We Keep Coding

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.

Need MouseOutEvent of MenuBar to detect click: GWT

I am a beginner using GWT. I have a menubar which I want to retain on the screen even if the mouse is not over it. However when the mouse is not over the menubar and clicked somewhere on the screen then I want the menubar to disappear. I tried using the MouseOutEvent but I need it to fire only when the mouse is clicked not just out. Any help would be appreciated.
this.menu.addDomHandler(menuHoverOutHandler, MouseOutEvent.getType());
MouseOutHandler menuHoverOutHandler = new MouseOutHandler() {
public void onMouseOut(MouseOutEvent event) {
Window.alert("I am outside the region");
}
};

Below is a fully working answer taken from my live app:
The way I solved the menu close on mouse out was to run a boolean variable "isMouseOut" in the top of the constructor to keep track, and then allocate the MouseListener in a more OO friendly way to keep track of the multiple MouseIn-MouseOut events as a user interacts with the menu. Which calls a separate menuClear method acting upon the state of the boolean "isMouseOut". The class implements MouseListener. This is how its done.
Create an ArrayList adding all the menu items to this array first. Like so:
Font menuFont = new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 12);
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
getContentPane().add(menuBar, BorderLayout.NORTH);
// Array of MenuItems
ArrayList<JMenuItem> aMenuItms = new ArrayList<JMenuItem>();
JMenuItem mntmRefresh = new JMenuItem("Refresh");
JMenuItem mntmNew = new JMenuItem("New");
JMenuItem mntmNormal = new JMenuItem("Normal");
JMenuItem mntmMax = new JMenuItem("Max");
JMenuItem mntmStatus = new JMenuItem("Status");
JMenuItem mntmFeedback = new JMenuItem("Send Feedback");
JMenuItem mntmEtsyTWebsite = new JMenuItem("EtsyT website");
JMenuItem mntmAbout = new JMenuItem("About");
aMenuItms.add(mntmRefresh);
aMenuItms.add(mntmNew);
aMenuItms.add(mntmNormal);
aMenuItms.add(mntmMax);
aMenuItms.add(mntmStatus);
aMenuItms.add(mntmFeedback);
aMenuItms.add(mntmEtsyTWebsite);
aMenuItms.add(mntmAbout);
then iterate over the arrayList at this stage adding a MouseListener using the for() loop:
for (Component c : aMenuItms) {
if (c instanceof JMenuItem) {
c.addMouseListener(ml);
}
}
Now set JMenu parents for the MenuBar:
// Now set JMenu parents on MenuBar
final JMenu mnFile = new JMenu("File");
menuBar.add(mnFile).setFont(menuFont);
final JMenu mnView = new JMenu("View");
menuBar.add(mnView).setFont(menuFont);
final JMenu mnHelp = new JMenu("Help");
menuBar.add(mnHelp).setFont(menuFont);
Then add the dropdown menuItems children to the JMenu parents:
// Now set menuItems as children of JMenu parents
mnFile.add(mntmRefresh).setFont(menuFont);
mnFile.add(mntmNew).setFont(menuFont);
mnView.add(mntmNormal).setFont(menuFont);
mnView.add(mntmMax).setFont(menuFont);
mnHelp.add(mntmStatus).setFont(menuFont);
mnHelp.add(mntmFeedback).setFont(menuFont);
mnHelp.add(mntmEtsyTWebsite).setFont(menuFont);
mnHelp.add(mntmAbout).setFont(menuFont);
Add the mouseListeners to the JMenu parents as a separate step:
for (Component c : menuBar.getComponents()) {
if (c instanceof JMenu) {
c.addMouseListener(ml);
}
}
Now that the child menuItem elements all have their own listeners that are separate to the parent JMenu elements and the MenuBar itself - It is important to identify the object type within the MouseListener() instantiation so that you get the menu auto opening on mouseover (in this example the 3x JMenu parents) BUT ALSO avoids child exception errors and allows clean identification of mouseOUT of the menu structure without trying to monitor where the mouse position is. The MouseListener is as follows:
MouseListener ml = new MouseListener() {
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
}
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
}
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
}
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
isMouseOut = true;
timerMenuClear();
}
public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
isMouseOut = false;
Object eSource = e.getSource();
if(eSource == mnHelp || eSource == mnView || eSource == mnFile){
((JMenu) eSource).doClick();
}
}
};
The above only simulates the mouse click into the JMenu 'parents' (3x in this example) as they are the triggers for the child menu dropdowns. The timerMenuClear() method calls on the MenuSelectionManager to empty whatever selectedpath point was live at the time of real mouseOUT:
public void timerMenuClear(){
ActionListener task = new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if(isMouseOut == true){
System.out.println("Timer");
MenuSelectionManager.defaultManager().clearSelectedPath();
}
}
};
//Delay timer half a second to ensure real mouseOUT
Timer timer = new Timer(1000, task);
timer.setInitialDelay(500);
timer.setRepeats(false);
timer.start();
}
It took me a little testing, monitoring what values I could access within the JVM during its development - but it Works a treat! even with nested menus :) I hope many find this full example very useful.

Use widget's blur handler. It detects when the widget lost focus.

Opening a textpane in the same form on a Button click

I am trying to design a basic editor type of GUI in Java using Swing. I have a menu item named New clicking on which I want a blank text area to fill up the GUI. My code is as folows :
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class UI extends JFrame {
private JMenuBar bar;
private JMenu menu;
private JMenuItem item;
private JTextPane tp;
public UI() {
setLayout(new FlowLayout());
bar = new JMenuBar();
setJMenuBar(bar);
menu = new JMenu("File");
bar.add(menu);
item = new JMenuItem("New");
menu.add(item);
item.addActionListener(new xyz());
}
public class xyz implements ActionListener {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
JTextPane tp = new JTextPane();
add(tp);
}
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
// do the rest of the stuffs
}
}
However, even on clicking on the New, I do not get the textPane on the same frame. Can someone please explain.

use JTextPane#setText("") instead of to create a new JTextPane
otherwise you have to notify Container with (re)validate() and repaint()

The text-panes should probably be added to a JTabbedPane if this app. supports multiple documents. If it is intended for 'single document', put the text pane onto the frame at start-up.

JFrame's getFocusOwner() not being helpful

I am working with a Swing program and having a little trouble. The program has two windows (both are JFrames). The main window is just fine and should not be relevant to this issue.
The window I am having issues with contains a JScrollPane with a JPanel in it, and has a JMenuBar. The JPanel has a bunch of JTextComponents (some JTextFields, some JTextAreas) on it.
What I want to do is have an ActionListener attached to a JMenuItem find the JTextComponent that has focus.
I have seen the previous posts at focused component reference and How to find out which object currently has focus. My issue is that calling the particular window's getFocusOwner() method merely returns the JFrame's JRootPane, which is utterly unhelpful. Both the JScrollPane and the JPanel in question are focusable according to their isFocusable() methods. This happens even if I actually enter text into one of the JTextComponents before clicking the menu item. The cursor still blinks in the text field while I open the menu, and everything. For what it's worth, getMostRecentFocusOwner() also simply returns the JRootPane.

If you use TextActions, the action knows which JTextComponent has the focus. I've modified some code that I found here to show that even if the TextActions come from one JTextArea, they still will automatically work on any and all text components that have focus:
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TextActionExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Create a text area.
JTextArea ta = new JTextArea(15, 30);
ta.setLineWrap(true);
// Add all actions to the menu (split into two menus to make it more
// usable).
Action[] actions = ta.getActions();
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu actionmenu = new JMenu("Actions");
menubar.add(actionmenu);
JMenu firstHalf = new JMenu("1st Half");
JMenu secondHalf = new JMenu("2nd Half");
actionmenu.add(firstHalf);
actionmenu.add(secondHalf);
int mid = actions.length / 2;
for (int i = 0; i < mid; i++) {
firstHalf.add(actions[i]);
}
for (int i = mid; i < actions.length; i++) {
secondHalf.add(actions[i]);
}
JTextField textField = new JTextField(20);
JPanel textFieldPanel = new JPanel();
textFieldPanel.add(textField);
JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 0, 5, 5));
mainPanel.add(new JScrollPane(ta));
mainPanel.add(new JScrollPane(new JTextArea(15, 30)));
mainPanel.add(textFieldPanel);
// Show it . . .
JFrame f = new JFrame();
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
f.setJMenuBar(menubar);
f.pack();
f.setVisible(true);
}
}
This is very interesting stuff that I have to learn more about.

I think I have solved this, because of the fact that you lose focus when you click on a menu item, we simply have to wait for focus to return to the component before we check who has focus, I have done this using a swing timer that waits 100ms and then executes its method to check which component has focus:
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.TimerTask;
import javax.swing.*;
public class JavaApplication180 extends JFrame {
private JTextField[] JTextFields;
private JMenuBar menuBar;
private JMenu menu;
private JMenuItem item;
public JavaApplication180() {
initComponents();
createAndShowUI();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new JavaApplication180();
}
});
}
private void createAndShowUI() {
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
getContentPane().setLayout(new GridLayout(2, 2, 10, 10));
setJMenuBar(menuBar);
addComponentsToPane();
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
private void initComponents() {
JTextFields = new JTextField[4];
menuBar = new JMenuBar();
item = new JMenuItem("Who has focus?");
item.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
TimerTask tt = new TimerTask() {
#Override
public void run() {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, getMostRecentFocusOwner().getName());
}
};
new java.util.Timer().schedule(tt, 100);
}
});
menu = new JMenu("File");
menu.add(item);
menuBar.add(menu);
}
private void addComponentsToPane() {
for (int i = 0; i < JTextFields.length; i++) {
JTextFields[i] = new JTextField();
JTextFields[i].setText(String.valueOf(i));
JTextFields[i].setName(String.valueOf(i));
getContentPane().add(JTextFields[i]);
}
}
}

I'm probably too late, but I just did the following in my JFrame constructor.
this.rootPane.setFocusable(false);
Now
getFocusOwner()
will return the current JTextComponent instead of the rootPane.
I then used this code in an ActionListener attached to my JMenuItem to select the text within it.
if (getFocusOwner() instanceof JTextField)
{
((JTextField) getMostRecentFocusOwner()).selectAll();
}
It should be noted that If you have a JScrollPane etc, you may have to use setFocusable(false) on all the components between the rootPane and the textfields.
Hope this helps anyone else with the same issue!
Source: Personal Experience

When I've needed this, I wrote a focus listener. I had a JPanel with two columns of JTextFields and the focus listener kept track of which column was last used by the user. I enablesd the user to enter some text into that last focused column with a button click. You would use just one instance of your FocusListener for all text fields and have a field referencing the most recently focused component. Your menu action can then query that field to determine which text field to use.
See http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/events/focuslistener.html

Java swing: how to align menu items in rows and columns?

I'm have no trouble when creating menu bar and its item. But now, when I get a question how to make the menu items appeared as column & rows-like table shaped, I really don't know about that.
The goals is to create this kind of menu items using java.
Check this link.
And right now, I just think that I should use a jpanel as menu item, and then applying a flowlayout and then adding many jlabel(s) as I could as menuitem inside the grid. But wouldn't it worst?
What's the best deal to create the menu items such as the image preview on the above links?
I tried google, but found no related cases. CMIIW.

The popup menu of a JMenu instance is a standard container, so you can add to it whatever you want. It has a default layout, but you can change it.
Something like in your mockup is created by this code:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Menu test");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(new Dimension(600, 400));
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu menu = new JMenu("Test");
JPopupMenu popupMenu = menu.getPopupMenu();
popupMenu.setLayout(new GridLayout(5, 5));
for (int r = 0; r < 5; r++) {
for (int c = 0; c < 5; c++) {
popupMenu.add(new JMenuItem("(" + (r + 1) + ", " + (c + 1) + ")"));
}
}
menuBar.add(menu);
frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

I haven't seen a ready made component for anything like this. So I think you are on your own.
I see two possibilities:
JMenuItem is a JComponent, so you can add other components to it. You probably want to use some kind of grid based layout and add buttons or labels for the numbers.
Implement you own JMenuItem that displays your grid component instead of the normal JPopupMenu
In any case have a look at the source code of JMenu(Item) in order to understand how these components work.

The simplest solution is just set the layout of JMenu's JPopupMenu and then add items like you normally would. There's no need to create a subclass.
Example:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class menu {
public static void main(String ... args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu menu = new JMenu("A regular menu");
menu.add(new JMenuItem("Menu item"));
JMenu gridMenu = new JMenu("Menu with grid");
// This does the trick:
gridMenu.getPopupMenu().setLayout(new GridLayout(2, 2));
gridMenu.add("Top left");
gridMenu.add("Top right");
gridMenu.add("Bottom left");
gridMenu.add("Bottom right");
menu.add(gridMenu);
menuBar.add(menu);
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Menus");
frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}