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How to Add text to JTextArea

Im creating a programme using java. I want the user to enter some text, then push the button so the text entered shows in the label. However, I have 2 problems. First, the text are isn´t displaying when I execute the app. Second, I don´t know how to allow the user to type in the area. Im new in java so that´s why Im asking. Here is the code. Thank you.
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
class Boton extends JFrame implements ActionListener {
JButton boton;
JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
JLabel etiqueta = new JLabel();
public Boton() {
setLayout(null);
boton = new JButton("Escribir");
boton.setBounds(100, 150, 100, 30);
boton.addActionListener(this);
add(boton);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (e.getSource() == boton) {
try {
String texto = textArea.getText();
etiqueta.setText(texto);
Thread.sleep(3000);
System.exit(0);
} catch (Exception excep) {
System.exit(0);
}
}
}
}
public class Main{
public static void main(String[] ar) {
Boton boton1 =new Boton();
boton1.setBounds(0,0,450,350);
boton1.setVisible(true);
boton1.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
}

Problems:
You never add the JTextArea into your GUI, and if it doesn't show, a user cannot directly interact with it.
You are calling Thread.sleep on the Swing event thread, and this will put the entire application to sleep, meaning the text that you added will not show.
Other issues include use of null layouts and setBounds -- avoid doing this.
Solutions:
Set the JTextArea's column and row properties so that it sizes well.
Since your JTextArea's text is going into a JLabel, a component that only allows a single line of text, I wonder if you should be using a JTextArea at all. Perhaps a JTextField would work better since it allows user input but only one line of text.
Add the JTextArea to a JScrollPane (its viewport actually) and add that to your GUI. Then the user can interact directly with it. This is most easily done by passing the JTextArea into a JScrollPane's constructor.
Get rid of the Thread.sleep and instead, if you want to use a delay, use a Swing Timer. check out the tutorial here
For example:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.Window;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Main2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// create GUI in a thread-safe manner
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> createAndShowGui());
}
private static void createAndShowGui() {
BotonExample mainPanel = new BotonExample();
JFrame frame = new JFrame("GUI");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
frame.add(mainPanel);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
class BotonExample extends JPanel {
private JLabel etiqueta = new JLabel(" ");
private JButton boton = new JButton("Escribir");
// jtext area rows and column properties
private int rows = 5;
private int columns = 30;
private JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(rows, columns);
public BotonExample() {
// alt-e will activate button
boton.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_E);
boton.addActionListener(e -> {
boton.setEnabled(false); // prevent button from re-activating
String text = textArea.getText();
etiqueta.setText(text);
// delay for timer
int delay = 3000;
Timer timer = new Timer(delay, e2 -> {
// get current window and dispose ofit
Window window = SwingUtilities.getWindowAncestor(boton);
window.dispose();
});
timer.setRepeats(false);
timer.start(); // start timer
});
// create JPanels to add to GUI
JPanel topPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEADING, 5, 5));
topPanel.add(new JLabel("Etiqueta:"));
topPanel.add(etiqueta);
JPanel bottomPanel = new JPanel();
bottomPanel.add(boton);
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(textArea);
// use layout manager and add components
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
add(topPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(bottomPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
}
}

textarea.setText("Text"); // this will insert text into the text area
textarea.setVisable(true); // this will display the text area so you can type in it
textarea.setSize(500,500); // set size of the textarea so it actually shows
The user should be able to type in the TA when it is displayed and just do a getText to pull the text

How to display one Jframe at a time? [duplicate]

I'm trying to make a little game that will first show the player a simple login screen where they can enter their name (I will need it later to store their game state info), let them pick a difficulty level etc, and will only show the main game screen once the player has clicked the play button. I'd also like to allow the player to navigate to a (hopefully for them rather large) trophy collection, likewise in what will appear to them to be a new screen.
So far I have a main game window with a grid layout and a game in it that works (Yay for me!). Now I want to add the above functionality.
How do I go about doing this? I don't think I want to go the multiple JFrame route as I only want one icon visible in the taskbar at a time (or would setting their visibility to false effect the icon too?) Do I instead make and destroy layouts or panels or something like that?
What are my options? How can I control what content is being displayed? Especially given my newbie skills?

A simple modal dialog such as a JDialog should work well here. The main GUI which will likely be a JFrame can be invisible when the dialog is called, and then set to visible (assuming that the log-on was successful) once the dialog completes. If the dialog is modal, you'll know exactly when the user has closed the dialog as the code will continue right after the line where you call setVisible(true) on the dialog. Note that the GUI held by a JDialog can be every bit as complex and rich as that held by a JFrame.
Another option is to use one GUI/JFrame but swap views (JPanels) in the main GUI via a CardLayout. This could work quite well and is easy to implement. Check out the CardLayout tutorial for more.
Oh, and welcome to stackoverflow.com!

Here is an example of a Login Dialog as #HovercraftFullOfEels suggested.
Username: stackoverflow Password: stackoverflow
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.Arrays;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestFrame extends JFrame {
private PassWordDialog passDialog;
public TestFrame() {
passDialog = new PassWordDialog(this, true);
passDialog.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new TestFrame();
frame.getContentPane().setBackground(Color.BLACK);
frame.setTitle("Logged In");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
}
});
}
}
class PassWordDialog extends JDialog {
private final JLabel jlblUsername = new JLabel("Username");
private final JLabel jlblPassword = new JLabel("Password");
private final JTextField jtfUsername = new JTextField(15);
private final JPasswordField jpfPassword = new JPasswordField();
private final JButton jbtOk = new JButton("Login");
private final JButton jbtCancel = new JButton("Cancel");
private final JLabel jlblStatus = new JLabel(" ");
public PassWordDialog() {
this(null, true);
}
public PassWordDialog(final JFrame parent, boolean modal) {
super(parent, modal);
JPanel p3 = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 1));
p3.add(jlblUsername);
p3.add(jlblPassword);
JPanel p4 = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 1));
p4.add(jtfUsername);
p4.add(jpfPassword);
JPanel p1 = new JPanel();
p1.add(p3);
p1.add(p4);
JPanel p2 = new JPanel();
p2.add(jbtOk);
p2.add(jbtCancel);
JPanel p5 = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
p5.add(p2, BorderLayout.CENTER);
p5.add(jlblStatus, BorderLayout.NORTH);
jlblStatus.setForeground(Color.RED);
jlblStatus.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
add(p1, BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(p5, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
pack();
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
#Override
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
jbtOk.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (Arrays.equals("stackoverflow".toCharArray(), jpfPassword.getPassword())
&& "stackoverflow".equals(jtfUsername.getText())) {
parent.setVisible(true);
setVisible(false);
} else {
jlblStatus.setText("Invalid username or password");
}
}
});
jbtCancel.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
setVisible(false);
parent.dispose();
System.exit(0);
}
});
}
}

I suggest you insert the following code:
JFrame f = new JFrame();
JTextField text = new JTextField(15); //the 15 sets the size of the text field
JPanel p = new JPanel();
JButton b = new JButton("Login");
f.add(p); //so you can add more stuff to the JFrame
f.setSize(250,150);
f.setVisible(true);
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
Insert that when you want to add the stuff in. Next we will add all the stuff to the JPanel:
p.add(text);
p.add(b);
Now we add the ActionListeners to make the JButtons to work:
b.addActionListener(this);
public void actionPerforemed(ActionEvent e)
{
//Get the text of the JTextField
String TEXT = text.getText();
}
Don't forget to import the following if you haven't already:
import java.awt.event*;
import java.awt.*; //Just in case we need it
import java.x.swing.*;
I hope everything i said makes sense, because sometimes i don't (especially when I'm talking coding/Java) All the importing (if you didn't know) goes at the top of your code.

Instead of adding the game directly to JFrame, you can add your content to JPanel (let's call it GamePanel) and add this panel to the frame. Do the same thing for login screen: add all content to JPanel (LoginPanel) and add it to frame. When your game will start, you should do the following:
Add LoginPanel to frame
Get user input and load it's details
Add GamePanel and destroy LoginPanel (since it will be quite fast to re-create new one, so you don't need to keep it memory).

How to use DefaultEditorKit in an AbstractAction

My notepad program that I'm writing uses AbstractActions for each item in the JMenuBar, and I want to keep it consistent that way throughout my code. And now I'm implementing Cut, Copy, Paste into the program but I'm unsure of how to do that with Action.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.text.DefaultEditorKit;
public class Home {
static Action Cut = new AbstractAction("Cut-Action") {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// Where I want to use cut
new DefaultEditorKit.CutAction();
}
};
static public JMenuBar createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu menu = new JMenu("Edit");
menu.add(Cut); // Adds the cut action
// adds the non-action method
JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem(new DefaultEditorKit.CutAction());
item.setText("Cut-NonAction");
menu.add(item);
menuBar.add(menu);
return menuBar;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Home");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JMenuBar menuBar = createMenuBar();
frame.add(menuBar, BorderLayout.NORTH);
JTextPane txt = new JTextPane();
JScrollPane s = new JScrollPane(txt);
frame.add(s, BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.setSize(400, 300);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
How would I be able to use the cut action in my abstract action??

I figured it out with a little bit of trial and error.
I changed this code:
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
new DefaultEditorKit().CutAction();
}
to:
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Action cut = new DefaultEditorKit.CutAction();
cut.actionPerformed(e);
}

How would I be able to use the cut action in my abstract action??
Why are you trying to do this? The is not the way to use the Actions from the editor kit.
This is the proper way to use the actions:
JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem(new DefaultEditorKit.CutAction());
Or if you happen to need the CutAction on a menu and on a toolbar you would use code like:
Action cut = new DefaultEditorKit.CutAction();
cut.putValue(Action.NAME, "Cut");
JMenuItem cutMenuItem = new JMenuItem( cut );
JButton cutButton = new JButton( cut );
Now the same Action is shared which means you can enable/disable the Action and both components will be affected. Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Actions for more information and examples.

Adding a JScrollPane to a JMenu

I have a JMenu which will include JMenuItems that are generated on start-up from a database. As such, it's quite likely that the menu will be too large and run off the screen.
As such, I am trying to add a JScrollPane to the JMenu.
Example, to the effect of;
JMenu employeesMenu = new JMenu("Employees");
JScrollPane emScroll = new JScrollPane();
JList contents = new JList();
contents.add(new JRadioButton("1"));
contents.add(new JRadioButton("2"));
contents.add(new JRadioButton("3"));
// ... etc
emScroll.add(contents);
employeesMenu.add(emScroll);
Now, my understanding is that a JMenu's contents are stored in a JList inside a JPopupMenu. So my question now is, what is a way of forcing that JList into a JScrollPane? Alternatively, is it possible to use a JScrollBar instead? Any input appreciated.

Maybe you can use Darryl's Menu Scroller approach. It adds arrow buttons at the top/bottom of the menu when required.

The below shows how to add JScrollPane to a JMenu. JLabel components are used as menu items below, as JMenuItem seems that can't be used in a JScrollPane. A mouseListener is added to each JLabel to mimic the JMenuItem behaviour, i.e., changing colors on mouse entering/exiting, as well as taking action on clicking an item (in this case, the text of the label is printed out, which can be used to decide what follows next). One may need to adjust the scrollPane.setPreferredSize, as well as the colours when the mouse enters/exits an item (even though, for convenience, the default colours used by the current LookAndFeel for the JMenuItem are used), as required.
The reason for using <html> tags in the text of the JLabel is to allow the background colour (when you move your mouse over the items) to fill the width of each item in the JScrollPane, rather than applying background colour only up to where the text ends. The <html> tags are removed when reading the text of the selected item/label.
MenuExample.java
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.Random;
public class MenuExample {
Random rand = new Random();
Color menuBackCol;
Color mItemBackCol;
Color mItemForegCol;
Color mItmSelBackCol;
Color mItmSelForegCol;
MenuExample() {
menuBackCol = UIManager.getColor("Menu.background");
mItemBackCol = UIManager.getColor("MenuItem.background");
mItemForegCol = UIManager.getColor("MenuItem.foreground");
mItmSelBackCol = UIManager.getColor("MenuItem.selectionBackground");
mItmSelForegCol = UIManager.getColor("MenuItem.selectionForeground");
Box box = new Box(BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
for (int i = 0; i < 250; i++) {
box.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 2))); // creates space between the components
JLabel lbl = new JLabel("<html>  " + i + ": " + rand.nextInt(10000) + "</html>");
lbl.setOpaque(true);
lbl.setBackground(mItemBackCol);
lbl.addMouseListener(
new LabelController(lbl, mItemBackCol, mItemForegCol, mItmSelBackCol, mItmSelForegCol));
box.add(lbl);
}
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(box);
scrollPane.getVerticalScrollBar().setUnitIncrement(20); // adjusts scrolling speed
scrollPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 300));
scrollPane.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder());
scrollPane.getViewport().setBackground(menuBackCol);
JMenuBar mb = new JMenuBar();
JMenu menu = new JMenu("Menu");
JMenu submenu = new JMenu("Sub Menu");
submenu.add(scrollPane);
menu.add(new JMenuItem("Item 1"));
menu.add(new JMenuItem("Item 2"));
menu.add(new JMenuItem("Item 3"));
menu.add(submenu);
mb.add(menu);
JFrame f = new JFrame("Menu with ScrollBar Example");
f.setJMenuBar(mb);
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.setSize(640, 480);
f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
f.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
new MenuExample();
}
}
LabelController.java
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class LabelController implements MouseListener {
JLabel lbl;
Color mItemBackCol;
Color mItemForegCol;
Color mItmSelBackCol;
Color mItmSelForegCol;
public LabelController(JLabel lbl, Color mItemBackCol, Color mItemForegCol, Color mItmSelBackCol,
Color mItmSelForegCol) {
this.lbl = lbl;
this.mItemBackCol = mItemBackCol;
this.mItemForegCol = mItemForegCol;
this.mItmSelBackCol = mItmSelBackCol;
this.mItmSelForegCol = mItmSelForegCol;
}
#Override
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
String selectedText = lbl.getText().replaceAll("<[^>]*>", "").replace(" ","").trim();
System.out.println(selectedText);
javax.swing.MenuSelectionManager.defaultManager().clearSelectedPath(); // close the menu
lbl.setBackground(mItemBackCol);
lbl.setForeground(mItemForegCol);
}
#Override
public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
lbl.setBackground(mItmSelBackCol);
lbl.setForeground(mItmSelForegCol);
}
#Override
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
lbl.setBackground(mItemBackCol);
lbl.setForeground(mItemForegCol);
}
#Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
}
#Override
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
}
}

Can't Add JMenuItem to JMenu in JPopupMenu

I've got a new UI I'm working on implementing in Java and I'm having trouble implementing a JPopupMenu containing a JMenu (as well as several JMenuItems), which itself contains several JMenuItems. The JPopupMenu appears where I click the RMB, and it looks good, but the "Connect" JMenu doesn't seem to have any children when I mouse-over, despite my best efforts to .add() them.
Having looked at several examples online, I haven't seen any that specifically implement a listener for mouseEntered() to roll out the sub-items. I'm of a mind that I'm messing something up in my menu initialization method.
I've attached the pertinent code for your perusal.
//Elsewhere...
private JPopupMenu _clickMenu;
//End Elsehwere...
private void initializeMenu()
{
_clickMenu = new JPopupMenu();
_clickMenu.setVisible(false);
_clickMenu.add(generateConnectionMenu());
JMenuItem menuItem;
menuItem = new JMenuItem("Configure");
addMenuItemListeners(menuItem);
_clickMenu.add(menuItem);
menuItem = new JMenuItem("Status");
addMenuItemListeners(menuItem);
_clickMenu.add(menuItem);
}
private JMenu generateConnectionMenu()
{
JMenu menu = new JMenu("Connect");
List<Port> portList = _database.getAllPortsInCard(_cardId);
for(int i = 0; i < portList.size(); i++)
{
menu.add(new JMenuItem(portList.get(i).getName()));
}
return menu;
}
The code is certainly not the prettiest, but go easy on me as it's been altered too many times today as time permitted while I tried to figure out why this wasn't working. I'm thinking it may be a question of scope, but I've tried a few different code configurations to no avail. Feel free to ask any followup questions or smack me for an obvious oversight (it's happened before...). Thanks all!
Edit:
Chalk this one up to a lack of experience with Java and Swing... I was manually positioning and making the JPopupMenu visible instead of using the JComponent.setComponentPopupMenu(menu) method. After doing this for the card module in the above image (itself a JButton), the submenu displays correctly. A different, functional version of the initialization code is included below.
private void initializeMenu()
{
_cardMenu = new JPopupMenu();
JMenu menu = new JMenu("Connect");
JMenuItem menuItem;
menuItem = new JMenuItem("1");
menu.add(menuItem);
menuItem = new JMenuItem("2");
menu.add(menuItem);
_cardMenu.add(menu);
_cardMenu.add(new JMenuItem("Configure"));
_cardMenu.add(new JMenuItem("Status"));
_mainButton.setComponentPopupMenu(_cardMenu); //Important, apparently!
}
So, lesson learned. Thanks for the help guys!

This is common Bug or Swing property that in one moment can be visible only one Lightweight popup window, same issue is e.g. with popup from JComboBox added into JPopupMenu,
change Lightweight property to the Heavyweight
better would be
use un_decorated JDialog or JOptionPane with JComponents
EDIT #trashgod
everything works as I excepted, all JMenus, JMenuItems are visible and repeatly fired correct evets
code
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
public class ContextMenu implements ActionListener, MenuListener, MenuKeyListener {
private JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
public ContextMenu() {
final JPopupMenu contextMenu = new JPopupMenu("Edit");
JMenu menu = new JMenu("Sub Menu");
menu.add(makeMenuItem("Sub Menu Save"));
menu.add(makeMenuItem("Sub Menu Save As"));
menu.add(makeMenuItem("Sub Menu Close"));
menu.addMenuListener(this);
JMenu menu1 = new JMenu("Sub Menu");
menu1.add(makeMenuItem("Deepest Sub Menu Save"));
menu1.add(makeMenuItem("Deepest Sub Menu Save As"));
menu1.add(makeMenuItem("Deepest Sub Menu Close"));
menu.add(menu1);
menu1.addMenuListener(this);
contextMenu.add(menu);
contextMenu.add(makeMenuItem("Plain Save"));
contextMenu.add(makeMenuItem("Plain Save As"));
contextMenu.add(makeMenuItem("Plain Close"));
contextMenu.addMenuKeyListener(this);
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
frame.add(panel);
panel.setComponentPopupMenu(contextMenu);
textArea.setInheritsPopupMenu(true);
panel.add(BorderLayout.CENTER, textArea);
JTextField textField = new JTextField();
textField.setInheritsPopupMenu(true);
panel.add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, textField);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(400, 200);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
textArea.append(e.getActionCommand() + "\n");
}
private JMenuItem makeMenuItem(String label) {
JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem(label);
item.addActionListener(this);
return item;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
ContextMenu contextMenu = new ContextMenu();
}
});
}
public void menuSelected(MenuEvent e) {
textArea.append("menuSelected" + "\n");
}
public void menuDeselected(MenuEvent e) {
textArea.append("menuDeselected" + "\n");
}
public void menuCanceled(MenuEvent e) {
textArea.append("menuCanceled" + "\n");
}
public void menuKeyTyped(MenuKeyEvent e) {
textArea.append("menuKeyTyped" + "\n");
}
public void menuKeyPressed(MenuKeyEvent e) {
textArea.append("menuKeyPressed" + "\n");
}
public void menuKeyReleased(MenuKeyEvent e) {
textArea.append("menuKeyReleased" + "\n");
}
}

I don't see an obvious problem in the code shown, although #mKorbel's point may apply. For reference, this ControlPanel adds a subMenu with several items.