John Zukowski’s Definitive Guide to Swing for Java 2

866 Pages·1999·25.953 MB·English

by  John Zukowski (auth.)

John Zukowski's
Definitive Guide to
Swing for Java
2
JOHN ZUKOWSKI
APress Media, LLC
John Zukowski's Definitive Guide to Swing for Java 2
Copyright by John Zukowski
~1999
Originally published by Apress in 1999
Ali rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zukowski, John.
[Definitive Swing Guide]
John Zukowski's Definitive Swing Guide 1 John Zukowski.
p. cm.
1. Java (Computer program language) 2. Swing (Computer file)
I. Title.
QA76.73.J38Z8493 1999 99-34562
OOS.13'3-dc21 CIP
Additional material to this book can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com
ISBN 978-1-893115-02-6 ISBN 978-1-4302-5251-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4302-5251-1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every
occurrence of a.trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the
benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Project Manager: Nancy DelFavero Proofreaders: Valerie Cover and
Project Editor: Carol Lombardi Christine Sabooni
Technical Reviewers: Gary Cornell, Production Assistance: Lori Ash
Randy Kahle, Blake Ragsdell, Tim Rohaly, Indexer: Nancy Humphreys
and Laurence Vanhelsuwe Cover and Interior Design: Derek Yee Design
Copyeditor: Mark Woodworth
In the United States, phone 1-800-SPRINGER; [e-mail];
http://www.springer-ny.com
For information on translations, please contact APress directly:
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The information in this book is distributed on an ''As Is" hasis, without warranty. Although every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor APress shal1
have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work.
ii
Author's
Acknowledgments
WORKING WITH APRESS ON THIS BOOK has been fim. 1 would like to personally thank
everyone who helped along the way, both in the formation of a new technical
publisher and for the help in converting my rough manuscript into the material
you have in your hands today.
At APress, 1 would first like to thank Gary Cornell, Bill Pollock, and Dan
Appleman for allowing me to work with them at such an early stage of company
development. Now that we have Dan Appleman's book and my book, we can
work at filling some spaces between the N.s and Z's. 1 would especially like to
thank Nancy DelFavero and Carole Lombardi for their help in shaping what
you're reading. Special thanks to the technical editors, Laurence Vanhelsuwe,
Blake Ragsdell, Gary Cornell, Tim Rohaly, and Randy Kahle, who helped to
ensure the technical accuracy of the content. Any remaining technical inaccura
cies are my fault alone. On the graphics side, thanks to Derek Yee Design for
helping to convert my rough sketches, mostly in Visio, to the quality illustrations
you see in this book.
For some of the images used in the example programs, 1 would like to thank
Dean Jones for the JavaLobby Foundation Applications -Icon Collection
(http:/ /webart.javalobby.org/jlicons/) and Deb Felts at the Image Addict's Attic
(http://members.xoom.com/imageaddictl). (There is a reason why 1 am nota
graphic artist.) They retain the copyrights on their respective images, and the
images are used with permission.
For their ideas and assistance during development, 1 would like to thank Joe
Sam Shirah, Wong Kok Wai, Tomoko Iwama, Carlos Lucasius and the Licensee
Support team in Ontario, the Swing! Team, and everyone at MageLang Institute.
This book is that much better because of them.
As always, 1 am grateful to my wife, Lisa, for her never-ending patience dur
ing the development of this book and aur playful pup, Jaeger, who helps keep me
sane (sometimes). Thanks to Mom and Dad, too, even though they don't remem
ber getting me thatVic 20.
iii
About the Author
JOHN ZUKOWSKI IS A WELL-KNOWN FIGURE in the Java community. He is a popular
columnist for ]ava World magazine and a member of the ]ava World Senior
Advisory Board. Zukowski provides significant content for Sun's Java Developer
Connection and is the guide for Java at About.com. In addition, he is a faculty
member of the MageLang Institute, an instructor-led training firm that is the
leading provider of advanced Java training to the computer industry. He is also
the author of]avaAWT Reference (O'Reilly), Mastering]ava 2 (Sybex), and
Borland's ]Builder: No Experience Required (Sybex).
iv
Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................
1
Development Versions ........................................................................................2
How This Book Is Structured .......................................................................2
Reading the UML Diagrams .............................................................................. 4
Support .....................................................................................................................5
Chapter 1 Swing Overview .................................................................... ?
AWT Component Replacements .......................................................................... 8
New Components ................................................................................................... 10
Event Handling and Layout Management ................................................. 14
Undo Framework ................................................................................................... 15
Using Swing Classes with JDK 1.1 .......................................................... 16
SwingSet Demonstration ................................................................................. 17
JComponent to Page Mapping ........................................................................ 18
Summary ................................................................................................................... 19
Chapter 2 Event Handling with
the Swing Component Set .....................................................................
21
Delegation-Based Event Handling ............................................................. 21
Using Event Listeners as Observers ................................................................. 23
A Quick Look at the JFrame Class .................................................................... 26
Creating an ExitableJFrame Class .................................................................... 27
Using SwingUtilities for Mouse Button Identification ................................... 29
Using Property Change Listeners as Observers .............................................. 30
Managing Listener Lists .................................................................................... 33
Swing-Specific Event Handling ................................................................. 39
Interface Action ................................................................................................ .40
Class AbstractAction ......................................................................................... 42
Class KeyStroke ................................................................................................. 49
Using Mnemonics and Accelerators ................................................................ 53
V
Swing Focus Management ................................................................................. 53
Examining Focus Cycles ................................................................................... 58
Customizing Component-Level Focus Management .................................... 60
Setting the Next Focusable Component ......................................................... 61
Class FocusManager and DefaultFocusManager ........................................... 62
WritingYour Own Focus Manager ................................................................... 64
Multithreaded Swing Event Handling ..................................................... 64
Using SwingUtilities for Thread Safety ............................................................ 65
Class Timer ........................................................................................................ 66
Summary ................................................................................................................... 69
Chapter 3 The Model-View-Controller
Architecture ...................................................................................................7 1
MVC Communications .......................................................................................... 71
Sharing Data Models ........................................................................................ 73
Understanding the Predefined Data Models ........................................
75
Summary ................................................................................................................... 77
Chapter 4 Core Swing Components ............................................... 79
Class JComponent ............................................................................................... 79
Component Pieces ............................................................................................ 80
JComponent Properties .................................................................................... 85
Handling JComponent Events ......................................................................... 89
Class JTool Tip ................................................................................................... 93
Creating a JToolTip ............................................................................................ 93
Creating Customized JToolTip Objects ........................................................... 94
Displaying Positional ToolTip Text .................................................................. 95
Customizing JToolTip Look and Feei .............................................................. 96
Class ToolTipManager ...................................................................................... 97
ToolTipManager Properties .............................................................................. 97
Class JLabe1 ........................................................................................................9 9
Creating a JLabel ............................................................................................. 100
JLabel Properties ............................................................................................. 10 0
Handling JLabel Events .................................................................................. 103
Customizing JLabel Look and Feel ................................................................ 103
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Interface Icon ................................................................................................. 104
Creating an lcon ............................................................................................... 104
Using an Icon ................................................................................................... 106
Class Imagelcon .............................................................................................. 106
Class GrayFilter ......................................................................................· . ........ 110
Class AbstractButton ...................................................................................... 110
AbstractButton Properties .............................................................................. 111
HandlingAbstractButton Events ................................................................... 116
Listening to AbstractButton Events with a PropertyChangeListener ......... 116
Class Button ...................................................................................................... 117
Creating a JButton ........................................................................................... 118
JButton Properties ........................................................................................... 118
Handling JButton Events ................................................................................ 120
Listening to JButton Events with an ActionListener .................................... 120
Customizing a JButton Look and Feel... ........................................................ 122
Class JPane1 ...................................................................................................... 122
Creating a JPanel ............................................................................................. 123
Using a JPanel .................................................................................................. 124
Customizing JPanel Look and Feel ................................................................ 126
Summary ................................................................................................................. 126
Chapter 5 Toggle Buttons ................................................................ 127
Class ToggleButtonModel ............................................................................. 127
Class ButtonGroup ........................................................................................... 12B
Class JToggleButton ...................................................................................... 131
Creating JToggleButton Components ........................................................... 132
JToggleButton Properties ................................................................................ 133
Handling JToggleButton Selection Events .................................................... 134
Customizing a JToggleButton Look and Feel.. .............................................. 138.
Class JCheckBox ............................................................................................... 139
Creating JCheckBox Components ................................................................. 140
JCheckBox Properties ..................................................................................... 141
Handling JCheckBox Selection Events .......................................................... 143
Customizing a JCheckBox Look and Feel... ................................................... 146
Class JRadioButton ........................................................................................ 148
Creating JRadioButton Components ............................................................. 148
JRadioButton Properties ................................................................................. 150
Grouping JRadioButton Components in a ButtonGroup ............................ 150
Handling JRadioButton Selection Events ..................................................... 153
Customizing a JRadioButton Look and Feel... .............................................. 162
Summary ................................................................................................................. 163
vii
Chapter 6 Swing Menus and Toolbars ..................................... 165
Working with Menus ........................................................................................ 166
Getting Started ................................................................................................ 166
Menu Class Hierarchy. ...................................................•................................ 170
Class JMenuBar ............................................................................................... 171
SingleSelectionModel Interface ..................................................................... 177
Class JMenultem ............................................................................................. 178
Class JMenu ..................................................................................................... 185
Class JSeparator. .............................................................................................. 192
Class JPopupMenu .......................................................................................... 194
Class JCheckBoxMenultem ............................................................................ 203
Class JRadioButtonMenultem ....................................................................... 209
Creating Custom MenuElement Components ............................................. 214
Working with Toolbars: Class JToolBar ............................................ 220
Creating ]ToolBar Components ..................................................................... 220
Adding Components to a JToolBar ................................................................ 221
]ToolBar Properties ......................................................................................... 222
Handling ]ToolBar Events ............................................................................... 223
Customizing JToolBar Look and Feei ............................................................ 223
A Complete JToolBar Usage Example ............................................................ 224
JToolBar.Separator .......................................................................................... 226
Summary ................................................................................................................. 226
Chapter 7 Borders ...................................................................................2 29
Some Bas ies on Working with Borders ................................................. 229
Exploring the Border lnterface ...................................................................... 231
Introducing BorderFactory. ............................................................................ 233
Starting with AbstractBorder .......................................................................... 235
Examining the Predefined Borders ................................................................ 236
Creat ing Your Own Borders ........................................................................ 251
Summary ................................................................................................................. 253
Chapter 8 Root Pa ne Containers ................................................ 255
Class JRootPane ............................................................................................... 255
Creating a JRootPane ...................................................................................... 257
JRootPane Properties ...................................................................................... 257
Interface RootPaneContainer ........................................................................ 258
Class JLayeredPane ......................................................................................... 259
viii
Class JFrame ...................................................................................................... 262
Creating a JFrame ............................................................................................ 262
JFrame Properties ........................................................................................... 263
Adding Components to a JFrame .................................................................. 264
Handling JFrame Events ................................................................................. 265
Extending JFrame ............................................................................................ 266
Class JWindow ....................................................................................................
267
Creating a JWindow ........................................................................................ 267
JWindow Properties ........................................................................................ 268
Handling JWindow Events .............................................................................. 268
Extending JWindow. ........................................................................................ 268
Class JDialog ....................................................................................................
269
Creating a }Dialog ........................................................................................... 269
}Dialog Properties ........................................................................................... 270
Handling }Dialog Events ................................................................................. 271
Extending }Dialog ........................................................................................... 273
Class JApplet .................................................................................................... 273
Testing JApplet Solutions ................................................................................ 273
Extending JApplet ........................................................................................... 274
Working with a Desktop ...............................................................................
275
Class JinternalFrame ...................................................................................... 276
Class JDesktopPane ........................................................................................ 283
Summary ................................................................................................................. 288
Chapter 9 Pop-Ups and Choosers ................................................ 289
Class JOptionPane ...........................................................................................
289
Creating a JOptionPane .................................................................................. 290
Displaying a JOptionPane .............................................................................. 295
Automatically Creating a JOptionPane in a Pop-up Window. ..................... 298
JOptionPane Properties .................................................................................. 304
Customizing JOptionPane Look and Feel ..................................................... 312
Class ProgressMonitor ................................................................................. 315
Creating a ProgressMonitor ........................................................................... 316
Using a ProgressMonitor ................................................................................ 316
ProgressMonitor Properties ........................................................................... 318
Customizing ProgressMonitor Look and Feel .............................................. 319
Complete ProgressMonitor Example ............................................................ 319
Class ProgressMonitorinputStream ........................................................ 322
Creating a ProgressMonitorlnputStream ...................................................... 322
Using a ProgressMonitorlnputStream. .......................................................... 323
ProgressMonitorlnputStream Properties ...................................................... 325
ix