2 input fields displaying the same thing - java

Bit of a strange one.
I want to have a JTextField, in which the user will type a string. While typing, however, I'd like that text to automatically print to another JTextField in real time.
I'm not sure if this is possible because I can't recall seeing any application do it.
Anyone even seen anything like this before?
Actually, now that I open my eyes a bit, I see that stackoverflow does it.
Are there any known ways of implementing in Java?

You might be able to give the fields the same document instance. For the document you could use one of the classes that swing provides or you could extend your own. The document is the model of the text field.
Alternatively you could use listeners to do the updating. There are many things you can listen and it depends on your needs what suits best. You can listen the document, you can listen keyboard and mouse events, you can listen for action events. (Action events happen in this kind of fields when pressing enter or focus is lost.)

The "same document" approach is the way to go.
Here's some sample code in Groovy (translation to Java is left as an exercise to the reader):
import javax.swing.*
import java.awt.FlowLayout
f = new JFrame("foo")
t1 = new JTextField(10)
t2 = new JTextField(10)
t2.document = t1.document
f.contentPane.layout=new FlowLayout()
f.contentPane.add(t1)
f.contentPane.add(t2)
f.pack()
f.show()

Add an ActionListener, as this will respond for any action changing the text (not just key presses, but also mouse-driven cut-paste). Code not tested...
// changing textField1 updates textField2
textField1.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
{
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
textField2.setText(textField1.getText());
}
});

You could add an action listener for the jTextField's key released action.
eg:
jTextField1.addKeyListener(new java.awt.event.KeyAdapter()
{
public void keyReleased(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt)
{
jTextField1KeyReleased(evt);
}
});
private void jTextField1KeyReleased(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt)
{
jTextField2.setText(jTextField1.getText());
}

You could use the KeyListener interface, and on each keyTyped event you copy the text to the "duplicate" field.

Related

How to add actionListener to each Button

It might be confusing for some to answer this but I will try to put my question in the best way. I am working with jdbc and gui. Basically I want to display (in buttons format) the particular data received from my sql database. I could get the data correctly and put it to my array of buttons as their names. In other words, I have an ArrayList of buttons with different names/texts received from my database. Thus i really need to make an arraylist of buttons since data are dynamically populated. My problem is, I am so confused of how am going to create an actionListener to each button. Everytime each button is clicked, it must show the values associated with its name. I don't know how am i supposed to pass at least the names of the buttons to my actionListener method (or action Event Handler). If you find it confusing, here is the code for my buttons.
todayTaskButton.add(new JButton(taskForToday.get(i)));
todayTaskButton.get(i).setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300,75));
todayTaskButton.get(i).setBackground(Color.GRAY);
todayTaskButton.get(i).setFont(new Font("Century Gothic",Font.PLAIN,30));
todayTaskButton.get(i).setForeground(Color.WHITE);
todayTaskButton.get(i).setFocusable(false);
Thank you so much
You don't need to pass the name of the button to the ActionListener. It is automatically detected. You just need to implement the method actionPerformed(ActionEvent) in you class.
Then add the listener to the button :
todayTaskButton.get(i).addActionListener(this);
In your actionPerformed method, you can do:
JButton b = (JButton) e.getSource();
String text = b.getText();
Honestly there are so many ways you might achieve this, the problem is picking the right one for you...
You could...
Create a anonymous class for each button, each time your create them
todayTaskButton.get(i).addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
//...
}
});
While this can work, it can make the code really messy, you also still need a way to map the action back to the button in some way, which can be done using the actionCommand property or using the source property if you don't mind iterating through the list of available buttons
You could...
Create a purpose build class which implements ActionListener for each button, which possibly takes some kind of reference to the data
todayTaskButton.get(i).addActionListener(new TodayActionListener(taskForToday.get(i)));
This is a little more focused, as you don't really care about the button, as you have the "today" value for the listener, so all the normally repeated code could be isolated into a single class and you would simply pass in the "variable" element
You could...
Take full advantage of the Action API and make individual, self contained actions for each button...
public class TaskAction extends AbstractAction {
public TodayAction(String task) {
putValue(NAME, task);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// Specific action for task
}
}
Then you could simply use
todayTaskButton.add(new JButton(new TaskAction(taskForToday.get(i))));
While this is similar to the previous option, the Action is a self contained unit of work and has a number of properties which the JButton can use to configure it self. The Action can also be re-used for JMenuItems and key bindings, making it incredibly flexible
Have a closer look at How to Use Actions for more details

java keystroke method call

I have tried multiple times to find out a solution on my own by consulting Google, but this question, as ridiculously easy as it seems, has no documented answer. It seems to me.
All I want to know is: How to call a method from a keystroke?
Example: Pressing ctrl + up -> call method zoomUp();
ps: would be nice if that keystroke could be bound to a JTextPane.
Update
Until now my solution was to:
Create an Item: JMenuItem up = new JMenuItem("up");
Create a shortcut:
up.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_UP,
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getMenuShortcutKeyMask()));
Catch the event by a listener:
up.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() { public
void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
//Do stuff } });
(- never add the Item so it is a hidden shortcut)
But this is obviously ridiculous.
You cannot use JMenuItem to create "hidden" short cuts. The short cuts of JMenuItems become active once the JMenuItem gets indirectly added to a Window (usually via <-JMenu<-JMenuBar<-JFrame). Without that link, it cannot be known whether or not the accelerator is to be triggered or not, as the same accelerator might trigger different actions in different application windows.
You need to use a KeyListener on the component or frame in which you want to react.

Binding key combination to JFrame

So far I've got ESC key to close the window, using the following code:
KeyStroke escapeKeyStroke = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_ESCAPE, 0, false);
Action escapeAction = new AbstractAction() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
screen.dispose();
}
};
screen.getRootPane().getInputMap(JComponent.WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW).put(escapeKeyStroke, "ESCAPE");
screen.getRootPane().getActionMap().put("ESCAPE", escapeAction);
But I am wondering how I would go about adding a CTRL+A event? I remember reading about a way where you set booleans for keypressed/released, but I don't see that working with this piece of code, so I am wondering how I can implement CTRL+A.
Thank You
It's the second parameter of the KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(...) method that matters, as you'll want to use the InputEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK there to let the KeyEvent.VK_A be a control-A.
e.g.,
KeyStroke ctrlAKeyStroke = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_A,
InputEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK);
I wouldn't worry about using the 3 parameter method that uses a boolean since you're more interested in key press, not key down or key release.
Regarding your comment:
Correction to my earlier comment. It works, if I make it let's say Ctrl+W. Ctrl+A just attempts to do its native "select all" function in a textfield in the frame. Any way to avoid that?
From the little I understand, this will be a problem if the component that has focus (such as a JTextArea) responds directly to the ctrl-A key press. To get around this, you can add the same binding to this component, but being sure to bind it to its InputMap that uses the JComponent.WHEN_FOCUSED; condition.

Java Button acts like Enter Key

I am new to Java and am in the process of making a GUI of CLI application of Poker Game. It requires "Enter Key" to continue. I have tried to find out if there is some Event Handler for "Enter Key" so that I could change that Event to Mouse Button. But unfortunately I could not find any such thing. Now I have thought of passing carriage return to Java Console onClick Event. I have tried:
ContinueBtn = new JButton();
ContinueBtn.addMouseListener(this);
.
.
.
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
System.out.println("\r\n");
//OR
char c = (char) KeyEvent.VK_ENTER;
System.out.println(c)
//OR
BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(System.out));
out.write("\r\n");
out.newLine();
out.flush();
//OR
BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(System.out));
out.write((char)10); /*OR*/ out.write((char)13);
}
It is still not working. Can anyone suggest what should I do?
Add proper Action or ActionListener, then implements KeyBindings, output form
KeyBindings should be javax.swing.Action, inside this Action call
myButton.doClick()
that invoke Action or ActionListener added to the JButton
For 'Enter' on JButtons, you probably want to use JRootPane.setDefaultButton(). Both JWindow and JDialog have a getRootPane() method.
The only trick is that the window / dialog has to be visible already to set the default button. I usually just override setVisible() in the windows that need a default button:
public void setVisible(boolean b) {
if (b) {
getRootPane().setDefaultButton(button);
}
super.setVisible(b);
}
I am not clear about your question, but from what i understand about your situation this might help.
(anything like a button)ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt)
Key bindings in Swing are handled with InputMaps and ActionMaps.
Sun has a nice tutorial on the key binding API. The tutorial has this to say:
An alternative to key bindings is using key listeners. Key listeners
have their place as a low-level interface to keyboard input, but for
responding to individual keys key bindings are more appropriate and
tend to result in more easily maintained code. Key listeners are also
difficult if the key binding is to be active when the component
doesn't have focus. Some of the advantages of key bindings are they're
somewhat self documenting, take the containment hierarchy into
account, encourage reusable chunks of code (Action objects), and allow
actions to be easily removed, customized, or shared. Also, they make
it easy to change the key to which an action is bound. Another
advantage of Actions is that they have an enabled state which provides
an easy way to disable the action without having to track which
component it is attached to.
java.awt.event.KeyListener (KeyListener Tutorial).

Let ActionListener listen for change in JTextField instead of only enter?

So as you may know, if you have a text field and you add an ActionListener to it, it will only listen to the keypress of the enter button. However, I want to let my ActionListener listen to changes in text of the . So basically I've got this:
public static JPanel mainPanel() {
JPanel mainp = new JPanel();
JTextArea areap = new JTextArea("Some text in the textarea");
JTextField fieldp = new JTextField("Edit this");
areap.setEditable(false);
fieldp.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
if(//change in textfield, for instance a letterpress or space bar)
{
//Do this
}
}
});
mainp.add(areap);
mainp.add(fieldp);
return mainp;
}
Any way I can listen to changes in text (like documented in the actionPerformed event)?
From an answer by #JRL
Use the underlying document:
myTextField.getDocument().addDocumentListener();
Yeah, but what is a document listener and how do you use it? You're not really answering the question.
I have a JTextField in my app's user interface. When the user makes any change to it, I want a nearby JCheckBox to be checked. The purpose is to tell the app to USE the value that was entered. Users often enter a value there but if they don't explicitly tell the app to use it then the app continues to ignore it. Instead of "training" users I'm supposed to follow the principle of least astonishment and automatically check the "Use this value" box.
But how do I listen for a change? Can't you guys just tell me the easy way, instead of "educating me" about document listeners?
Documents are the mechanisms java swing uses to store the text inside of a JTextField. DocumentListeners are objects that implement the DocumentListener interface and thus make it possible for you to list to changes in the document, i.e. changes in the text of the JTextField.
To use the document and documentlistener capabilities, as suggested above extend your class (probably but not necessarily a JFrame) so that it implements the DocumentListener interface. Implement all the methods for the interface (most likely your java ide can do that semi-automatically for you. FYI, the DocumentListener interface has three methods, one for inserting characters (into the text field), one for removing characters, and one for changing attributes. You are going to want to implement the first two as they are called when characters are added (the first one) or deleted (the second one). To get the changed text, you can either ask the document for the text, or more simply call myTextField.getText().
C'est tout!
Phil Troy

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