JCheckBox to display and perform functionality in JList - java

I am trying to get a JCheckBox to display on a line that is in the multiple select JList and still perform its functionality.
Right now if I add the JCheckBox as an element it just prints its toString format.
Help/ideas?

If you haven't already done so, you'll need to write a custom ListCellRenderer, as discussed in Writing a Custom Cell Renderer.
Addendum: Because you'll also need an editor to handle the checkbox state, you may find it easier to use a one column JTable, as discussed in How to Use Tables. Note that a data column having the type Boolean will be automatically rendered with a check box.

Related

What text to put to a JComboBox where you want to prompt the user to selection?

I am using multiple JComboBox in a single JPanel. I was wondering what is the go to initial JComboBox selection text?
For example I can put "None" but that will seem as if some value is already selected in the JComboBox. I am using labels for which type of data they are so writing their type is unnecessary.
I can either put "" but something like "----" seems better. Is there a standard text when you want the user to select some value from JComboBox?
If you want to set an initial value to JComboBox that should be non-selectable (as soon as user selects another option, it will not be possible to select the initial one again), than it has been already answered here.
One way is to use a custom renderer. The renderer will simply display a default prompt when no item of the combo box has been selected.
Check out Combo Box Prompt for an example of this approach.

Disable particular rows of a JTable

I would like to "grey out" particular rows of a JTable so that they may not be selected by any means. The other rows should still be selectable. How do I accomplish this?
You can either override JTable.changeSelection() to deselect the offending row whenever it's selected, or provide your table with a custom ListSelectionModel where you override setSelectionInterval(), addSelectionInterval(), etc. to prevent the row from being selected in the first place.
You will want to create a custom TableCellRenderer, one that will display "disabled" information greyed out. Read the Swing Table Tutorial for more on how to create these renderers, especially the section, Concepts: Editors and Renderers.
Create a temporary TableModel which has only the rows that you want to select. After the selection made and when you want to revert, change back to original TableModel

JList text alignment

I have a JList with items that I want to show two values. Is there a way to have it show a string name and then have a right justified string to show a value. Looking something like this:
Title__________________120
Title2_________________135
Is it possible to pass in two string to an item and have the first string display on the left and the second one on the right?
Sure, implement a custom renderer. You might return a JPanel with BorderLayout as the rendering component, with the LHS text in the WEST, and the RHS text in the EAST.
Another way is to shove HTML into the default renderer (a JLabel), using an HTML table that stretches across 100% of the width. Though the custom renderer would be a better choice for a number of reasons (e.g. not presuming the type of the default renderer is a label).
BTW - perhaps you should consider using a JTable for this kind of functionality. No hacks or custom classes needed.
..does the jtable allow selecting items?
Of course! Here is an example taken directly from How to Use Tables in the tutorial. 'Jane' is selected.
A table is a little more effort to set up and get right, but it is well worth the effort.
Would a JTable perform just as a JList ..
No, the table ultimately provides more functionality. But the things it does which a list can also do, work (for the user) in much the same way.

JList with custom cell renderer vs Jtable

My current application uses a JList and everything is well (the only customization I did was to set the italic font on some of the rows).
Now I want to "upgrade" the user interface and instead of just labels in the List, I want a checkbox and a text field to be able to update the entry.
I started changing the code and adding a custom cell renderer and a custom cell model. My current problem is that the JPanel that the cell renderer is returning is not using the whole width of the container, so several list items are actually shown on the same line.
But now, I am wondering whether I should just change the whole thing to use JTable. I still need to add / remove items in the list though...
Any suggestion which one is better ? and if going with the JList, how should I go about fixing my current problem ?
In my experience using JTable is usually easier as it allows more complex data and functionality out-of-the-box. Usually when I try to do something the JList can't do, I just switch to JTable without a second thought. What you want sounds like something that should be pretty trivial to implement in a table. I suggest you try it out with some mock data to see if you can make it look and work the way you like (especially in case you want it to look like a list).
Try calling setLayoutOrientation(JList.VERTICAL) on your JList. That will restrict JList to a single column.

How to Mirror Edits across a Table Cell and Text Field

The desired behavior is akin to the mirrored text editing field provided in Excel when a given cell is selected, allowing more space to view the contents of the cell. I have a JTable with 5 columns and n rows. Column 2 holds expressions that can be arbitrarily long, thus I'd like to provide a separate JTextField to work with for editing the contents of the expression cell per row. The other fields are directly editable in the table. When the user clicks on a field in column 2, however, I want to send them to the text field. Any contents preexisting in the cell should be appear in the text field and additional edits in the text field should be mirrored in the table cell. Likewise, if someone double-clicks on the cell and edits it directly, I want those changes reflected in the text field. Thus, the user can choose to edit in either space and both are updated. Ideally, they are updated per keystroke, but update upon hitting return is acceptable.
So, far I've got the JTable, TableModel, TableModelListener, JTextField, ListSelectionListener, and AbstractAction, working together to provide most of the functionality described above. I'm missing the reflection of direct table cell edits to the text field and per-keystoke updates.
Are their ideas on how best to construct this behavior?
Well, if you want to get data from the table to the cell then you add the code to your TableModel's setValueAt() function, which should run when the user changes the content in an editable cell. I don't think that will update per-keystroke though.
If you want to move data from the textbox to the table cell use code like this
myJTextField.getDocument().addDocumentListener(new MyDocumentListener());
Where MyDocumentListener is an implementation of the javax.swing.event.DocumentListener interface
That will get you per-keystroke updates from the box to the table. But for the other way around it's a bit trickier.
There are two ways you might be able to go about doing it
1) Add a key listener to the table, and when the user starts typing check to see what table element is active, and intercept keystrokes as they type. That's kind of messy, though.
2) Another option might be to try to grab or replace the component that the table is using to actually let the user make the changes. I think that JTable actually allows you to change the editor component if you dig around.

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