A video on making Java Swing GUIs using IntelliJ
Hope this helps! Good luck!
On your GUI class you must have the button function. There you can create an function for when the button is pressed (in this case the "ENTER"), then you will see how many players were selected.
I hope everyone is doing well.
I've built a hangman game with a swing gui and everything works well enough, HOWEVER I am trying to make a popup show up by constructing a new JFrame object when the user wins or loses with a "you lose" message or what have you. No problem, but I want a specific window to close when activating the button listener on the popup, or when the 'x' is clicked. Assume my program has 3 windows up, and I only want to close 2 of them with one click.
I tried stuff in the area of
this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
But that specific one closes all the windows. If you want to see more specific sample code, I would happy to provide it, but it didn't seem necessary for this question.
Either way, I can't figure out how to do this. Is this possible using Swing?
Thank you so much in advance. You guys are always so helpful.
This question already has an answer here:
Integrating Swing in a simple text adventure game
(1 answer)
Closed 6 years ago.
I am trying to make a text adventure after a choice is submitted i want it to move to the next method and allow you to press submit again. How would I do this?
private void submitActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
if (option1.isSelected()) {
one();
} else if (option2.isSelected()) {
two();
} else {
}
}
private void one() {
//Button action here
}
You need to re-align your thinking. It's not the next method that you want to call but rather the next state -- you want to change the state of your model (the logical portion of your program) depending on where the user is and what responses he makes, and change the behavior of the program to the user's responses based on this state. What you don't want to do is to to hard-wire your code as you're currently doing as this will lead to rigid programs, programs that cannot adapt to changes in user selection or changes to the logic of the program itself.
Again, the best solution to your general problem is to gear your program to use the state design pattern where the response of the program to input depends on the state of the model (the object that controls what happens).
If I understand correctly, the same button will be used in the progression of your adventure. If that's the case, you could start by registering a first ActionListener whose actionPerformed() corresponds to one. at the end of that method, you can deregister the listener and register a new one whose actionPerformed implementation is two()
I wrote a simple little maze game for a terminal which repeatedly asks the user to do something (e.g. "In which direction would you like to go? [N/E/S/W]"). I have a navigate() method running in a loop that fires off these questions, stores their answers and does something depending on the answer.
public enum Dir (N, E, S, W);
public void navigate() {
Dir nextDir = utils.askDirection("Which way do you want to go?");
// Do stuff with answer, like changing position of user in maze
}
Now, I've written a simple GUI for my game. I deliberately put all the references to the terminal in a ConsoleUtils class which implements a Utils interface (this has methods like askQuestion()) - the idea being that I could create a GuiUtils class and have my game either as a terminal game or as a GUI game.
The problem is that the navigate method asks the user a question and then "waits" for the response, which the Utils class gives it by using a Scanner to read the newest line of input. However if I use Event Listeners for the new N/E/S/W buttons in my GUI, they fire off events regardless whether the navigate method has asked for one or not.
--> Image of GUI
Is there any way I can combine this or do I need to write a new navigate method for the GUI?
(To be honest, I'm also not entirely sure whether my GUI class should instantiate a game class, in which case the logic for navigate could end up in a GUI method anyway, or whether the game should have a GUI. I haven't written any code for the event listener either yet, since I'm not sure which class should be calling which. This is probably a separate question.)
Your text based game has a loop that repeatedly asks questions to gather user input. Swing provides this loop for you by continually executing Runnable blocks of code that have been posted to the EventQueue. For example, when the user presses a button labeled E, code is posted to the queue that invokes your ActionEvent implementation to handle your game's interpretation of the move east command.
For reference, a complete example of a very simple guessing game is examined here. In pseudocode, the corresponding text based game might look like this:
initialize
loop
prompt "Guess what color!"
get chosenColor
if chosenColor = actualColor
say "You win!"
reset game
else
say "Keep trying."
end loop
A more elaborate game cited there includes the original text-based source.
I'm currently programming a game in java and am using an interface to handle input/output for the game. I currently have a text interface working properly. I'm using code similar to the following:
while (moveExists())
{
String in = interface.getInput();
processInput(in);
interface.displayOutput(this.getState);
}
The text only interface works because it pauses to wait for input, but I am not sure how to accomplish a similar behaviour in a GUI implementation. How may I 'wait' for input from an actionListener?
If not, I'll probably use code less like a game loop and more like a finite state machine so that I don't need to deal with two different threads trying to co-ordinate their actions.
You could simply start a GUI (that it has its own separated thread) containing a text area and maybe a button or something like that, then you add an ActionListener to the text area or button and then you execute the code you need when the Listener is triggered (i.e. some code has been inserted or button clicked).
Another story if you have also another 'background' thread that needs to run in a loop...