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Java Swing first programs

In this chapter, we will program our first Swing programs. We
will cover some basic functionality.

Our first example

The first example shows a basic window on the screen.
package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
public class SimpleEx extends JFrame {
public SimpleEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
setTitle("Simple example");
setSize(300, 200);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
SimpleEx ex = new SimpleEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

While this code is very short, the application window can do

quite a lot. It can be resized, maximised, or minimised. All the
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complexity that comes with it has been hidden from the

application programmer.
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import javax.swing.JFrame;

Here we import Swing classes that will be used in the code

example.
public class SimpleEx extends JFrame {

The SimpleEx class inherits from the JFrame component. JFrame is a

top-level container. The basic purpose of containers is to hold
components of the application.
public SimpleEx() {
initUI();
}

It is a good programming practice not to put the application

code into constructors, but delegate the task to a specific
method.
setTitle("Simple example");

Here we set the title of the window using the

setTitle()

method.

setSize(300, 200);

This code will resize the window to be 300 px wide and 200 px
tall.
setLocationRelativeTo(null);

This line will center the window on the screen.

setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

This method will close the window if we click on the close

button of the titlebar. By default nothing happens.
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
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SimpleExample ex = new SimpleExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});

We create an instance of our code example and make it visible

on the screen. The invokeLater()method places the application on
the Swing Event Queue. It is used to ensure that all UI updates
are concurrency-safe. In other words, it is to prevent GUI from
hanging in certain situations.

Figure: Simple example

Quit button
In our next example, we will have a button. When we click on
the button, the application terminates.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;

public class QuitButtonEx extends JFrame {

public QuitButtonEx() {
initUI();
}

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private void initUI() {
JButton quitButton = new JButton("Quit");
quitButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
createLayout(quitButton);
setTitle("Quit button");
setSize(300, 200);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
QuitButtonEx ex = new QuitButtonEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

We position a JButton on the window and add an action listener

to this button.
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JButton quitButton = new JButton("Quit");

Here we create a button component. This constructor takes a

string label as a parameter.
quitButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});

We
plug
an
action
listener
to
the
button.
The
listener's actionPerformed() method will be called when we click on
the button. The action terminates the application by calling
the System.exit() method.
createLayout(quitButton);

The child components need to be placed into containers. We

delegate the task to the createLayout()method.
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);

The content pane of a JFrame is an area where child components

are placed. The children are organised by specialised nonvisible components called layout managers. The default layout
manager of a content pane is the BorderLayout manager. This
manager is very simple and is useful only in certain cases. In
this tutorial, we use the GroupLayout manager which is more
powerful and flexible.
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);

The setAutoCreateContainerGaps() method creates gaps between

components and the edges of the container. Space or gaps are
important part of the design of each application.
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(quitButton)
);

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gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(quitButton)
);

manager defines the layout for each dimension

independently. In one step, we lay out components alongside
the horizontal axis; in the other step, we lay out components
along the vertical axis. In both kinds of layouts we can arrange
components sequentially or in parallel. In a horizontal layout, a
row of components is called a sequential group and a column of
components is called a parallel group. In a vertical layout, a
column of components is called a sequential group and a row of
components a parallel group.
GroupLayout

In our example we have only one button, so the layout is very

simple. For each dimension, we call the addComponent() method
with the button component as a parameter. (Each child
component must be added for both dimensions.)

Figure: Quit button

A tooltip
Tooltips are part of the internal application's help system. Swing
shows a small window if we hover a mouse pointer over an
object that has a tooltip set.
package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import javax.swing.GroupLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
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import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
public class TooltipEx extends JFrame {
public TooltipEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JButton btn = new JButton("Button");
btn.setToolTipText("A button component");
createLayout(btn);
setTitle("Tooltip");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
JPanel pane = (JPanel) getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
pane.setToolTipText("Content pane");
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(200)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(120)
);
pack();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
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TooltipEx ex = new TooltipEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the example, we set a tooltip for the frame and the button.
btn.setToolTipText("A button component");

To enable a tooltip, we call the

setTooltipText()

method.

JPanel pane = (JPanel) getContentPane();

GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);

A content pane is an instance of a JPanel component.

The getContentPane() method returns aContainer type. Since setting
a tooltip requires a JComponent instance, we cast the object to
a JPanel.
pane.setToolTipText("Content pane");

A tooltip is set for the content pane.

gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(200)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(120)
);

We call the addGap() method for horizontal and vertical

dimensions. It creates some space to the right and to the
bottom of the button.
pack();

The pack() method automatically sizes the JFrame based on the

size of its components. It takes the defined space into account

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too. Our window will display the button and the spaces that we
have set with the addGap() method.

Figure: Tooltip

Mnemonics
Mnemonics are shortcut keys that activate a component that
supports mnemonics. For instance, they can be used with
labels, buttons, or menu items.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;

public class MnemonicEx extends JFrame {

public MnemonicEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JButton btn = new JButton("Button");
btn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

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System.out.println("Button pressed");
}
});
btn.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_B);
createLayout(btn);
setTitle("Mnemonics");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(200)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(200)
);
pack();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
MnemonicEx ex = new MnemonicEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

We have a button with an action listener. We set a mnemonic

for this button. It can be activated with the Alt+B keyboard
shortcut.
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btn.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_B);

The setMnemonic() method sets a keyboard mnemonic for the

button. The mnemonic key is specified with a virtual keycode
from the KeyEvent class. The mnemonic is combined with the
look and feel's mouseless modifier (usually Alt).
At this moment, there are three ways to activate the button: a
left mouse button click, the Alt+Bshortcut, and the Space key
(provided the button has the focus). The Space key binding was
automatically created by Swing. (Under Metal look and feel, the
focus is visually represented by a small rectangle around the
button's label.)
In this chapter, we have created some simple Java Swing
programs.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 2:

Menus and toolbars in Java

Swing
A menu is a group of commands located in a menubar. A
toolbar has buttons with some common commands in the
application.
To implement a menubar in Java Swing, we use three objects:
a JMenuBar, a JMenu and a JMenuItem.

Simple menu
We begin with a simple menubar example.

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package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import

java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.KeyEvent;

import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JMenu;
javax.swing.JMenuBar;
javax.swing.JMenuItem;

public class SimpleMenuEx extends JFrame {

public SimpleMenuEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createMenuBar();
setTitle("Simple menu");
setSize(300, 200);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("exit.png");
JMenu file = new JMenu("File");
file.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
JMenuItem eMenuItem = new JMenuItem("Exit", icon);
eMenuItem.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_E);
eMenuItem.setToolTipText("Exit application");
eMenuItem.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
file.add(eMenuItem);
menubar.add(file);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
}
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public static void main(String[] args) {

EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
SimpleMenuEx ex = new SimpleMenuEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

Our example will show a menu with one item. Selecting the exit
menu item we close the application.
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();

A menubar is created with the

JMenuBar

class.

ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("exit.png");

An Exit icon is displayed in the menu.

JMenu file = new JMenu("File");
file.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);

A menu object is created with the JMenu class. The menus can
be accessed via keyboard as well. To bind a menu to a
particular key, we use the setMnemonic() method. In our case, the
menu can be opened with the Alt+F shortcut.
JMenuItem eMenuItem = new JMenuItem("Exit", icon);
eMenuItem.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_E);

A menu object consists of menu items. A menu item is created

with the JMenuItem class. A menu item has its own mnemonic. It
can be activated with the Alt+F+E key combination.
eMenuItem.setToolTipText("Exit application");

This code line creates a tooltip for the menu item.

eMenuItem.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
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public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});

is a special kind of a button component. We add an

action listener to it which terminates the application.
JMenuItem

file.add(eMenuItem);
menubar.add(file);

The menu item is added to the menu object and the menu
object is inserted into the menubar.
setJMenuBar(menubar);

The setJMenuBar() method

the JFrame container.

sets

the

menubar

for

Figure: Simple menu

Submenu
Each menu can also have a submenu. This way we can put
similar commands into groups. For example we can place
commands that hide and show various toolbars like personal
bar, address bar, status bar or navigation bar into a submenu
called toolbars. Within a menu, we can separate commands
with a separator. The separator is a simple line. It is common
practice to separate commands like new, open, save from
commands like print, print preview with a single separator. In
addition to mnemonics, menu commands can be launched via
accelerators.
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package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JMenu;
javax.swing.JMenuBar;
javax.swing.JMenuItem;

public class SubmenuEx extends JFrame {

public SubmenuEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createMenuBar();
setTitle("Submenu");
setSize(360, 250);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon

iconNew = new ImageIcon("new.png");

iconOpen = new ImageIcon("open.png");
iconSave = new ImageIcon("save.png");
iconExit = new ImageIcon("exit.png");

JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");

JMenu impMenu = new JMenu("Import");
JMenuItem newsfMi = new JMenuItem("Import newsfeed list...");
JMenuItem bookmMi = new JMenuItem("Import bookmarks...");
JMenuItem mailMi = new JMenuItem("Import mail...");
impMenu.add(newsfMi);
impMenu.add(bookmMi);
impMenu.add(mailMi);
JMenuItem newMi = new JMenuItem("New", iconNew);
JMenuItem openMi = new JMenuItem("Open", iconOpen);
JMenuItem saveMi = new JMenuItem("Save", iconSave);
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JMenuItem exitMi = new JMenuItem("Exit", iconExit);

exitMi.setToolTipText("Exit application");
exitMi.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
fileMenu.add(newMi);
fileMenu.add(openMi);
fileMenu.add(saveMi);
fileMenu.addSeparator();
fileMenu.add(impMenu);
fileMenu.addSeparator();
fileMenu.add(exitMi);
menubar.add(fileMenu);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
SubmenuEx ex = new SubmenuEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

This example creates a submenu and separates groups of menu

items with a menu separator.
JMenu impMenu = new JMenu("Import");
...
fileMenu.add(impMenu);

A submenu is just like any other normal menu. It is created the

same way. We simply add a menu to existing menu.
exitMi.setToolTipText("Exit application");

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A
tooltip
is
set
to
the setToolTipText() method.

the

Exit

menu

item

with

JMenuItem newMi = new JMenuItem("New", iconNew);

This JMenuItem constructor creates a menu item with a label and

an icon.
fileMenu.addSeparator();

A separator is a horizontal line that visually separates menu

items. This way we can group items into some logical places.

Figure: Submenu

Mnemonics and accelerators

Mnemonics and accelerators are shortcut keys that enable
executing commands via keyboard. Mnemonics navigate the
menu hierarchy to select a specific menu item whereas
accelerators bypass menu hierarchy and directly activate the
menu item.
The following example utilizes actions, which are objects that
can be shared by different components that need the same
functionality.
package com.zetcode;

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import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
static javax.swing.Action.MNEMONIC_KEY;
static javax.swing.Action.SMALL_ICON;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JFrame;
static javax.swing.JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE;
javax.swing.JMenu;
javax.swing.JMenuBar;
javax.swing.JMenuItem;
javax.swing.KeyStroke;

public class ShortCutsEx extends JFrame {

public ShortCutsEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createMenuBar();
setTitle("Mnemonics and accelerators");
setSize(360, 250);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon

iconNew = new ImageIcon("new.png");

iconOpen = new ImageIcon("open.png");
iconSave = new ImageIcon("save.png");
iconExit = new ImageIcon("exit.png");

JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");

fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
JMenuItem newMi = new JMenuItem(new MenuItemAction("New", iconNew,
KeyEvent.VK_N));
JMenuItem openMi = new JMenuItem(new MenuItemAction("Open",
iconOpen,
KeyEvent.VK_O));
JMenuItem saveMi = new JMenuItem(new MenuItemAction("Save", iconSave,
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KeyEvent.VK_S));
JMenuItem exitMi = new JMenuItem("Exit", iconExit);
exitMi.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_E);
exitMi.setToolTipText("Exit application");
exitMi.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_W,
ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));
exitMi.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
fileMenu.add(newMi);
fileMenu.add(openMi);
fileMenu.add(saveMi);
fileMenu.addSeparator();
fileMenu.add(exitMi);
menubar.add(fileMenu);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
}
private class MenuItemAction extends AbstractAction {
public MenuItemAction(String text, ImageIcon icon,
Integer mnemonic) {
super(text);
putValue(SMALL_ICON, icon);
putValue(MNEMONIC_KEY, mnemonic);
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println(e.getActionCommand());
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ShortCutsEx ex = new ShortCutsEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
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}
}

The example has several mnemonics and one accelerator.

Three menu items share an action object. Selecting those three
menu items causes their action commands to be printed to the
console.
JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);

A mnemonic is set to the File menu. The menu can be activated

now with the Alt+F shortcut key.
JMenuItem newMi = new JMenuItem(new MenuItemAction("New", iconNew,
KeyEvent.VK_N));

The New menu item takes an action object as a parameter. Its

constructor takes a text label, icon, and a mnemonic key as
parameters.
exitMi.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_E);

The Exit menu item does not use the action object. Its
functionality is built separately. We call the setMnemonic() method
to set a mnemonic key. To use a mnemonic, the component
must be visible on the screen. So we must first activate the
menu object, which makes the Exit menu item visible, and then
we can activate this menu item. This means that this menu
item is activated by the Alt+F+E key combination.
exitMi.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_W,
ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));

An accelerator is a key shortcut that directly launches a menu

item. In our case, by pressing Ctrl+Wwe close the application.
An accelerator is set with the setAccelerator() method.
private class MenuItemAction extends AbstractAction {
public MenuItemAction(String text, ImageIcon icon,
Integer mnemonic) {
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super(text);
putValue(SMALL_ICON, icon);
putValue(MNEMONIC_KEY, mnemonic);
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println(e.getActionCommand());
}
}

An instance of this action class is shared by three menu items.

Actions use various keys to define their functionality.
The putValue() method associates string values with the specified
keys.

Figure:

Mnemonics and

accelerators
Mnemonics are visually hinted by underlined characters, the
accelerators have their shortcut keys shown next to the menu
item's label.

JCheckBoxMenuItem
A JCheckBoxMenuItem is a menu item that can be selected or
deselected. If selected, the menu item typically appears with a
checkmark next to it. If unselected or deselected, the menu
item appears without a checkmark. Like a regular menu item, a
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check box menu item can have either text or a graphic icon
associated with it, or both.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ItemEvent;
java.awt.event.ItemListener;
java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.JCheckBoxMenuItem;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JMenu;
javax.swing.JMenuBar;

public class CheckBoxMenuItemEx extends JFrame {

private JLabel statusbar;
public CheckBoxMenuItemEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createMenuBar();
statusbar = new JLabel("Ready");
statusbar.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder());
add(statusbar, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
setTitle("JCheckBoxMenuItem");
setSize(360, 250);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
JMenu viewMenu = new JMenu("View");
viewMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_V);
JCheckBoxMenuItem sbarMi = new JCheckBoxMenuItem("Show statubar");
sbarMi.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_S);
sbarMi.setDisplayedMnemonicIndex(5);
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sbarMi.setSelected(true);
sbarMi.addItemListener(new ItemListener() {
@Override
public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) {
if (e.getStateChange() == ItemEvent.SELECTED) {
statusbar.setVisible(true);
} else {
statusbar.setVisible(false);
}
}
});
viewMenu.add(sbarMi);
menubar.add(fileMenu);
menubar.add(viewMenu);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
CheckBoxMenuItemEx ex = new CheckBoxMenuItemEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

This example uses a

statusbar.

JCheckBoxMenuItem

to toggle the visibility of a

statusbar = new JLabel("Ready");

statusbar.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder());
add(statusbar, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

The statusbar is a simple JLabel component. We

raised EtchedBorder around the label so that it is visible.

put

JCheckBoxMenuItem sbarMi = new JCheckBoxMenuItem("Show statubar");

sbarMi.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_S);
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sbarMi.setDisplayedMnemonicIndex(5);

creates a check box menu item. There are two

s
letters
in
the
label,
therefore,
we
use
the setDisplayedMnemonicIndex() method to choose which one is
going to be underlined. We chose the second one.
JCheckBoxMenuItem

sbarMi.setSelected(true);

Because
the
statusbar
is initially
visible,
the JCheckBoxMenuItem's setSelected() method to select it.

we

call

sbarMi.addItemListener(new ItemListener() {
@Override
public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) {
if (e.getStateChange() == ItemEvent.SELECTED) {
statusbar.setVisible(true);
} else {
statusbar.setVisible(false);
}
}
});

is a special kind of a button component. It

implements the ItemSelectableinterface. An ItemListener can be used
to listen to its state changes. Depending on its state, we show
or hide the statusbar.
JCheckBoxMenuItem

Figure: CheckBox menu

item
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Menu on the right side

Some applications display a menu on the right side. Typically, it
is a Help menu.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.EventQueue;
javax.swing.Box;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JMenu;
javax.swing.JMenuBar;

public class RightMenuEx extends JFrame {

public RightMenuEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createMenuBar();
setTitle("Right menu");
setSize(300, 200);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu
JMenu
JMenu
JMenu

fileMenu = new JMenu("File");

viewMenu = new JMenu("View");
toolsMenu = new JMenu("Tools");
helpMenu = new JMenu("Help");

menubar.add(fileMenu);
menubar.add(viewMenu);
menubar.add(toolsMenu);
menubar.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
menubar.add(helpMenu);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {

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EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
RightMenuEx ex = new RightMenuEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example shows three menus on the left and one menu on
the right.
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu
JMenu
JMenu
JMenu

fileMenu = new JMenu("File");

viewMenu = new JMenu("View");
toolsMenu = new JMenu("Tools");
helpMenu = new JMenu("Help");

A menubar and four menu objects are created.

menubar.add(fileMenu);
menubar.add(viewMenu);
menubar.add(toolsMenu);
menubar.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
menubar.add(helpMenu);

After three menus are added, we add a horizontal glue to the

menubar. A glue absorbs all the extra space available. This will
push the help menu to the right of the menubar.

Figure: Help menu on the right

A popup menu
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Another type of a menu is a popup menu. Java Swing has

a JPopupMenu class for this functionality. It is also called a context
menu and usually shown when we right click on a component.
The idea is to provide only the commands that are relevant in
the current context. Say we have an image. By right clicking on
the image, we get a popup window with commands to save,
scale, or move the image.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JMenuItem;
javax.swing.JPopupMenu;

public class PopupMenuEx extends JFrame {

private JPopupMenu pmenu;
public PopupMenuEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createPopupMenu();
setTitle("JPopupMenu");
setSize(300, 250);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createPopupMenu() {
pmenu = new JPopupMenu();
JMenuItem maxMi = new JMenuItem("Maximize");
maxMi.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (getExtendedState() != JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH) {
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setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
}
}
});
pmenu.add(maxMi);
JMenuItem quitMi = new JMenuItem("Quit");
quitMi.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
pmenu.add(quitMi);
addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
@Override
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
if (e.getButton() == MouseEvent.BUTTON3) {
pmenu.show(e.getComponent(), e.getX(), e.getY());
}
}
});
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
PopupMenuEx pm = new PopupMenuEx();
pm.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example shows a popup menu with two commands. The

first command maximizes the window, the second quits the
application.
pmenu = new JPopupMenu();

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JPopupMenu

creates a popup menu.

JMenuItem maxMi = new JMenuItem("Maximize");

maxMi.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (getExtendedState() != JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH) {
setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
}
}
});

A popup menu consists of JMenuItems. This item will maximize the

frame. The getExtendedState()method determines the state of the
frame.
The
available
states
are: NORMAL, ICONIFIED,MAXIMIZED_HORIZ, MAXIMIZED_VERT,
and MAXIMIZED_BOTH.
pmenu.add(maxMi);

The menu item is inserted into the popup menu.

addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
@Override
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
if (e.getButton() == MouseEvent.BUTTON3) {
pmenu.show(e.getComponent(), e.getX(), e.getY());
}
}
});

The popup menu is shown where we clicked with the mouse

button. The MouseEvent.BUTTON3 constant enables the popup
menu only for the right mouse clicks.

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Figure: Popup menu

JToolbar
Menus group commands that we can use in an application.
Toolbars provide a quick access to the most frequently used
commands. In Java Swing, the JToolBar class creates a toolbar in
an application.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JMenu;
javax.swing.JMenuBar;
javax.swing.JToolBar;

public class ToolbarEx extends JFrame {

public ToolbarEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createMenuBar();
createToolBar();

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setTitle("Simple toolbar");
setSize(300, 200);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu file = new JMenu("File");
menubar.add(file);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
}
private void createToolBar() {
JToolBar toolbar = new JToolBar();
ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("exit.png");
JButton exitButton = new JButton(icon);
toolbar.add(exitButton);
exitButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
add(toolbar, BorderLayout.NORTH);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ToolbarEx ex = new ToolbarEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example creates a toolbar with one exit button.

JToolBar toolbar = new JToolBar();

A toolbar is created with

JToolBar.
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JButton exitButton = new JButton(icon);
toolbar.add(exitButton);

We create a button and add it to the toolbar.

add(toolbar, BorderLayout.NORTH);

The toolbar is placed to the north area of the

BorderLayout.

Figure: Simple toolbar

Toolbars
Often more than one toolbar is displayed on the window.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JToolBar;

public class ToolbarsEx extends JFrame {

public ToolbarsEx() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {

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createToolBars();
setTitle("Toolbars");
setSize(360, 250);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createToolBars() {
JToolBar toolbar1 = new JToolBar();
JToolBar toolbar2 = new JToolBar();
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon

newi = new ImageIcon("new.png");

open = new ImageIcon("open.png");
save = new ImageIcon("save.png");
exit = new ImageIcon("exit.png");

JButton newb = new JButton(newi);

JButton openb = new JButton(open);
JButton saveb = new JButton(save);
toolbar1.add(newb);
toolbar1.add(openb);
toolbar1.add(saveb);
JButton exitb = new JButton(exit);
toolbar2.add(exitb);
exitb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
createLayout(toolbar1, toolbar2);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0], GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE,
GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
.addComponent(arg[1], GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE,
GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
);
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gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ToolbarsEx ex = new ToolbarsEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

Two toolbars are displayed at the top of the window.

JToolBar toolbar1 = new JToolBar();
JToolBar toolbar2 = new JToolBar();

Two toolbar objects are created.

private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0], GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE,
GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
.addComponent(arg[1], GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE,
GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
}

manager is used to position the toolbars at the top of

the container.
GroupLayout

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Figure: Toolbars
In this part of the Java Swing tutorial, we have mentioned
menus and toolbars.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++Lesson 3:

The Swing layout management

The Java Swing toolkit has two kind of components: containers
and children. The containers group children into suitable
layouts. To create layouts, we use layout managers. Layout
managers are one of the most difficult parts of modern GUI
programming. Many beginning programmers have too much
respect for layout managers. Mainly because they are usually
poorly documented. I believe that GUI builder's like Matisse
cannot replace the proper understanding of layout managers.
ZetCode offers a dedicated 196 pages e-book for the Swing
layout management process: Java Swing layout management
tutorial

No manager
It is possible to go without a layout manager. There might be
situations where we might not need a layout manager. But in

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most cases to create truly portable, complex applications, we

need layout managers.
Without layout manager,
absolute values.

we

position

components

package zetcode;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class AbsoluteExample extends JFrame {
public AbsoluteExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
setLayout(null);
JButton ok = new JButton("OK");
ok.setBounds(50, 50, 80, 25);
JButton close = new JButton("Close");
close.setBounds(150, 50, 80, 25);
add(ok);
add(close);
setTitle("Absolute positioning");
setSize(300, 250);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
AbsoluteExample ex = new AbsoluteExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}
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This simple example shows two buttons.

setLayout(null);

We
the

use

absolute
setLayout() method.

positioning

by

providing

null

to

ok.setBounds(50, 50, 80, 25);

The setBounds() method positions the ok button. The parameters

are the x, y location values and the width and height of the
component.

FlowLayout manager
This is the simplest layout manager in the Java Swing toolkit. It
is mainly used in combination with other layout managers.
When calculating its children size, a flow layout lets each
component assume its natural (preferred) size.
The manager puts components into a row. In the order, they
were added. If they do not fit into one row, they go into the
next one. The components can be added from the right to the
left or vice versa. The manager allows to align the components.
Implicitly, the components are centered and there is 5px space
among components and components and the edges of the
container.
FlowLayout()
FlowLayout(int align)
FlowLayout(int align, int hgap, int vgap)

There are three constructors available for the FlowLayout

manager. The first one creates a manager with implicit values.
Centered with 5px horizontal and vertical spaces. The others
allow to specify those parameters.
package zetcode;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.JButton;

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import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JTextArea;
javax.swing.JTree;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class FlowLayoutExample extends JFrame {

public FlowLayoutExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
JTextArea area = new JTextArea("text area");
area.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
JButton button = new JButton("button");
panel.add(button);
JTree tree = new JTree();
panel.add(tree);
panel.add(area);
add(panel);
pack();
setTitle("FlowLayout Example");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
FlowLayoutExample ex = new FlowLayoutExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

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The example shows a button, a tree and a text area component

in the window. Interestingly, if we create an empty tree
component, there are some default values inside the
component.
JPanel panel = new JPanel();

The implicit layout manager of the JPanel component is a flow

layout manager. We do not have to set it manually.
JTextArea area = new JTextArea("text area");
area.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 100));

The flow layout manager sets a preferred size for its

components. This means, that in our case, the area component
will have 100x100px. If we didn't set the preferred size, the
component would have a size of its text. No more, no less.
Without the text, the component would not be visible at all. Try
to write or delete some text in the area component. The
component will grow and shrink accordingly.
panel.add(area);

To put a component inside a container, we simply call

the add() method.

Figure: FlowLaout manager

GridLayout
The GridLayout layout manager lays out components in a
rectangular grid. The container is divided into equally sized
rectangles. One component is placed in each rectangle.
package zetcode;
import java.awt.GridLayout;

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import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class GridLayoutExample extends JFrame {

public GridLayoutExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
panel.setLayout(new GridLayout(5, 4, 5, 5));
String[] buttons = {
"Cls", "Bck", "", "Close", "7", "8", "9", "/", "4",
"5", "6", "*", "1", "2", "3", "-", "0", ".", "=", "+"
};
for (int i = 0; i < buttons.length; i++) {
if (i == 2)
panel.add(new JLabel(buttons[i]));
else
panel.add(new JButton(buttons[i]));
}
add(panel);
setTitle("GridLayout");
setSize(350, 300);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
GridLayoutExample ex = new GridLayoutExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
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}
}

The example shows a skeleton of a simple calculator tool. It is

an ideal example for this layout manager. We put 19 buttons
and one label into the manager. Notice that each button is of
the same size.
panel.setLayout(new GridLayout(5, 4, 5, 5));

Here we set the grid layout manager for the panel component.
The layout manager takes four parameters. The number of
rows, the number of columns and the horizontal and vertical
gaps between components.

Figure: GridLayout manager

BorderLayout
A BorderLayout manager is a very handy layout manager. I
haven't seen it elsewhere. It divides the space into five regions.
North, West, South, East and Centre. Each region can have only
one component. If we need to put more components into a
region, we can simply put a panel there with a manager of our
choice. The components in N, W, S, E regions get
their preferred size. The component in the centre takes up the
whole space left.

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It does not look good if child components are too close to each
other. We must put some space among them. Each component
in Swing toolkit can have borders around its edges. To create a
border, we either create a new instance of an EmptyBorder class
or we use a BorderFactory. Except for EmptyBorder, there are
other types of borders as well. But for layout management we
will use only this one.
package zetcode;
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.Insets;

import
import
import
import

javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;

public class BorderExample extends JFrame {

public BorderExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
JPanel top = new JPanel();
top.setBackground(Color.gray);
top.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(250, 150));
panel.add(top);
panel.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(new Insets(20, 20, 20, 20)));
add(panel);
pack();
setTitle("Border Example");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}

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public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
BorderExample ex = new BorderExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example will display a gray panel and border around it.
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
JPanel top = new JPanel();

We place a panel into a panel. We used a BorderLayout manager

for the first panel, because this manager will resize its children.
panel.add(top);

Here we placed a top panel into the panel component. More

precisely,
we
placed
into
the
center
area
of
the BorderLayout manager.
panel.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(new Insets(20, 20, 20, 20)));

Here we created a 20px border around the panel. The border

values are as follows: top, left, bottom and right. They go
counterclockwise.

Figure: Border example

The next example will show a typical usage of a border layout

manager.

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package zetcode;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Insets;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JMenu;
javax.swing.JMenuBar;
javax.swing.JTextArea;
javax.swing.JToolBar;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
javax.swing.border.LineBorder;

public class BorderLayoutExample extends JFrame {

public BorderLayoutExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu file = new JMenu("File");
menubar.add(file);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
JToolBar toolbar = new JToolBar();
toolbar.setFloatable(false);
ImageIcon exit = new ImageIcon("exit.png");
JButton bexit = new JButton(exit);
bexit.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(0 ,0, 0, 0));
toolbar.add(bexit);
add(toolbar, BorderLayout.NORTH);
JToolBar vertical = new JToolBar(JToolBar.VERTICAL);
vertical.setFloatable(false);
vertical.setMargin(new Insets(10, 5, 5, 5));
ImageIcon select = new ImageIcon("drive.png");
ImageIcon freehand = new ImageIcon("computer.png");
ImageIcon shapeed = new ImageIcon("printer.png");

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JButton selectb = new JButton(select);
selectb.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(3, 0, 3, 0));
JButton freehandb = new JButton(freehand);
freehandb.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(3, 0, 3, 0));
JButton shapeedb = new JButton(shapeed);
shapeedb.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(3, 0, 3, 0));
vertical.add(selectb);
vertical.add(freehandb);
vertical.add(shapeedb);
add(vertical, BorderLayout.WEST);
add(new JTextArea(), BorderLayout.CENTER);
JLabel statusbar = new JLabel(" Statusbar");
statusbar.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(-1, 22));
statusbar.setBorder(LineBorder.createGrayLineBorder());
add(statusbar, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
setSize(350, 300);
setTitle("BorderLayout");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
BorderLayoutExample ex = new BorderLayoutExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example shows a typical application skeleton. We show a

vertical and horizontal toolbars, a statusbar and a central
component. (a text area)
A
is

default
BorderLayout

layout
manager
for
a JFrame component
manager. So we don't have to set it.

add(toolbar, BorderLayout.NORTH);

Simply put the toolbar to the north of the layout.

add(vertical, BorderLayout.WEST);
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Put the vertical toobar to the west.

add(new JTextArea(), BorderLayout.CENTER);

Put the text area to the center.

add(statusbar, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

Put the statusbar to the south.

Figure: BorderLayout manager

BoxLayout
BoxLayout is a powerful manager that can be used to create
sofisticated layouts. This layout manager puts components into
a row or into a column. It enables nesting, a powerful feature
that makes this manager very flexible. It means that we can
put a box layout into another box layout.
The box layout manager is often used with the Box class. This
class creates several invisible components, which affect the
final layout.

glue

strut

rigid area

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Let's say we want to put two buttons into the right bottom
corner of the window. We will use the boxlayout managers to
accomplish this.
package zetcode;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.Box;
javax.swing.BoxLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class TwoButtonsExample extends JFrame {

public TwoButtonsExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
JPanel basic = new JPanel();
basic.setLayout(new BoxLayout(basic, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
add(basic);
basic.add(Box.createVerticalGlue());
JPanel bottom = new JPanel();
bottom.setAlignmentX(1f);
bottom.setLayout(new BoxLayout(bottom, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
JButton ok = new JButton("OK");
JButton close = new JButton("Close");
bottom.add(ok);
bottom.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(5, 0)));
bottom.add(close);
bottom.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(15, 0)));
basic.add(bottom);
basic.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 15)));
setTitle("Two Buttons");
setSize(300, 150);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
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public static void main(String[] args) {

SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
TwoButtonsExample ex = new TwoButtonsExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The following drawing illustrates the example.

Figure: Two buttons

We will create two panels. The basic panel has a vertical box
layout. The bottom panel has a horizontal one. We will put a
bottom panel into the basic panel. We will right align the
bottom panel. The space between the top of the window and
the bottom panel is expandable. It is done by the vertical glue.
basic.setLayout(new BoxLayout(basic, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));

Here we create a basic panel with the vertical

BoxLayout.

JPanel bottom = new JPanel();

bottom.setAlignmentX(1f);
bottom.setLayout(new BoxLayout(bottom, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));

The bottom panel is right aligned. This is done by

the setAlignmentX() method. The panel has a horizontal layout.
bottom.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(5, 0)));

We put some rigid space between the buttons.

basic.add(bottom);

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Here we put the bottom panel with a horizontal box layout to

the vertical basic panel.
basic.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 15)));

We also put some space between the bottom panel and the
border of the window.

Figure: Two buttons

When we use a BoxLayout manager, we can set a rigid area

among our components.
package zetcode;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Insets;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.Box;
javax.swing.BoxLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;

public class RigidAreaExample extends JFrame {

public RigidAreaExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
panel.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(new Insets(40, 60, 40, 60)));
panel.add(new JButton("Button"));
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panel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 5)));
panel.add(new JButton("Button"));
panel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 5)));
panel.add(new JButton("Button"));
panel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 5)));
panel.add(new JButton("Button"));
add(panel);
pack();
setTitle("RigidArea");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
RigidAreaExample ex = new RigidAreaExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In this example, we display four buttons. By default, there is no

space among the buttons. To put some space among them, we
add some rigid area.
panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));

We use a vertical

BoxLayout

manager for our panel.

panel.add(new JButton("Button"));
panel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 5)));
panel.add(new JButton("Button"));

We add buttons and create a rigid area in between them.

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Figure: Rigid area

Tip of the Day

JDeveloper has a dialog window called Tip of the Day.

Figure: Tip of the

Day

We will create a similar dialog. We will use a combination of

various layout managers, namely, a border layout, flow layout,
and box layout manager.
package zetcode;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
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import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.FlowLayout;
java.awt.event.KeyEvent;

import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.BoxLayout;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JCheckBox;
javax.swing.JDialog;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JSeparator;
javax.swing.JTextPane;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class TipOfDayExample extends JDialog {

public TipOfDayExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
JPanel basic = new JPanel();
basic.setLayout(new BoxLayout(basic, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
add(basic);
JPanel topPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(0, 0));
topPanel.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(450, 0));
JLabel hint = new JLabel("JDeveloper Productivity Hints");
hint.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(0, 25, 0, 0));
topPanel.add(hint);
ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("jdev.png");
JLabel label = new JLabel(icon);
label.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
topPanel.add(label, BorderLayout.EAST);
JSeparator separator = new JSeparator();
separator.setForeground(Color.gray);
topPanel.add(separator, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
basic.add(topPanel);
JPanel textPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
textPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(15, 25, 15, 25));
JTextPane pane = new JTextPane();
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pane.setContentType("text/html");
String text = "<p><b>Closing windows using the mouse wheel</b></p>"
+
"<p>Clicking with the mouse wheel on an editor tab closes the window. "
+
"This method works also with dockable windows or Log window
tabs.</p>";
pane.setText(text);
pane.setEditable(false);
textPanel.add(pane);
basic.add(textPanel);
JPanel boxPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT, 20, 0));
JCheckBox box = new JCheckBox("Show Tips at startup");
box.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_S);
boxPanel.add(box);
basic.add(boxPanel);
JPanel bottom = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
JButton ntip = new JButton("Next Tip");
ntip.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_N);
JButton close = new JButton("Close");
close.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_C);
bottom.add(ntip);
bottom.add(close);
basic.add(bottom);
bottom.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(450, 0));
setTitle("Tip of the Day");
setSize(new Dimension(450, 350));
setResizable(false);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JDialog.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
TipOfDayExample ex = new TipOfDayExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
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}

The example uses a mix of layout managers. Simply we put

four panels into the vertically organized basic panel.
JPanel basic = new JPanel();
basic.setLayout(new BoxLayout(basic, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
add(basic);

This is the very bottom panel. It has a vertical box layout

manager.
The
basic
panel
is
added
to
the
default JDialog component. This component has a border layout
manager by default.
JPanel topPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(0, 0));

The topPanel panel has a border layout manager. We will put

three components into it. Two labels and a separator.
topPanel.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(450, 0));

If we want to have a panel that is not greater than its

components, we must set its maximum size. The zero value is
ignored. The manager calculates the necessary heights.
JPanel textPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
...
textPanel.add(pane);

The text pane component is added to the center area of the

border layout manager. It takes all space left. Exactly, as we
wanted.
JPanel boxPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT, 20, 0));

The check box is shown in the boxPanel panel. It is left aligned.

The flow layout manager has a 20px horizontal gap. Other
components have 25px. Why is that? It is because the flow
layout manager puts some space to between the component
and the edge as well.
JPanel bottom = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
...
bottom.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(450, 0));

The bottom panel displays two buttons. It has a right aligned

flow layout manager. In order to show the buttons on the right

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edge of the dialog, the panel must stretch horizontally from the
beginning to the end.

Figure: Tip of the

Day

In this chapter, we have mentioned layout management in

Swing.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lesson 4:

Java Swing events

Events are an important part in any GUI program. All GUI
applications are event-driven. An application reacts to different
event types which are generated during its life. Events are
generated mainly by the user of an application. But they can be
generated by other means as well, e.g. Internet connection,
window manager, timer. In the event model, there are three
participants:
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event source
event object
event listener
The Event source is the object whose state changes. It
generates Events. The Event object (Event) encapsulates the
state changes in the event source. The Event listener is the
object that wants to be notified. Event source object delegates
the task of handling an event to the event listener.
Event handling in Java Swing toolkit is very powerful and
flexible. Java uses Event Delegation Model. We specify the
objects that are to be notified when a specific event occurs.

An event object
When something happens in the application, an event object is
created. For example, when we click on the button or select an
item from a list. There are several types of events,
including ActionEvent,TextEvent, FocusEvent, and ComponentEvent. Each
of them is created under specific conditions.
An event object holds information about an event that has
occurred. In the next example, we will analyse an ActionEvent in
more detail.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.text.DateFormat;
java.util.Date;
java.util.Locale;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.DefaultListModel;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
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import
import
import
import

javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
static javax.swing.JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE;
javax.swing.JList;

public class EventObjectEx extends JFrame {

private JList list;
private DefaultListModel model;
public EventObjectEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
model = new DefaultListModel();
list = new JList(model);
list.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(250, 150));
list.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder());
JButton okButton = new JButton("OK");
okButton.addActionListener(new ClickAction());
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(okButton)
.addGap(20)
.addComponent(list)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(okButton)
.addComponent(list)
);
pack();
setTitle("Event object");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class ClickAction extends AbstractAction {

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@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Locale locale = Locale.getDefault();
Date date = new Date(e.getWhen());
String tm = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT,
locale).format(date);
if (!model.isEmpty()) {
model.clear();
}
if (e.getID() == ActionEvent.ACTION_PERFORMED) {
model.addElement("Event Id: ACTION_PERFORMED");
}
model.addElement("Time: " + tm);
String source = e.getSource().getClass().getName();
model.addElement("Source: " + source);
int mod = e.getModifiers();
StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer("Modifiers: ");
if ((mod & ActionEvent.ALT_MASK) > 0) {
buffer.append("Alt ");
}
if ((mod & ActionEvent.SHIFT_MASK) > 0) {
buffer.append("Shift ");
}
if ((mod & ActionEvent.META_MASK) > 0) {
buffer.append("Meta ");
}
if ((mod & ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK) > 0) {
buffer.append("Ctrl ");
}
model.addElement(buffer);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
EventObjectEx ex = new EventObjectEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
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});
}
}

The code example shows a button and a list. If we click on the

button, the information about the event is displayed in the list.
In our case, we are talking about an ActionEvent class. The data
will be the time when the event occurred, the id of the event,
the event source, and the modifier keys.
okButton.addActionListener(new ClickAction());

The

ClickAction

listens to the events of the OK button.

private class ClickAction extends AbstractAction {

@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
...
}
}

The actionPerformed() method is invoked when an action occurs. Its

parameter is an ActionEventobject.
Locale locale = Locale.getDefault();
Date date = new Date(e.getWhen());
String s = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT,
locale).format(date);

We get the time when the event occurred. The getWhen() method
returns time value in milliseconds. So we must format it
appropriately.
String source = e.getSource().getClass().getName();
model.addElement("Source: " + source);

Here we add the name of the source of the event to the list. In
our case the source is a JButton.
int mod = event.getModifiers();

We get the modifier keys. It is a bitwise-or of the modifier

constants.
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if ((mod & ActionEvent.SHIFT_MASK) > 0)
buffer.append("Shift ");

Here we determine whether we have pressed a Shift key.

Figure: Event Object

Implementation
There are several ways, how we can implement event handling
in Java Swing toolkit.
Anonymous inner class
Inner class
Derived class

Anonymous inner class

We will illustrate these concepts on a simple event example.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;

public class AnonymousInnerClassEx extends JFrame {

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public AnonymousInnerClassEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
JButton closeButton = new JButton("Close");
closeButton.setBounds(40, 50, 80, 25);
closeButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(closeButton)
.addGap(220)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(closeButton)
.addGap(180)
);
pack();
setTitle("Anonymous inner class");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
AnonymousInnerClassEx ex =
new AnonymousInnerClassEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
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}
}

In this example, we have a button that closes the window upon

clicking.
JButton closeButton = new JButton("Close");

The Close button is the event source. It will generate events.

closeButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
System.exit(0);
}
});

Here we register an action listener with the button. The events

are sent to the event target. The event target in our case
is ActionListener class; in this code, we use an anonymous inner
class.

Inner class
Here
inner

we

implement
ActionListener class.

the

package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;

public class InnerClassExample extends JFrame {

public InnerClassExample() {
initUI();
}

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using

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private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
JButton closeButton = new JButton("Close");
ButtonCloseListener listener = new ButtonCloseListener();
closeButton.addActionListener(listener);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(closeButton)
.addGap(220)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(closeButton)
.addGap(180)
);
pack();
setTitle("Inner class example");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class ButtonCloseListener implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
InnerClassExample ex = new InnerClassExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

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We have a Close button on the panel. Its listener is defined

inside a named inner class.
ButtonCloseListener listener = new ButtonCloseListener();
closeButton.addActionListener(listener);

Here we have a non-anonymous inner class.

private class ButtonCloseListener implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
}

The button listener is defined here.

A derived
listener

class

implementing

the

The following example will derive a class from a component and

implement an action listener inside the class.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;

public class DerivedClassExample extends JFrame {

public DerivedClassExample() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);

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MyButton closeButton = new MyButton("Close");
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(closeButton)
.addGap(220)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(closeButton)
.addGap(180)
);
pack();
setTitle("Derived class");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class MyButton extends JButton
implements ActionListener {
public MyButton(String text) {
super.setText(text);
addActionListener(this);
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
DerivedClassExample ex = new DerivedClassExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In this example, we create a derived MyButton class, which

implements the action listener.

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MyButton closeButton = new MyButton("Close");

Here we create the custom MyButton class.

private class MyButton extends JButton
implements ActionListener {
public MyButton(String text) {
super.setText(text);
addActionListener(this);
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
}

The MyButton class is extended from the JButton class. It

implements the ActionListener interface. This way, the event
handling is managed within the MyButton class.

Multiple sources
A listener can be plugged into several sources. This will be
explained in the next example.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
static javax.swing.JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JPanel;

public class MultipleSources extends JFrame {

private JLabel statusbar;
public MultipleSources() {
initUI();
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}
private void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(panel);
panel.setLayout(gl);
statusbar = new JLabel("ZetCode");
statusbar.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder());
ButtonListener butlist = new ButtonListener();
JButton closeButton = new JButton("Close");
closeButton.addActionListener(butlist);
JButton openButton = new JButton("Open");
openButton.addActionListener(butlist);
JButton findButton = new JButton("Find");
findButton.addActionListener(butlist);
JButton saveButton = new JButton("Save");
saveButton.addActionListener(butlist);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(closeButton)
.addComponent(openButton)
.addComponent(findButton)
.addComponent(saveButton)
.addGap(250)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(closeButton)
.addComponent(openButton)
.addComponent(findButton)
.addComponent(saveButton)
.addGap(20)
);
gl.linkSize(closeButton, openButton,
findButton, saveButton);
add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(statusbar, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
pack();

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setTitle("Multiple Sources");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class ButtonListener implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
JButton o = (JButton) e.getSource();
String label = o.getText();
statusbar.setText(" " + label + " button clicked");
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
MultipleSources ms = new MultipleSources();
ms.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

We create four buttons and a statusbar. The statusbar will

display a message upon clicking on the button.
JButton closeButton = new JButton("Close");
closeButton.addActionListener(butlist);
JButton openButton = new JButton("Open");
openButton.addActionListener(butlist);
...

Each button registers the same

ButtonListener

object.

private class ButtonListener implements ActionListener {

@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
JButton o = (JButton) e.getSource();
String label = o.getText();
statusbar.setText(" " + label + " button clicked");
}
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}

We determine which button was pressed and create a message

for the statusbar. The message is set with the setText() method.

Figure: Multiple Sources

Multiple listeners
It is possible to register several listeners for one event.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.util.Calendar;
javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JSpinner;
javax.swing.SpinnerModel;
javax.swing.SpinnerNumberModel;

public class MultipleListeners extends JFrame {

private JLabel statusbar;
private JSpinner spinner;
private int count = 0;

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public MultipleListeners() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(panel);
panel.setLayout(gl);
add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
statusbar = new JLabel("0");
statusbar.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder());
add(statusbar, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
JButton addButton = new JButton("+");
addButton.addActionListener(new ButtonListener1());
addButton.addActionListener(new ButtonListener2());
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
int currentYear = calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR);
SpinnerModel yearModel = new SpinnerNumberModel(currentYear,
currentYear - 100,
currentYear + 100,
1);
spinner = new JSpinner(yearModel);
spinner.setEditor(new JSpinner.NumberEditor(spinner, "#"));
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(addButton)
.addGap(20)
.addComponent(spinner, DEFAULT_SIZE,
DEFAULT_SIZE, PREFERRED_SIZE)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(CENTER)
.addComponent(addButton)
.addComponent(spinner, DEFAULT_SIZE,
DEFAULT_SIZE, PREFERRED_SIZE))
);
pack();
setTitle("Multiple Listeners");
setSize(300, 200);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
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setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class ButtonListener1 implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Integer val = (Integer) spinner.getValue();
spinner.setValue(++val);
}
}
private class ButtonListener2 implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
statusbar.setText(Integer.toString(++count));
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
MultipleListeners ml = new MultipleListeners();
ml.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In this example, we have a button, a spinner, and a statusbar.

We use two button listeners for one event. One click of a button
will add one year to the spinner component and update the
statusbar. The statusbar will show how many times we have
clicked on the button.
addButton.addActionListener(new ButtonListener1());
addButton.addActionListener(new ButtonListener2());

We register two button listeners.

SpinnerModel yearModel = new SpinnerNumberModel(currentYear,
currentYear - 100,
currentYear + 100,
1);

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spinner = new JSpinner(yearModel);

Here we create the spinner component. We use a year model

for the spinner. The SpinnerNumberModelarguments are the initial
value, min, and max values and the step.
spinner.setEditor(new JSpinner.NumberEditor(spinner, "#"));

We remove the thousands separator.

private class ButtonListener1 implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Integer val = (Integer) spinner.getValue();
spinner.setValue(++val);
}
}

The first button listener increases the value of the spinner

component.
private class ButtonListener2 implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
statusbar.setText(Integer.toString(++count));
}
}

The second button listener increases the value of the status

bar.

Figure: Multiple listeners

Removing listeners
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It is possible to remove the registered listeners with

the removeActionListener() method.
The
following
example
demonstrates this.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.ItemEvent;
java.awt.event.ItemListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JCheckBox;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;

public class RemoveListenerEx extends JFrame {

private
private
private
private
private

JLabel lbl;
JButton addButton;
JCheckBox activeBox;
ButtonListener buttonlistener;
int count = 0;

public RemoveListenerEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
addButton = new JButton("+");
buttonlistener = new ButtonListener();
activeBox = new JCheckBox("Active listener");
activeBox.addItemListener(new ItemListener() {
@Override
public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent event) {
if (activeBox.isSelected()) {
addButton.addActionListener(buttonlistener);
} else {
addButton.removeActionListener(buttonlistener);
}
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}
});
lbl = new JLabel("0");
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(addButton)
.addComponent(lbl))
.addGap(30)
.addComponent(activeBox)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(addButton)
.addComponent(activeBox))
.addGap(30)
.addComponent(lbl)
);
pack();
setTitle("Remove listener");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class ButtonListener implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
lbl.setText(Integer.toString(++count));
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
RemoveListenerEx ex = new RemoveListenerEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

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We have three components on the panel: a button, a check box,

and a label. By toggling the check box, we add or remove the
listener for a button.
buttonlistener = new ButtonListener();

We have to create a non-anonymous listener if we want to later

remove it.
if (activeBox.isSelected()) {
addButton.addActionListener(buttonlistener);
} else {
addButton.removeActionListener(buttonlistener);
}

We determine whether the check box is selected. Then we add

or remove the listener.

Figure: Remove listener

Moving a window
The following example will look for a position of a window on
the screen.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.Font;
java.awt.event.ComponentEvent;
java.awt.event.ComponentListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;

public class MovingWindowEx extends JFrame

implements ComponentListener {

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private JLabel labelx;
private JLabel labely;
public MovingWindowEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
addComponentListener(this);
labelx = new JLabel("x: ");
labelx.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 14));
labelx.setBounds(20, 20, 60, 25);
labely = new JLabel("y: ");
labely.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 14));
labely.setBounds(20, 45, 60, 25);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(labelx)
.addComponent(labely)
.addGap(250)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(labelx)
.addComponent(labely)
.addGap(130)
);
pack();
setTitle("Moving window");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
@Override
public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {
}
@Override
public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent e) {

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int x = e.getComponent().getX();
int y = e.getComponent().getY();
labelx.setText("x: " + x);
labely.setText("y: " + y);
}
@Override
public void componentShown(ComponentEvent e) {
}
@Override
public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent e) {
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
MovingWindowEx ex = new MovingWindowEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example shows the current window coordinates on the

panel. To get the window position, we use the ComponentListener.
public class MovingWindowExample extends JFrame
implements ComponentListener {

The main class implements the ComponentListener interface. It has

to provide implementation of all its methods.
@Override
public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {
}
@Override
public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent e) {
int x = e.getComponent().getX();
int y = e.getComponent().getY();
labelx.setText("x: " + x);
labely.setText("y: " + y);
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}
@Override
public void componentShown(ComponentEvent e) {
}
@Override
public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent e) {
}

We have to create all four methods even it we are interested in

one of themcomponentMoved(). Other three methods are empty.
int x = e.getComponent().getX();
int y = e.getComponent().getY();

Here we get the x and the y positions of the component.

Figure: Moving a window

Adapters
An adapter is a convenient class that provides empty
implementations all required methods. In the previous code
example, we had to implement all four methods of
a ComponentListener classeven if we did not use them. To avoid
unnecessary coding, we can use adapters. We then use
implement those methods that we actually need. There is no
adapter for a button click event because there we have only
one method to implementthe actionPerformed(). We can use
adapters in situations where we have more than one method to
implement.

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The following example is a rewrite of the previous one, using

a ComponentAdapter.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.Font;
java.awt.event.ComponentAdapter;
java.awt.event.ComponentEvent;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;

public class AdapterExample extends JFrame {

private JLabel labelx;
private JLabel labely;
public AdapterExample() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
addComponentListener(new MoveAdapter());
labelx = new JLabel("x: ");
labelx.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 14));
labely = new JLabel("y: ");
labely.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 14));
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(labelx)
.addComponent(labely)
.addGap(250)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(labelx)
.addComponent(labely)
.addGap(130)
);
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pack();
setTitle("Adapter example");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class MoveAdapter extends ComponentAdapter {
@Override
public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent e) {
int x = e.getComponent().getX();
int y = e.getComponent().getY();
labelx.setText("x: " + x);
labely.setText("y: " + y);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
AdapterExample ex = new AdapterExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

This example is a rewrite of the previous one. Here we use

the ComponentAdapter.
addComponentListener(new MoveAdapter());

Here we register the component listener.

private class MoveAdapter extends ComponentAdapter {
@Override
public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent e) {
int x = e.getComponent().getX();
int y = e.getComponent().getY();
labelx.setText("x: " + x);
labely.setText("y: " + y);
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}
}

Inside
the MoveAdapter inner
class,
we
define
the componentMoved() method. All the other methods are left
empty.
This part of the Java Swing tutorial was dedicated to Swing
events.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 5:

Basic Swing components

Swing components are basic building blocks of an application.
Swing has a wide range of various components, including
buttons, check boxes, sliders, and list boxes. In this part of the
Swing
tutorial,
we
will
present JLabel, JCheckBox, JSlider, JComboBox, JProgressBar,
and JToggleButtoncomponents.

JLabel
is a simple component for displaying text, images or both.
It does not react to input events.
JLabel

package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.Font;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;

public class LabelEx extends JFrame {

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public LabelEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
String lyrics = "<html>It's way too late to think of<br>" +
"Someone I would call now<br>" +
"And neon signs got tired<br>" +
"Red eye flights help the stars out<br>" +
"I'm safe in a corner<br>" +
"Just hours before me<br>" +
"<br>" +
"I'm waking with the roaches<br>" +
"The world has surrendered<br>" +
"I'm dating ancient ghosts<br>" +
"The ones I made friends with<br>" +
"The comfort of fireflies<br>" +
"Long gone before daylight<br>" +
"<br>" +
"And if I had one wishful field tonight<br>" +
"I'd ask for the sun to never rise<br>" +
"If God leant his voice for me to speak<br>" +
"I'd say go to bed, world<br>" +
"<br>" +
"I've always been too late<br>" +
"To see what's before me<br>" +
"And I know nothing sweeter than<br>" +
"Champaign from last New Years<br>" +
"Sweet music in my ears<br>" +
"And a night full of no fears<br>" +
"<br>" +
"But if I had one wishful field tonight<br>" +
"I'd ask for the sun to never rise<br>" +
"If God passed a mic to me to speak<br>" +
"I'd say stay in bed, world<br>" +
"Sleep in peace</html>";
JLabel label = new JLabel(lyrics);
label.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 14));
label.setForeground(new Color(50, 50, 25));
createLayout(label);
setTitle("No Sleep");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();

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GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
);
pack();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
LabelEx ex = new LabelEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In our example, we show lyrics of a song from Cardigans. We

can use HTML tags in JLabelcomponent. We use the <br> tag to
separate lines.
JLabel label = new JLabel(lyrics);
label.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 14));

Here we create a label component. We choose a plain Serif font

and set its height to 14px.
pack();

The pack() method resizes the window

component is shown in its preferred size.

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the

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Figure: JLabel

JCheckBox
is a box with a label that has two states: on and off. If
the check box is selected, it is represented by a tick in a box. A
check box can be used to show or hide a splashscreen at
startup, toggle visibility of a toolbar etc.
JCheckBox

With JCheckBox it
is
possible
to
use
an ActionListener or
an ItemListener. Usually the latter option is used. ItemListener is the
interface for receiving item events. The class that is interested
in processing an item event, e.g. the observer, implements this
interface. The observer object is registered with a component
using the component's addItemListener() method. When an item
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selection event occurs, the observer's

is invoked.

itemStateChanged()

package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ItemEvent;
java.awt.event.ItemListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JCheckBox;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;

public class CheckBoxEx extends JFrame

implements ItemListener {
public CheckBoxEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JCheckBox cb = new JCheckBox("Show title", true);
cb.addItemListener(this);
createLayout(cb);
setSize(280, 200);
setTitle("JCheckBox");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
@Override
public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) {
int sel = e.getStateChange();
if (sel==ItemEvent.SELECTED) {
setTitle("JCheckBox");
} else {
setTitle("");
}
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();

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GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
CheckBoxEx ex = new CheckBoxEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

Our code example shows or hides the title of the window

depending whether the check box is selected.
public class CheckBoxEx extends JFrame
implements ItemListener {

Our application class implements the ItemListener. This means

that this class has to provide the itemStateChanged() method in
which we react to item selection events.
JCheckBox checkbox = new JCheckBox("Show title", true);

is created. This constructor takes a text and the state

of the check box as parameters. The check box is initially
selected.
JCheckBox

cb.addItemListener(this);

The application class is registered to be the observer of the

selection events of the check box.
@Override
public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) {
int sel = e.getStateChange();
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if (sel==ItemEvent.SELECTED) {
setTitle("JCheckBox");
} else {
setTitle("");
}
}

We call the ItemEvent's getStateChange() method to determine the

state of the check box. ItemEvent is a semantic event which
indicates that an item was selected or deselected. It is sent to
the registered observer. Depending on the state of the check
box, we show or hide the title of the window using
thesetTitle() method.

Figure: JCheckBox

Note the blue rectangle around the text of the check box. It
indicates that this component has keyboard focus. It is possible
to select and deselect the check box with the Space key.

JSlider
is a component that lets the user graphically select a
value by sliding a knob within a bounded interval. Moving the
slider's
knob,
the stateChanged() method
of
the
slider's ChangeListeneris called. Our example will show a volume
control.
JSlider

package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.Container;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import javax.swing.GroupLayout;
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import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

static javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JSlider;
javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;

public class SliderEx extends JFrame {

private JSlider slider;
private JLabel lbl;
private
private
private
private

ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon

mute;
min;
med;
max;

public SliderEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
loadImages();
slider = new JSlider(0, 150, 0);
slider.addChangeListener(new ChangeListener() {
@Override
public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent event) {
int value = slider.getValue();
if (value == 0) {
lbl.setIcon(mute);
} else if (value > 0 && value <= 30) {
lbl.setIcon(min);
} else if (value > 30 && value < 80) {
lbl.setIcon(med);
} else {
lbl.setIcon(max);
}
}
});
lbl = new JLabel(mute, JLabel.CENTER);
createLayout(slider, lbl);

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setTitle("JSlider");
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
private void loadImages() {
mute = new ImageIcon("mute.png");
min = new ImageIcon("min.png");
med = new ImageIcon("med.png");
max = new ImageIcon("max.png");
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(CENTER)
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
pack();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
SliderEx ex = new SliderEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the code example, we show a JSlider and a JLabel component.

By dragging the slider, we change the icon on the label
component.
slider = new JSlider(0, 150, 0);
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This is a JSlider constructor. The parameters are minimum value,

maximum value, and current value.
private void loadImages() {
mute = new ImageIcon("mute.png");
min = new ImageIcon("min.png");
med = new ImageIcon("med.png");
max = new ImageIcon("max.png");
}

In the

loadImages()

method, we load the image files from the disk.

slider.addChangeListener(new ChangeListener() {
...
});

We add a ChangeListener to the slider. Inside the listener, we

determine the current slider value and update the label
accordingly.

Figure: JSlider

JComboBox
is a component that combines a button or editable
field and a drop-down list. The user can select a value from the
drop-down list, which appears at the user's request. If you make
the combo box editable, then the combo box includes an
editable field into which the user can type a value.
JComboBox

package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ItemEvent;
java.awt.event.ItemListener;

import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE;
javax.swing.JComboBox;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;

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public class ComboBoxEx extends JFrame

implements ItemListener {
private JLabel display;
private JComboBox<String> box;
private String[] distros;
public ComboBoxEx() {
initUI();
setTitle("JComboBox");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
private void initUI() {
distros = new String[]{"Ubuntu", "Redhat", "Arch",
"Debian", "Mint"};
box = new JComboBox<>(distros);
box.addItemListener(this);
display = new JLabel("Ubuntu");
createLayout(box, display);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(BASELINE)
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
pack();
}
@Override
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public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) {
if (e.getStateChange() == ItemEvent.SELECTED) {
display.setText(e.getItem().toString());
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ComboBoxEx ex = new ComboBoxEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In our example, we have a combo box and a label. The combo

box contains a list of strings denoting names of Linux
distribution. The selected item from the combo box is displayed
in the label. The combo box uses its ItemListener to detect
changes.
distros = new String[] {"Ubuntu", "Redhat", "Arch",
"Debian", "Mint"};

The

JComboBox

will hold these string values.

display = new JLabel("Ubuntu");

The display area is a simple JLabel. It displays the item that is

initially shown in the combo box.
box = new JComboBox<>(distros);
box.addItemListener(this);

The constructor of the JComboBox takes a string array of Linux

distributions. We plug a listener to the created object.
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(BASELINE)
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);

Vertically, the two components will be aligned to the baseline of

their text.
@Override
public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) {
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if (e.getStateChange() == ItemEvent.SELECTED) {
display.setText(e.getItem().toString());
}
}

The itemStateChanged() is invoked when an item has been selected

or deselected by the user. We check for ItemEvent.SELECTED state
and set the combo box's selected item to the label.

Figure: JComboBox

JProgressBar
A progress bar is a component that is used when we process
lengthy tasks. It is animated so that the user knows that our
task is progressing. The JProgressBar component provides a
horizontal or a vertical progress bar. The initial and minimum
values are 0 and the maximum is 100.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JProgressBar;
javax.swing.Timer;

public class ProgressBarEx extends JFrame {

private Timer timer;
private JProgressBar pbar;
private JButton sBtn;
public ProgressBarEx() {
initUI();
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}
private void initUI() {
pbar = new JProgressBar();
pbar.setStringPainted(true);
sBtn = new JButton("Start");
sBtn.addActionListener(new ClickAction());
timer = new Timer(50, new UpdateBarListener());
createLayout(pbar, sBtn);
setTitle("JProgressBar");
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(CENTER)
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
pack();
}
private class UpdateBarListener implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
int val = pbar.getValue();
if (val >= 100) {
timer.stop();
sBtn.setText("End");
return;
}
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pbar.setValue(++val);
}
}
private class ClickAction extends AbstractAction {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (timer.isRunning()) {
timer.stop();
sBtn.setText("Start");
} else if (!"End".equals(sBtn.getText())) {
timer.start();
sBtn.setText("Stop");
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ProgressBarEx ex = new ProgressBarEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example displays a progress bar and a button. The button

starts and stops the progress.
pbar = new JProgressBar();
pbar.setStringPainted(true);

Here we create the JProgressBar component. The minimum value

is 0, the maximum 100, and the initial value is 0. These are the
default values. The setStringPainted() method determines whether
the progress bar displays the percentage of the task completed.
timer = new Timer(50, new UpdateBarListener());

The timer object launches UpdateBarListener every 50 ms. Inside

the listener, we check if the progress bar reached its maximum
value.
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private class UpdateBarListener implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
int val = pbar.getValue();
if (val >= 100) {
timer.stop();
sBtn.setText("End");
return;
}
pbar.setValue(++val);
}
}

The actionPerformed() method of the listener increases the current

value of the progress bar. If it reaches the maximum value, the
timer is stopped and the button's label is set to "End".
private class ClickAction extends AbstractAction {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (timer.isRunning()) {
timer.stop();
sBtn.setText("Start");
} else if (!"End".equals(sBtn.getText())) {
timer.start();
sBtn.setText("Stop");
}
}
}

The button starts or stops the timer. The text of the button is
updated dynamically; it can have "Start", "Stop", or "End" string
values.

Figure: JProgressBar

JToggleButton
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is a button that has two states: pressed and not

pressed. We toggle between these two states by clicking on it.
There are situations where this functionality fits well.
JToggleButton

package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Container;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JToggleButton;
static javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.UNRELATED;
javax.swing.border.LineBorder;

public class ToggleButtonEx extends JFrame

implements ActionListener {
private
private
private
private

JToggleButton redBtn;
JToggleButton greenBtn;
JToggleButton blueBtn;
JPanel display;

public ToggleButtonEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
redBtn = new JToggleButton("red");
redBtn.addActionListener(this);
greenBtn = new JToggleButton("green");
greenBtn.addActionListener(this);
blueBtn = new JToggleButton("blue");
blueBtn.addActionListener(this);
display = new JPanel();
display.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(120, 120));
display.setBorder(LineBorder.createGrayLineBorder());
display.setBackground(Color.black);
createLayout(redBtn, greenBtn, blueBtn, display);
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setTitle("JToggleButton");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
.addComponent(arg[2]))
.addPreferredGap(UNRELATED)
.addComponent(arg[3])
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(CENTER)
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
.addComponent(arg[2]))
.addComponent(arg[3])
);
gl.linkSize(redBtn, greenBtn, blueBtn);
pack();
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Color color = display.getBackground();
int red = color.getRed();
int green = color.getGreen();
int blue = color.getBlue();
if (e.getActionCommand().equals("red")) {
if (red == 0) {
red = 255;
} else {
red = 0;
}
}

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if (e.getActionCommand().equals("green")) {
if (green == 0) {
green = 255;
} else {
green = 0;
}
}
if (e.getActionCommand().equals("blue")) {
if (blue == 0) {
blue = 255;
} else {
blue = 0;
}
}
Color setCol = new Color(red, green, blue);
display.setBackground(setCol);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ToggleButtonEx ex = new ToggleButtonEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example has three toggle buttons and a panel. We set the
background colour of the display panel to black. The toggle
buttons will toggle the red, green, and blue parts of the colour
value. The background colour will depend on which toggle
buttons we have pressed.
redBtn = new JToggleButton("red");
redBtn.addActionListener(this);

Here we create a toggle button and set an action listener to it.

display = new JPanel();
display.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(120, 120));
display.setBorder(LineBorder.createGrayLineBorder());
display.setBackground(Color.black);

This is the panel that shows the colour value mixed by toggle
buttons. We set its preferred size (the default is very small),

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change the border line to gray colour and set an initial

background colour.
Color color = display.getBackground();
int red = color.getRed();
int green = color.getGreen();
int blue = color.getBlue();

In the actionPerformed() method, we determine the current red,

green, and blue parts of the display background colour.
if (e.getActionCommand().equals("red")) {
if (red == 0) {
red = 255;
} else {
red = 0;
}
}

We determine which button was toggled and update the colour

part of the RGB value accordingly.
Color setCol = new Color(red, green, blue);
display.setBackground(setCol);

A new colour is created and the display panel is updated to a

new colour.

Figure: JToggleButton

In this part of the Java Swing tutorial, we have covered basic

Swing components.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 6:

Basic Swing components II

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Swing components are basic building blocks of an application.

Swing toolkit has a wide range of various components,
including buttons, check boxes, sliders, list boxes. Everything a
programmer needs for his job. In this section of the tutorial, we
will describe several useful components.

JList Component
is a component that displays a list of objects. It allows the
user to select one or more items.
JList

package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.Font;
java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment;

import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JList;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
javax.swing.event.ListSelectionEvent;
javax.swing.event.ListSelectionListener;

public class ListExample extends JFrame {

private JLabel label;
private JList list;
public ListExample() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20, 20, 20, 20));
GraphicsEnvironment ge =
GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
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String[] fonts = ge.getAvailableFontFamilyNames();

list = new JList(fonts);
list.addListSelectionListener(new ListSelectionListener() {
@Override
public void valueChanged(ListSelectionEvent e) {
if (!e.getValueIsAdjusting()) {
String name = (String) list.getSelectedValue();
Font font = new Font(name, Font.PLAIN, 12);
label.setFont(font);
}
}
});
JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane();
pane.getViewport().add(list);
pane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(250, 200));
panel.add(pane);
label = new JLabel("Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes");
label.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 12));
add(label, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
add(panel);
pack();
setTitle("JList");
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ListExample ex = new ListExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In our example, we will display a JList and JLabel components. The

list component contains a list of all available font family names
on our system. If we select an item from the list, the label will
be displayed in a font, we have chosen.
GraphicsEnvironment ge =
GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
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String[] fonts = ge.getAvailableFontFamilyNames();

Here we obtain all possible font family names on our system.

list = new JList(fonts);

We create a

JList

component.

public void valueChanged(ListSelectionEvent e) {

if (!e.getValueIsAdjusting()) {

Events in list selection are grouped. We receive events for both

selecting and deselecting. To filter only the selecting events, we
use the getValueIsAdjusting() method.
String name = (String) list.getSelectedValue();
Font font = new Font(name, Font.PLAIN, 12);
label.setFont(font);

We get the selected item and set a new font for the label.
JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane();
pane.getViewport().add(list);

component is not scrollable by default. We put the list into

the JScrollPane to make it scrollable.
JLabel

Figure: JList

JTextArea component
A JTextArea is a multiline text area that displays plain text. It is
lightweight component for working with text. The component
does
not
handle
scrolling.
For
this
task,
we
use JScrollPane component.
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package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.JTextArea;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class TextAreaExample extends JFrame {

public TextAreaExample() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20, 20, 20, 20));
JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane();
JTextArea area = new JTextArea();
area.setLineWrap(true);
area.setWrapStyleWord(true);
area.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(8, 8, 8, 8));
pane.getViewport().add(area);
panel.add(pane);
add(panel);
setTitle("JTextArea");
setSize(new Dimension(350, 300));
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
TextAreaExample ex = new TextAreaExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
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}

The example shows a simple

JTextArea

component.

JTextArea

component.

JTextArea area = new JTextArea();

This is the constructor of the

area.setLineWrap(true);

The setLineWrap() makes the lines wrapped if they are too long to
fit the text area's width.
area.setWrapStyleWord(true);

Here we specify, how is line going to be wrapped. In our case,

lines will be wrapped at word boundarieswhite spaces.
area.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(8, 8, 8, 8));

We put some border around the text in the component.

pane.getViewport().add(area);

To make the text scrollable, we put the

the JScrollPane component.

JTextArea

component into

Figure: JTextAra

JTextPane component
component is a more advanced component for working
with text. The component can do some complex formatting
operations over the text. It can display also HTML documents.
JTextPane

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package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.JTextPane;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class TextPaneExample extends JFrame {

JTextPane textPane;
public TextPaneExample() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20, 20, 20, 20));
JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane();
textPane = new JTextPane();
textPane.setContentType("text/html");
textPane.setEditable(false);
textPane.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(8, 8, 8, 8));
loadFile();
pane.getViewport().add(textPane);
panel.add(pane);
add(panel);
pack();
setTitle("JTextPane");
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
private void loadFile() {

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try {
String cd = System.getProperty("user.dir") + "/";
textPane.setPage("File:///" + cd + "test.html");
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(TextPaneExample.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE,
null, ex);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
TextPaneExample ex = new TextPaneExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

This is the HTML code

the JTextPane component. The
scrolling.

that we are loading into

component does not handle

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<html>
<head>
<title>A simple html document</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>A simple html document</h2>
<p>
<b>JTextPane</b> can display HTML documents.
</p>
<br>
<pre>
JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane();
JTextPane textpane = new JTextPane();
textpane.setContentType("text/html");
textpane.setEditable(false);
</pre>
<br>
<small>The Java Swing tutorial, 2013</small>
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</body>
</html>

In our example we show a JTextPane component and load a HTML

document. Example shows formatting capabilities of the
component.
JTextPane textpane = new JTextPane();
textpane.setContentType("text/html");
textpane.setEditable(false);

We create a JTextPane component, set the content of the

component to be a HTML document and disable editing.
private void loadFile() {
try {
String cd = System.getProperty("user.dir") + "/";
textPane.setPage("File:///" + cd + "test.html");
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(TextPaneExample.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE,
null, ex);
}
}

Here we determine the current working directory of the user.

We load a HTML document into the pane.

Figure: JTextPane

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In this chapter, we have continued covering basic Swing

components.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++Lesson 7:

Java Swing dialogs

Dialog windows or dialogs are an indispensable part of most
modern GUI applications. A dialog is defined as a conversation
between two or more persons. In a computer application a
dialog is a window which is used to "talk" to the application. A
dialog is used to input data, modify data, change the
application settings etc. Dialogs are important means of
communication between a user and a computer program.
In Java Swing toolkit, we can create two kinds of dialogs:
standard dialogs and custom dialogs.Custom dialogs are
created
by
programmers.
They
are
based
on
the JDialog class. Standard
dialogsare
predefined
dialogs
available in the Swing toolkit, for example the JColorChooser or
theJFileChooser. These are dialogs for common programming
tasks like showing text, receiving input, loading and saving
files. They save programmer's time and enhance using some
standard behaviour.
There are two basic types of dialogs: modal and
modeless. Modal dialogs block input to other top-level
windows. Modeless dialogs allow input to other windows. An
open file dialog is a good example of a modal dialog. While
choosing a file to open, no other operation should be permitted.
A typical modeless dialog is a find text dialog. It is handy to
have the ability to move the cursor in the text control and
define, where to start the finding of the particular text.

Message dialogs
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Message dialogs are simple dialogs that provide information to

the
user.
Message
dialogs
are
created
with
the JOptionPane.showMessageDialog() method.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JOptionPane;
javax.swing.JPanel;

public class MessageDialogsEx extends JFrame {

private JPanel pnl;
public MessageDialogsEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
pnl = (JPanel) getContentPane();
JButton
JButton
JButton
JButton

warBtn = new JButton("Warning");

errBtn = new JButton("Error");
queBtn = new JButton("Question");
infBtn = new JButton("Information");

warBtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(pnl, "A deprecated call!",
"Warning", JOptionPane.WARNING_MESSAGE);
}
});
errBtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(pnl, "Could not open file!",
"Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
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}
});
queBtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(pnl, "Are you sure to quit?",
"Question", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE);
}
});
infBtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(pnl, "Download completed.",
"Information", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
}
});
createLayout(warBtn, errBtn , queBtn, infBtn);
setTitle("Message dialogs");
setSize(300, 200);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addContainerGap(DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[2]))
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[1])
.addComponent(arg[3]))
.addContainerGap(DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addContainerGap(DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1]))
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.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[2])
.addComponent(arg[3]))
.addContainerGap(DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
);
gl.linkSize(arg[0], arg[1], arg[2], arg[3]);
pack();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
MessageDialogsEx md = new MessageDialogsEx();
md.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example shows an error, a warning, a question, and an

information message dialog.
JButton
JButton
JButton
JButton

warBtn = new JButton("Warning");

errBtn = new JButton("Error");
queBtn = new JButton("Question");
infBtn = new JButton("Information");

These four buttons show four different message dialogs.

JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(pnl, "Could not open file!",
"Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);

To
create
a
message
dialog,
we
call
the
static showMessageDialog() method of the JOptionPane class. We
provide the dialog's parent, message text, title and a message
type. The message type is one of the following constants:
ERROR_MESSAGE
WARNING_MESSAGE
QUESTION_MESSAGE
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INFORMATION_MESSAGE
The displayed icon depends on this constant.

Figure: Question message dialog

A custom dialog
In the following example we create a simple custom dialog. It is
a sample about dialog found in many GUI applications, usually
located in the Help menu.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.Font;
java.awt.Frame;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
javax.swing.Box;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JDialog;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JMenu;
javax.swing.JMenuBar;
javax.swing.JMenuItem;

class AboutDialog extends JDialog {

public AboutDialog(Frame parent) {
super(parent);
initUI();
}
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private void initUI() {

ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("notes.png");
JLabel label = new JLabel(icon);
JLabel name = new JLabel("Notes, 1.23");
name.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 13));
JButton btn = new JButton("OK");
btn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
dispose();
}
});
createLayout(name, label, btn);
setModalityType(ModalityType.APPLICATION_MODAL);
setTitle("About Notes");
setDefaultCloseOperation(DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(getParent());
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(CENTER)
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addComponent(arg[1])
.addComponent(arg[2])
.addGap(200)
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGap(30)
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(20)
.addComponent(arg[1])
.addGap(20)
.addComponent(arg[2])
.addGap(30)
);

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pack();
}
}
public class JDialogEx extends JFrame
implements ActionListener {
public JDialogEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createMenuBar();
setTitle("Simple Dialog");
setSize(350, 250);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private void createMenuBar() {
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
JMenu helpMenu = new JMenu("Help");
helpMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_H);
JMenuItem aboutMi = new JMenuItem("About");
aboutMi.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_A);
helpMenu.add(aboutMi);
aboutMi.addActionListener(this);
menubar.add(fileMenu);
menubar.add(Box.createGlue());
menubar.add(helpMenu);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
showAboutDialog();
}
private void showAboutDialog() {
AboutDialog ad = new AboutDialog(this);
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ad.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
JDialogEx sd = new JDialogEx();
sd.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

From the Help menu, we can popup a small dialog box. The
dialog displays text, an icon, and a button.
class AboutDialog extends JDialog {

The custom dialog is based on the

JDialog

class.

setModalityType(ModalityType.APPLICATION_MODAL);

The setModalityType() method sets the modality type of the dialog.

TheModalityType.APPLICATION_MODAL blocks input from all top-level
windows of the same application. In our case, the input to the
application's frame is blocked during the lifetime of the dialog.
setLocationRelativeTo(getParent());

The setLocationRelativeTo() method centers the dialog window over

the area of the frame window.
setDefaultCloseOperation(DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);

The setDefaultCloseOperation() sets what happens when the user

clicks on the window's Close button. The dialog will be hidden
and disposed.
private void showAboutDialog() {
AboutDialog ad = new AboutDialog(this);
ad.setVisible(true);
}
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The dialog window

the setVisible() method.

is

shown

on

the

screen

with

Figure: Custom dialog

JFileChooser
JFileChooser

is a standard dialog for selecting a file from the file

system.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.io.File;
java.io.IOException;
java.nio.file.Files;
java.nio.file.Paths;
java.util.logging.Level;
java.util.logging.Logger;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFileChooser;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.JTextArea;
javax.swing.JToolBar;
javax.swing.filechooser.FileFilter;
javax.swing.filechooser.FileNameExtensionFilter;

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public class FileChooserEx extends JFrame {

private JPanel panel;
private JTextArea area;
public FileChooserEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
panel = (JPanel) getContentPane();
area = new JTextArea();
JScrollPane spane = new JScrollPane();
spane.getViewport().add(area);
JToolBar toolbar = createToolBar();
createLayout(toolbar, spane);
setTitle("JFileChooser");
setSize(400, 300);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private JToolBar createToolBar() {
ImageIcon open = new ImageIcon("document-open.png");
JToolBar toolbar = new JToolBar();
JButton openb = new JButton(open);
openb.addActionListener(new OpenFileAction());
toolbar.add(openb);
return toolbar;
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0], DEFAULT_SIZE, DEFAULT_SIZE,
Short.MAX_VALUE)
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.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[1]))
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(4)
.addComponent(arg[1])
);
pack();
}
public String readFile(File file) {
String content = "";
try {
content = new String(Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(
file.getAbsolutePath())));
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(FileChooserEx.class.getName()).log(
Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
return content;
}
private class OpenFileAction extends AbstractAction {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
JFileChooser fdia = new JFileChooser();
FileFilter filter = new FileNameExtensionFilter("Java files",
"java");
fdia.addChoosableFileFilter(filter);
int ret = fdia.showDialog(panel, "Open file");
if (ret == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
File file = fdia.getSelectedFile();
String text = readFile(file);
area.setText(text);
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
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public void run() {
FileChooserEx fcd = new FileChooserEx();
fcd.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The code example will demonstrate how to use a

load file contents into the text area component.

JFileChooser

to

JFileChooser fdia = new JFileChooser();

This is the constructor of the file chooser dialog.

FileFilter filter = new FileNameExtensionFilter("Java files",
"java");
fdia.addChoosableFileFilter(filter);

Here we define the file filter. In our case, we will have Java files
with extension .java. We have also the default All files option.
int ret = fdia.showDialog(panel, "Open file");

The showDialog() method displays the dialog on the screen.

The JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION is returned when the Yes or OK
buttons are clicked.
if (ret == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
File file = fdia.getSelectedFile();
String text = readFile(file);
area.setText(text);
}

Here we get the name of the selected file. We read the contents
of the file and set the text into the text area.

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Figure:
JFileChooser dialog

JColorChooser
JColorChooser

is a standard dialog for selecting a colour.

package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JColorChooser;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JToolBar;

public class ColorChooserEx extends JFrame {

private JPanel colourPanel;

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public ColorChooserEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
colourPanel = new JPanel();
colourPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
JToolBar toolbar = createToolBar();
createLayout(toolbar, colourPanel);
setTitle("JColorChooser");
setSize(400, 300);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private JToolBar createToolBar() {
ImageIcon open = new ImageIcon("colourdlg.png");
JToolBar toolbar = new JToolBar();
JButton openb = new JButton(open);
openb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Color color = JColorChooser.showDialog(colourPanel,
"Choose colour", Color.white);
colourPanel.setBackground(color);
}
});
toolbar.add(openb);
return toolbar;
}
private void createLayout(JComponent... arg) {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0], DEFAULT_SIZE, DEFAULT_SIZE,
Short.MAX_VALUE)
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGap(30)
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.addComponent(arg[1])
.addGap(30))
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(arg[0])
.addGap(30)
.addComponent(arg[1])
.addGap(30)
);
pack();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ColorChooserEx ccd = new ColorChooserEx();
ccd.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the example, we have a white panel. We will change the

background colour of the panel by selecting a colour from
the JColorChooser.
Color color = JColorChooser.showDialog(colourPanel,
"Choose colour", Color.white);
colourPanel.setBackground(color);

This
code
shows
the
colour
chooser
dialog.
The showDialog() method returns the selected colour value. We
change the colourPanel's background to the newly selected colour.
In this part of the Java Swing tutorial, we have covered dialogs.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 8:

Java Swing model architecture

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Swing engineers created the Swing toolkit implementing a

modified Model View Controller design pattern. This enables
efficient handling of data and using pluggable look and feel at
runtime.
The traditional MVC pattern divides an application into three
parts: a model, a view and a controller. The model represents
the data in the application. The view is the visual
representation of the data. And finally the controller processes
and responds to events, typically user actions, and may invoke
changes on the model. The idea is to separate the data access
and business logic from data presentation and user interaction,
by introducing an intermediate component: the controller.
The Swing toolkit uses a modified MVC design pattern. It has a
single UI object for both the view and the controller. This
modified MVC is sometimes called a separable model
architecture.
In the Swing toolkit, every component has its model, even the
basic ones like buttons. There are two kinds of models in Swing
toolkit:
state models
data models
The state models handle the state of the component. For
example the model keeps track whether the component is
selected or pressed. The data models handle data they work
with. A list component keeps a list of items that it is displaying.
For Swing developers it means that they often need to get a
model instance in order to manipulate the data in the
component. But there are exceptions. For convenience, there
are some methods that return data without the need for a
programmer to access the model.
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public int getValue() {
return getModel().getValue();
}

An example is the getValue() method of the JSlider component. The

developer does not need to work with the model directly.
Instead, the access to the model is done behind the scenes. It
would be an overkill to work with models directly in such simple
situations. Because of this, Swing provides some convenience
methods like the previous one.
To query the state of the model, we have two kinds of
notifications:
lightweight notifications
stateful notifications
A lightweight notification uses a ChangeListener class. We have
only one single event (ChangeEvent)for all notifications coming
from the component. For more complicated components, a
stateful notification is used. For such notifications, we have
different kinds of events. For example the JListcomponent
has ListDataEvent and ListSelectionEvent.
If we do not set a model for a component, a default one is
created.
For
example
the
button
component
has
a DefaultButtonModel model.
public JButton(String text, Icon icon) {
// Create the model
setModel(new DefaultButtonModel());
// initialize
init(text, icon);
}

Looking at the JButton.java source file we find out that the

default model is created at the construction of the component.
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ButtonModel
The model is used for various kinds of buttons like push
buttons, check boxes, radio boxes and for menu items. The
following example illustrates the model for a JButton. We can
manage only the state of the button because no data can be
associated with a push button.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JCheckBox;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;

public class ButtonModel extends JFrame {

private
private
private
private
private

JButton okbtn;
JLabel enabledLbl;
JLabel pressedLbl;
JLabel armedLbl;
JCheckBox cb;

public ButtonModel() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
okbtn = new JButton("OK");
okbtn.addChangeListener(new DisabledChangeListener());
cb = new JCheckBox();
cb.setAction(new CheckBoxAction());
enabledLbl = new JLabel("Enabled: true");
pressedLbl = new JLabel("Pressed: false");
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armedLbl = new JLabel("Armed: false");
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(okbtn)
.addGap(80)
.addComponent(cb))
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(enabledLbl)
.addComponent(pressedLbl)
.addComponent(armedLbl))
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(okbtn)
.addComponent(cb))
.addGap(40)
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(enabledLbl)
.addComponent(pressedLbl)
.addComponent(armedLbl))
);
pack();
setTitle("ButtonModel");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class DisabledChangeListener implements ChangeListener {
@Override
public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
DefaultButtonModel model = (DefaultButtonModel) okbtn.getModel();
if (model.isEnabled()) {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: true");
} else {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: false");
}
if (model.isArmed()) {
armedLbl.setText("Armed: true");
} else {
armedLbl.setText("Armed: false");
}

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if (model.isPressed()) {
pressedLbl.setText("Pressed: true");
} else {
pressedLbl.setText("Pressed: false");
}
}
}
private class CheckBoxAction extends AbstractAction {
public CheckBoxAction() {
super("Disabled");
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (okbtn.isEnabled()) {
okbtn.setEnabled(false);
} else {
okbtn.setEnabled(true);
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ButtonModel ex = new ButtonModel();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In our example, we have a button, a check box, and three

labels. The labels represent three properties of the button:
pressed, disabled, or armed state.
okbtn.addChangeListener(new DisabledChangeListener());

We use a

ChangeListener

to listen for button state changes.

DefaultButtonModel model = (DefaultButtonModel) okbtn.getModel();

Here we get the default button model.

if (model.isEnabled()) {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: true");
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} else {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: false");
}

We query the model whether the button is enabled. The label is

updated accordingly.
if (okbtn.isEnabled()) {
okbtn.setEnabled(false);
} else {
okbtn.setEnabled(true);

The check box enables or disables the button. To enable the OK

button, we call the setEnabled()method. So we change the state
of the button. Where is the model? The answer lies in
theAbstractButton.java file.
public void setEnabled(boolean b) {
if (!b && model.isRollover()) {
model.setRollover(false);
}
super.setEnabled(b);
model.setEnabled(b);
}

The answer is that internally the Swing toolkit works with a

model. The setEnabled() is another convenience method for
programmers.

Figure: ButtonModel

Custom ButtonModel
In the previous example, we used a default button model. In
the following code example we will use our own button model.
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package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
javax.swing.ButtonModel;
javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JCheckBox;
javax.swing.JFrame;
static javax.swing.JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE;
javax.swing.JLabel;

public class ButtonModel2 extends JFrame {

private
private
private
private
private

JButton okbtn;
JLabel enabledLbl;
JLabel pressedLbl;
JLabel armedLbl;
JCheckBox cb;

public ButtonModel2() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
okbtn = new JButton("OK");
cb = new JCheckBox();
cb.setAction(new CheckBoxAction());
enabledLbl = new JLabel("Enabled: true");
pressedLbl = new JLabel("Pressed: false");
armedLbl = new JLabel("Armed: false");
ButtonModel model = new OkButtonModel();
okbtn.setModel(model);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(okbtn)
.addGap(80)
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.addComponent(cb))
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(enabledLbl)
.addComponent(pressedLbl)
.addComponent(armedLbl))
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(okbtn)
.addComponent(cb))
.addGap(40)
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(enabledLbl)
.addComponent(pressedLbl)
.addComponent(armedLbl))
);
pack();
setTitle("Custom button model");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class OkButtonModel extends DefaultButtonModel {
@Override
public void setEnabled(boolean b) {
if (b) {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: true");
} else {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: false");
}
super.setEnabled(b);
}
@Override
public void setArmed(boolean b) {
if (b) {
armedLbl.setText("Armed: true");
} else {
armedLbl.setText("Armed: false");
}
super.setArmed(b);
}
@Override
public void setPressed(boolean b) {
if (b) {
pressedLbl.setText("Pressed: true");
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} else {
pressedLbl.setText("Pressed: false");
}
super.setPressed(b);
}
}
private class CheckBoxAction extends AbstractAction {
public CheckBoxAction() {
super("Disabled");
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (okbtn.isEnabled()) {
okbtn.setEnabled(false);
} else {
okbtn.setEnabled(true);
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ButtonModel2 ex = new ButtonModel2();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

This example does the same thing as the previous one. The
difference is that we do not use a change listener and we use a
custom button model.
ButtonModel model = new OkButtonModel();
okbtn.setModel(model);

We set the custom model for the button.

private class OkButtonModel extends DefaultButtonModel {
...
}

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We create a custom button model and override the necessary

methods.
@Override
public void setEnabled(boolean b) {
if (b) {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: true");
} else {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: false");
}
super.setEnabled(b);
}

We override the setEnabled() method and add some functionality

there. We must not forget to call the parent method as well to
proceed with the processing.

JList models
Several components have two models; JList is one of them. It
has the following models: theListModel and the ListSelectionModel.
The ListModel handles data and the ListSelectionModel works with the
selection state of the list. The following example uses both
models.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
javax.swing.DefaultListModel;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JList;
javax.swing.JOptionPane;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.ListSelectionModel;

public class ListModels extends JFrame {

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private
private
private
private
private
private

DefaultListModel model;
JList list;
JButton remallbtn;
JButton addbtn;
JButton renbtn;
JButton delbtn;

public ListModels() {
initUI();
}
private void createList() {
model = new DefaultListModel();
model.addElement("Amelie");
model.addElement("Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes");
model.addElement("Fargo");
model.addElement("Exorcist");
model.addElement("Schindler's list");
list = new JList(model);
list.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
list.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
@Override
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
if (e.getClickCount() == 2) {
int index = list.locationToIndex(e.getPoint());
Object item = model.getElementAt(index);
String text = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Rename item", item);
String newitem = null;
if (text != null) {
newitem = text.trim();
} else {
return;
}
if (!newitem.isEmpty()) {
model.remove(index);
model.add(index, newitem);
ListSelectionModel selmodel = list.getSelectionModel();
selmodel.setLeadSelectionIndex(index);
}
}
}
});
}
private void createButtons() {

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remallbtn = new JButton("Remove All");
addbtn = new JButton("Add");
renbtn = new JButton("Rename");
delbtn = new JButton("Delete");
addbtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
String text = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Add a new item");
String item = null;
if (text != null) {
item = text.trim();
} else {
return;
}
if (!item.isEmpty()) {
model.addElement(item);
}
}
});
delbtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
ListSelectionModel selmodel = list.getSelectionModel();
int index = selmodel.getMinSelectionIndex();
if (index >= 0) {
model.remove(index);
}
}
});
renbtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
ListSelectionModel selmodel = list.getSelectionModel();
int index = selmodel.getMinSelectionIndex();
if (index == -1) {
return;
}
Object item = model.getElementAt(index);
String text = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Rename item", item);
String newitem = null;
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if (text != null) {
newitem = text.trim();
} else {
return;
}
if (!newitem.isEmpty()) {
model.remove(index);
model.add(index, newitem);
}
}
});
remallbtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
model.clear();
}
});
}
private void initUI() {
createList();
createButtons();
JScrollPane scrollpane = new JScrollPane(list);
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(scrollpane)
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(addbtn)
.addComponent(renbtn)
.addComponent(delbtn)
.addComponent(remallbtn))
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(CENTER)
.addComponent(scrollpane)
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(addbtn)
.addComponent(renbtn)
.addComponent(delbtn)
.addComponent(remallbtn))
);
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gl.linkSize(addbtn, renbtn, delbtn, remallbtn);

pack();
setTitle("JList models");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ListModels ex = new ListModels();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example shows a list component and four buttons. The

buttons control the data in the list component. The example is
a bit larger because we did some additional checks there. For
instance, we do not allow to input empty spaces into the list
component.
model = new DefaultListModel();
model.addElement("Amelie");
model.addElement("Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes");
...

We create a default list model and add elements into it.

list = new JList(model);
list.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);

We create a list component. The parameter of the constructor is

the model we have created. We make the list into the single
selection mode.
if (text != null) {
item = text.trim();
} else {
return;
}
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if (!item.isEmpty()) {
model.addElement(item);
}

We add only items that are not equal to null and are not empty,
e.g. items that contain at least one character other than white
space. It makes no sense to add white spaces or null values
into the list.
ListSelectionModel selmodel = list.getSelectionModel();
int index = selmodel.getMinSelectionIndex();
if (index >= 0) {
model.remove(index);
}

This is the code that runs when we press the delete button. In
order to delete an item from the list, it must be selectedwe
must figure out the currently selected item. For this, we call
thegetSelectionModel() method. We get the selected index with
the getMinSelectionIndex() and
remove
the
item
with
the remove() method.
In this example we used both list models. We called the add(),
remove() and clear() methods of the list data model to work
with our data. And we used a list selection model in order to
find out the selected item.

Figure: List Models

A document model

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A document model is a good example of a separation of a data

from the visual representation. In aJTextPane component, we have
a StyledDocument for setting the style of the text data.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.JTextPane;
javax.swing.JToolBar;
javax.swing.text.Style;
javax.swing.text.StyleConstants;
javax.swing.text.StyledDocument;

public class DocumentModel extends JFrame {

private StyledDocument sdoc;
private JTextPane textpane;
public DocumentModel() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createToolbar();
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(8, 8, 8, 8));
textpane = new JTextPane();
sdoc = textpane.getStyledDocument();
initStyles(textpane);
panel.add(new JScrollPane(textpane));
add(panel);
pack();
setTitle("Document Model");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
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private void createToolbar() {

JToolBar toolbar = new JToolBar();
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
JButton
JButton
JButton
JButton

bold = new ImageIcon("bold.png");

italic = new ImageIcon("italic.png");
strike = new ImageIcon("strike.png");
underline = new ImageIcon("underline.png");

boldb = new JButton(bold);

italb = new JButton(italic);
strib = new JButton(strike);
undeb = new JButton(underline);

toolbar.add(boldb);
toolbar.add(italb);
toolbar.add(strib);
toolbar.add(undeb);
add(toolbar, BorderLayout.NORTH);
boldb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
sdoc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Bold"), false);
}
});
italb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
sdoc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Italic"), false);
}
});
strib.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
sdoc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Strike"), false);
}
});
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undeb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
sdoc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Underline"), false);
}
});
}
private void initStyles(JTextPane textpane) {
Style style = textpane.addStyle("Bold", null);
StyleConstants.setBold(style, true);
style = textpane.addStyle("Italic", null);
StyleConstants.setItalic(style, true);
style = textpane.addStyle("Underline", null);
StyleConstants.setUnderline(style, true);
style = textpane.addStyle("Strike", null);
StyleConstants.setStrikeThrough(style, true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
DocumentModel ex = new DocumentModel();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example has a text pane and a toolbar. In the toolbar, we

have four buttons that change attributes of the text.
sdoc = textpane.getStyledDocument();

Here we get the styled document which is a model for the text
pane component.
Style style = textpane.addStyle("Bold", null);
StyleConstants.setBold(style, true);
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A style is a set of text attributes, such as colour and size. Here

we register a bold style for the text pane component. The
registered styles can be retrieved at any time.
doc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Bold"), false);

Here we change the attributes of the text. The parameters are

the offset and length of the selection, the style and the boolean
value replace. The offset is the beginning of the text where we
apply the bold text. We get the length value by substracting the
selection end and selection start values. Boolean value false
means that we are not replacing an old style with a new one,
but we merge them. This means that if the text is underlined
and we make it bold, the result is an underlined bold text.

Figure:

Document

model
In this chapter we have mentioned Swing models.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 9:

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Java Swing model architecture

Swing engineers created the Swing toolkit implementing a
modified Model View Controller design pattern. This enables
efficient handling of data and using pluggable look and feel at
runtime.
The traditional MVC pattern divides an application into three
parts: a model, a view and a controller. The model represents
the data in the application. The view is the visual
representation of the data. And finally the controller processes
and responds to events, typically user actions, and may invoke
changes on the model. The idea is to separate the data access
and business logic from data presentation and user interaction,
by introducing an intermediate component: the controller.
The Swing toolkit uses a modified MVC design pattern. It has a
single UI object for both the view and the controller. This
modified MVC is sometimes called a separable model
architecture.
In the Swing toolkit, every component has its model, even the
basic ones like buttons. There are two kinds of models in Swing
toolkit:
state models
data models
The state models handle the state of the component. For
example the model keeps track whether the component is
selected or pressed. The data models handle data they work
with. A list component keeps a list of items that it is displaying.
For Swing developers it means that they often need to get a
model instance in order to manipulate the data in the
component. But there are exceptions. For convenience, there
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are some methods that return data without the need for a
programmer to access the model.
public int getValue() {
return getModel().getValue();
}

An example is the getValue() method of the JSlider component. The

developer does not need to work with the model directly.
Instead, the access to the model is done behind the scenes. It
would be an overkill to work with models directly in such simple
situations. Because of this, Swing provides some convenience
methods like the previous one.
To query the state of the model, we have two kinds of
notifications:
lightweight notifications
stateful notifications
A lightweight notification uses a ChangeListener class. We have
only one single event (ChangeEvent)for all notifications coming
from the component. For more complicated components, a
stateful notification is used. For such notifications, we have
different kinds of events. For example the JListcomponent
has ListDataEvent and ListSelectionEvent.
If we do not set a model for a component, a default one is
created.
For
example
the
button
component
has
a DefaultButtonModel model.
public JButton(String text, Icon icon) {
// Create the model
setModel(new DefaultButtonModel());
// initialize
init(text, icon);
}

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Looking at the JButton.java source file we find out that the

default model is created at the construction of the component.

ButtonModel
The model is used for various kinds of buttons like push
buttons, check boxes, radio boxes and for menu items. The
following example illustrates the model for a JButton. We can
manage only the state of the button because no data can be
associated with a push button.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JCheckBox;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;

public class ButtonModel extends JFrame {

private
private
private
private
private

JButton okbtn;
JLabel enabledLbl;
JLabel pressedLbl;
JLabel armedLbl;
JCheckBox cb;

public ButtonModel() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
okbtn = new JButton("OK");
okbtn.addChangeListener(new DisabledChangeListener());

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cb = new JCheckBox();
cb.setAction(new CheckBoxAction());
enabledLbl = new JLabel("Enabled: true");
pressedLbl = new JLabel("Pressed: false");
armedLbl = new JLabel("Armed: false");
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(okbtn)
.addGap(80)
.addComponent(cb))
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(enabledLbl)
.addComponent(pressedLbl)
.addComponent(armedLbl))
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(okbtn)
.addComponent(cb))
.addGap(40)
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(enabledLbl)
.addComponent(pressedLbl)
.addComponent(armedLbl))
);
pack();
setTitle("ButtonModel");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class DisabledChangeListener implements ChangeListener {
@Override
public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
DefaultButtonModel model = (DefaultButtonModel) okbtn.getModel();
if (model.isEnabled()) {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: true");
} else {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: false");
}
if (model.isArmed()) {
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armedLbl.setText("Armed: true");
} else {
armedLbl.setText("Armed: false");
}
if (model.isPressed()) {
pressedLbl.setText("Pressed: true");
} else {
pressedLbl.setText("Pressed: false");
}
}
}
private class CheckBoxAction extends AbstractAction {
public CheckBoxAction() {
super("Disabled");
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (okbtn.isEnabled()) {
okbtn.setEnabled(false);
} else {
okbtn.setEnabled(true);
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ButtonModel ex = new ButtonModel();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In our example, we have a button, a check box, and three

labels. The labels represent three properties of the button:
pressed, disabled, or armed state.
okbtn.addChangeListener(new DisabledChangeListener());

We use a

ChangeListener

to listen for button state changes.

DefaultButtonModel model = (DefaultButtonModel) okbtn.getModel();

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Here we get the default button model.

if (model.isEnabled()) {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: true");
} else {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: false");
}

We query the model whether the button is enabled. The label is

updated accordingly.
if (okbtn.isEnabled()) {
okbtn.setEnabled(false);
} else {
okbtn.setEnabled(true);

The check box enables or disables the button. To enable the OK

button, we call the setEnabled()method. So we change the state
of the button. Where is the model? The answer lies in
theAbstractButton.java file.
public void setEnabled(boolean b) {
if (!b && model.isRollover()) {
model.setRollover(false);
}
super.setEnabled(b);
model.setEnabled(b);
}

The answer is that internally the Swing toolkit works with a

model. The setEnabled() is another convenience method for
programmers.

Figure: ButtonModel

Custom ButtonModel
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In the previous example, we used a default button model. In

the following code example we will use our own button model.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
javax.swing.ButtonModel;
javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JCheckBox;
javax.swing.JFrame;
static javax.swing.JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE;
javax.swing.JLabel;

public class ButtonModel2 extends JFrame {

private
private
private
private
private

JButton okbtn;
JLabel enabledLbl;
JLabel pressedLbl;
JLabel armedLbl;
JCheckBox cb;

public ButtonModel2() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
okbtn = new JButton("OK");
cb = new JCheckBox();
cb.setAction(new CheckBoxAction());
enabledLbl = new JLabel("Enabled: true");
pressedLbl = new JLabel("Pressed: false");
armedLbl = new JLabel("Armed: false");
ButtonModel model = new OkButtonModel();
okbtn.setModel(model);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);

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gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(okbtn)
.addGap(80)
.addComponent(cb))
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(enabledLbl)
.addComponent(pressedLbl)
.addComponent(armedLbl))
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(okbtn)
.addComponent(cb))
.addGap(40)
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(enabledLbl)
.addComponent(pressedLbl)
.addComponent(armedLbl))
);
pack();
setTitle("Custom button model");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private class OkButtonModel extends DefaultButtonModel {
@Override
public void setEnabled(boolean b) {
if (b) {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: true");
} else {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: false");
}
super.setEnabled(b);
}
@Override
public void setArmed(boolean b) {
if (b) {
armedLbl.setText("Armed: true");
} else {
armedLbl.setText("Armed: false");
}
super.setArmed(b);
}

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@Override
public void setPressed(boolean b) {
if (b) {
pressedLbl.setText("Pressed: true");
} else {
pressedLbl.setText("Pressed: false");
}
super.setPressed(b);
}
}
private class CheckBoxAction extends AbstractAction {
public CheckBoxAction() {
super("Disabled");
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (okbtn.isEnabled()) {
okbtn.setEnabled(false);
} else {
okbtn.setEnabled(true);
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ButtonModel2 ex = new ButtonModel2();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

This example does the same thing as the previous one. The
difference is that we do not use a change listener and we use a
custom button model.
ButtonModel model = new OkButtonModel();
okbtn.setModel(model);

We set the custom model for the button.

private class OkButtonModel extends DefaultButtonModel {
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...
}

We create a custom button model and override the necessary

methods.
@Override
public void setEnabled(boolean b) {
if (b) {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: true");
} else {
enabledLbl.setText("Enabled: false");
}
super.setEnabled(b);
}

We override the setEnabled() method and add some functionality

there. We must not forget to call the parent method as well to
proceed with the processing.

JList models
Several components have two models; JList is one of them. It
has the following models: theListModel and the ListSelectionModel.
The ListModel handles data and the ListSelectionModel works with the
selection state of the list. The following example uses both
models.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Container;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
javax.swing.DefaultListModel;
javax.swing.GroupLayout;
static javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JList;
javax.swing.JOptionPane;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.ListSelectionModel;
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public class ListModels extends JFrame {

private
private
private
private
private
private

DefaultListModel model;
JList list;
JButton remallbtn;
JButton addbtn;
JButton renbtn;
JButton delbtn;

public ListModels() {
initUI();
}
private void createList() {
model = new DefaultListModel();
model.addElement("Amelie");
model.addElement("Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes");
model.addElement("Fargo");
model.addElement("Exorcist");
model.addElement("Schindler's list");
list = new JList(model);
list.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
list.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
@Override
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
if (e.getClickCount() == 2) {
int index = list.locationToIndex(e.getPoint());
Object item = model.getElementAt(index);
String text = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Rename item", item);
String newitem = null;
if (text != null) {
newitem = text.trim();
} else {
return;
}
if (!newitem.isEmpty()) {
model.remove(index);
model.add(index, newitem);
ListSelectionModel selmodel = list.getSelectionModel();
selmodel.setLeadSelectionIndex(index);
}
}
}
});
}
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private void createButtons() {

remallbtn = new JButton("Remove All");
addbtn = new JButton("Add");
renbtn = new JButton("Rename");
delbtn = new JButton("Delete");
addbtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
String text = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Add a new item");
String item = null;
if (text != null) {
item = text.trim();
} else {
return;
}
if (!item.isEmpty()) {
model.addElement(item);
}
}
});
delbtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
ListSelectionModel selmodel = list.getSelectionModel();
int index = selmodel.getMinSelectionIndex();
if (index >= 0) {
model.remove(index);
}
}
});
renbtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
ListSelectionModel selmodel = list.getSelectionModel();
int index = selmodel.getMinSelectionIndex();
if (index == -1) {
return;
}

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Object item = model.getElementAt(index);
String text = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Rename item", item);
String newitem = null;
if (text != null) {
newitem = text.trim();
} else {
return;
}
if (!newitem.isEmpty()) {
model.remove(index);
model.add(index, newitem);
}
}
});
remallbtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
model.clear();
}
});
}
private void initUI() {
createList();
createButtons();
JScrollPane scrollpane = new JScrollPane(list);
Container pane = getContentPane();
GroupLayout gl = new GroupLayout(pane);
pane.setLayout(gl);
gl.setAutoCreateContainerGaps(true);
gl.setAutoCreateGaps(true);
gl.setHorizontalGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(scrollpane)
.addGroup(gl.createParallelGroup()
.addComponent(addbtn)
.addComponent(renbtn)
.addComponent(delbtn)
.addComponent(remallbtn))
);
gl.setVerticalGroup(gl.createParallelGroup(CENTER)
.addComponent(scrollpane)
.addGroup(gl.createSequentialGroup()
.addComponent(addbtn)
.addComponent(renbtn)
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.addComponent(delbtn)
.addComponent(remallbtn))
);
gl.linkSize(addbtn, renbtn, delbtn, remallbtn);
pack();
setTitle("JList models");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ListModels ex = new ListModels();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example shows a list component and four buttons. The

buttons control the data in the list component. The example is
a bit larger because we did some additional checks there. For
instance, we do not allow to input empty spaces into the list
component.
model = new DefaultListModel();
model.addElement("Amelie");
model.addElement("Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes");
...

We create a default list model and add elements into it.

list = new JList(model);
list.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);

We create a list component. The parameter of the constructor is

the model we have created. We make the list into the single
selection mode.
if (text != null) {
item = text.trim();
} else {
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return;
}
if (!item.isEmpty()) {
model.addElement(item);
}

We add only items that are not equal to null and are not empty,
e.g. items that contain at least one character other than white
space. It makes no sense to add white spaces or null values
into the list.
ListSelectionModel selmodel = list.getSelectionModel();
int index = selmodel.getMinSelectionIndex();
if (index >= 0) {
model.remove(index);
}

This is the code that runs when we press the delete button. In
order to delete an item from the list, it must be selectedwe
must figure out the currently selected item. For this, we call
thegetSelectionModel() method. We get the selected index with
the getMinSelectionIndex() and
remove
the
item
with
the remove() method.
In this example we used both list models. We called the add(),
remove() and clear() methods of the list data model to work
with our data. And we used a list selection model in order to
find out the selected item.

Figure: List Models

A document model
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A document model is a good example of a separation of a data

from the visual representation. In aJTextPane component, we have
a StyledDocument for setting the style of the text data.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.JTextPane;
javax.swing.JToolBar;
javax.swing.text.Style;
javax.swing.text.StyleConstants;
javax.swing.text.StyledDocument;

public class DocumentModel extends JFrame {

private StyledDocument sdoc;
private JTextPane textpane;
public DocumentModel() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
createToolbar();
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(8, 8, 8, 8));
textpane = new JTextPane();
sdoc = textpane.getStyledDocument();
initStyles(textpane);
panel.add(new JScrollPane(textpane));
add(panel);
pack();
setTitle("Document Model");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
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private void createToolbar() {

JToolBar toolbar = new JToolBar();
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
ImageIcon
JButton
JButton
JButton
JButton

bold = new ImageIcon("bold.png");

italic = new ImageIcon("italic.png");
strike = new ImageIcon("strike.png");
underline = new ImageIcon("underline.png");

boldb = new JButton(bold);

italb = new JButton(italic);
strib = new JButton(strike);
undeb = new JButton(underline);

toolbar.add(boldb);
toolbar.add(italb);
toolbar.add(strib);
toolbar.add(undeb);
add(toolbar, BorderLayout.NORTH);
boldb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
sdoc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Bold"), false);
}
});
italb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
sdoc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Italic"), false);
}
});
strib.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
sdoc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Strike"), false);
}
});
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undeb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
sdoc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Underline"), false);
}
});
}
private void initStyles(JTextPane textpane) {
Style style = textpane.addStyle("Bold", null);
StyleConstants.setBold(style, true);
style = textpane.addStyle("Italic", null);
StyleConstants.setItalic(style, true);
style = textpane.addStyle("Underline", null);
StyleConstants.setUnderline(style, true);
style = textpane.addStyle("Strike", null);
StyleConstants.setStrikeThrough(style, true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
DocumentModel ex = new DocumentModel();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

The example has a text pane and a toolbar. In the toolbar, we

have four buttons that change attributes of the text.
sdoc = textpane.getStyledDocument();

Here we get the styled document which is a model for the text
pane component.
Style style = textpane.addStyle("Bold", null);
StyleConstants.setBold(style, true);
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A style is a set of text attributes, such as colour and size. Here

we register a bold style for the text pane component. The
registered styles can be retrieved at any time.
doc.setCharacterAttributes(textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getSelectionEnd() - textpane.getSelectionStart(),
textpane.getStyle("Bold"), false);

Here we change the attributes of the text. The parameters are

the offset and length of the selection, the style and the boolean
value replace. The offset is the beginning of the text where we
apply the bold text. We get the length value by substracting the
selection end and selection start values. Boolean value false
means that we are not replacing an old style with a new one,
but we merge them. This means that if the text is underlined
and we make it bold, the result is an underlined bold text.

Figure:

Document

model
In this chapter we have mentioned Swing models.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 10:

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Drag and Drop in Swing

In computer graphical user interfaces, drag-and-drop is the
action of (or support for the action of) clicking on a virtual
object and dragging it to a different location or onto another
virtual object. In general, it can be used to invoke many kinds
of actions, or create various types of associations between two
abstract objects. (Wikipedia)
Drag and drop functionality is one of the most visible aspects of
the graphical user interface. Drag and drop operation enables
users to do complex things intuitively.
Usually, we can drag and drop two things. Data or some
graphical objects. If we drag an image from one application to
another, we drag and drop binary data. If we drag a tab in
Firefox and move it to another place, we drag and drop a
graphical component.
The sheer amount of various classes involved with drag and
drop operations in Java Swing toolkit might be overwhelming.
The best way how to cope with this complexity is to create a
small example for all situations. And slowly make it to more
complex examples.

Figure: Drag and drop in

Swing
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The component, where the drag operation begins must have

a DragSource object registered. ADropTarget is an object responsible
for accepting drops in an drag and drop operation.
A Transferableencapsulates
data
being
transferred.
The
transferred data can be of various type. A DataFlavor object
provides information about the data being transferred.
Several Swing components have already a built-in support for
drag and drop operations. In such cases, a Swing programmer
uses a TransferHandler to manage the drag and drop functionality.
In situations, where there is no built-in support, the
programmer has to create everything from scratch.

A simple drag and drop example

We will demonstrate a simple drag and drop example. We will
work with built-in drag and drop support. We utilise
a TransferHandler class.
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JTextField;
javax.swing.TransferHandler;

public class SimpleDnD extends JFrame {

JTextField field;
JButton button;
public SimpleDnD() {
setTitle("Simple Drag & Drop");
setLayout(null);
button = new JButton("Button");
button.setBounds(200, 50, 90, 25);
field = new JTextField();
field.setBounds(30, 50, 150, 25);
add(button);
add(field);

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field.setDragEnabled(true);
button.setTransferHandler(new TransferHandler("text"));
setSize(330, 150);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new SimpleDnD();
}
}

In our example we have a text field and a button. We can drag

a text from the field and drop it onto the button.
field.setDragEnabled(true);

The text field has a built in support for dragging. We must

enable it.
button.setTransferHandler(new TransferHandler("text"));

The TransferHandler is a class responsible for transferring data

between components. The constructor takes a property name
as a parameter.

Figure:

Simple

drag

&

drop

example

Icon drag & drop

Some of the Java Swing components do not have built in drag
support. JLabel component is such a component. We have to
code the drag functionality ourselves.
We will drag and drop icons. In the previous example, we used
a text property. This time we will use an icon property.
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import
import
import
import

java.awt.FlowLayout;
java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
java.awt.event.MouseListener;

import
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.TransferHandler;

public class IconDnD extends JFrame {

public IconDnD() {
setTitle("Icon Drag & Drop");
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT, 50, 15));
ImageIcon icon1 = new ImageIcon("sad.png");
ImageIcon icon2 = new ImageIcon("plain.png");
ImageIcon icon3 = new ImageIcon("crying.png");
JButton button = new JButton(icon2);
button.setFocusable(false);
JLabel label1 = new JLabel(icon1, JLabel.CENTER);
JLabel label2 = new JLabel(icon3, JLabel.CENTER);
MouseListener listener = new DragMouseAdapter();
label1.addMouseListener(listener);
label2.addMouseListener(listener);
label1.setTransferHandler(new TransferHandler("icon"));
button.setTransferHandler(new TransferHandler("icon"));
label2.setTransferHandler(new TransferHandler("icon"));
panel.add(label1);
panel.add(button);
panel.add(label2);
add(panel);
pack();
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setVisible(true);
}
class DragMouseAdapter extends MouseAdapter {
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public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
JComponent c = (JComponent) e.getSource();
TransferHandler handler = c.getTransferHandler();
handler.exportAsDrag(c, e, TransferHandler.COPY);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new IconDnD();
}
}

In the code example, we have two labels and a button. Each

component displays an icon. The two labels enable drag
gestures, the button accepts a drop gesture.
MouseListener listener = new DragMouseAdapter();
label1.addMouseListener(listener);
label2.addMouseListener(listener);

The drag support is not enabled by default for the label. We

register a custom mouse adapter for both labels.
label1.setTransferHandler(new TransferHandler("icon"));
button.setTransferHandler(new TransferHandler("icon"));
label2.setTransferHandler(new TransferHandler("icon"));

Each of the three components has a TransferHandler class for an

icon property. The TransferHandleris needed for both drag sources
and drag targets as well.
JComponent c = (JComponent) e.getSource();
TransferHandler handler = c.getTransferHandler();
handler.exportAsDrag(c, e, TransferHandler.COPY);

These code lines initiate the drag support. We get the drag
source. In our case it is a label instance. We get its transfer
handler object and finally initiate the drag support with
the exportAsDrag()method call.

Figure: Icon drag & drop example

Custom JList drop example

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Some components do not have a default drop support. One of

them is a JList component. There is a good reason for this. We do
not know if the data will be inserted into one row, or two or
more rows. So we must implement manually the drop support
for the list component.
The comma separated text will be inserted into two or more
rows. Text without a comma goes into one row.
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.FlowLayout;
java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor;
java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable;

import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

javax.swing.DefaultListModel;
javax.swing.DropMode;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JList;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.JScrollPane;
javax.swing.JTextField;
javax.swing.ListSelectionModel;
javax.swing.TransferHandler;

public class ListDrop extends JFrame {

JTextField field;
DefaultListModel model;
public ListDrop() {
setTitle("ListDrop");
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT, 15, 15));
JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane();
pane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(180, 150));
model = new DefaultListModel();
JList list = new JList(model);
list.setDropMode(DropMode.INSERT);
list.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
list.setTransferHandler(new ListHandler());
field = new JTextField("");
field.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(150, 25));
field.setDragEnabled(true);
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panel.add(field);
pane.getViewport().add(list);
panel.add(pane);
add(panel);
pack();
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setVisible(true);
}
private class ListHandler extends TransferHandler {
public boolean canImport(TransferSupport support) {
if (!support.isDrop()) {
return false;
}
return support.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
}
public boolean importData(TransferSupport support) {
if (!canImport(support)) {
return false;
}
Transferable transferable = support.getTransferable();
String line;
try {
line = (String) transferable.getTransferData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
} catch (Exception e) {
return false;
}
JList.DropLocation dl = (JList.DropLocation) support.getDropLocation();
int index = dl.getIndex();
String[] data = line.split(",");
for (String item: data) {
if (!item.isEmpty())
model.add(index++, item.trim());
}
return true;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new ListDrop();
}
}
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In the above example, we have a text field and a list

component. The text in the text field can be dragged and
dropped into the list. If the text is comma separated, the words
will be split into rows. If not, the text will be inserted into one
row.
list.setDropMode(DropMode.INSERT);

Here we specify a drop mode. The DropMode.INSERT specifies, that

we are going to insert new items into the list component. If we
chose DropMode.INSERT, we would drop new items onto the
existing ones.
list.setTransferHandler(new ListHandler());

We set a custom transfer handler class.

field.setDragEnabled(true);

We enable the drag support for the text field component.

public boolean canImport(TransferSupport support) {
if (!support.isDrop()) {
return false;
}
return support.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
}

This method tests suitability of a drop operation. Here we filter

out the clipboard paste operations and allow only String drop
operations. If the method returns false, the drop operation is
cancelled.
public boolean importData(TransferSupport support) {
...
}

The importData() method transfers the data from the clipboard or

from the drag and drop operation to the drop location.
Transferable transferable = support.getTransferable();

The

Transferable

is the class, where the data is bundled.

line = (String) transferable.getTransferData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);

We retrieve our data.

JList.DropLocation dl = (JList.DropLocation) support.getDropLocation();
int index = dl.getIndex();
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We get a drop location for the list. We retrieve the index, where
the data will be inserted.
String[] data = line.split(",");
for (String item: data) {
if (!item.isEmpty())
model.add(index++, item.trim());
}

Here we split the text into parts and insert it into one or more
rows.

Figure: JList drop example

The previous examples used components with built-in drag and

drop support. Next we are going to create a drag and drop
functionality from scratch.

Drag Gesture
In the following example we will inspect a simple drag gesture.
We will work with several classes needed to create a drag
gesture.
A DragSource, DragGestureEvent, DragGestureListener, Transferable.
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Cursor;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.FlowLayout;
java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor;
java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable;
java.awt.dnd.DnDConstants;
java.awt.dnd.DragGestureEvent;
java.awt.dnd.DragGestureListener;
java.awt.dnd.DragSource;

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import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
public class DragGesture extends JFrame implements
DragGestureListener, Transferable {
public DragGesture() {
setTitle("Drag Gesture");
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT, 50, 15));
JPanel left = new JPanel();
left.setBackground(Color.red);
left.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(120, 120));
DragSource ds = new DragSource();
ds.createDefaultDragGestureRecognizer(left,
DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY, this);
panel.add(left);
add(panel);
pack();
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setVisible(true);
}
public void dragGestureRecognized(DragGestureEvent event) {
System.out.println("grag gesture");
Cursor cursor = null;
if (event.getDragAction() == DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY) {
cursor = DragSource.DefaultCopyDrop;
}
event.startDrag(cursor, this);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new DragGesture();
}
public Object getTransferData(DataFlavor flavor) {
return null;
}
public DataFlavor[] getTransferDataFlavors() {
return new DataFlavor[0];
}
public boolean isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor flavor) {
return false;
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}
}

This simple example demonstrates a drag gesture. The drag

gesture is created, when we click on a component and move a
mouse pointer, while the button is pressed. The example will
show, how we can create a DragSource for a component.
public class DragGesture extends JFrame implements
DragGestureListener, Transferable {

The
DragGesture
implements
two
interfaces.
The DragGestureListener will
listen
for
drag
gestures.
The Transferable handles data for a transfer operation. In the
example, we will not transfer any data. We will only
demonstrate a drag gesture. So the three necessary methods
of the Transferableinterface are left unimplemented.
DragSource ds = new DragSource();
ds.createDefaultDragGestureRecognizer(left,
DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY, this);

Here we create a DragSource object and register it for the left

panel. The DragSource is the entity responsible for the initiation
of
the
Drag
and
Drop
operation.
ThecreateDefaultDragGestureRecognizer() associates a drag source
and DragGestureListener with a particular component.
public void dragGestureRecognized(DragGestureEvent event) {
}

The

dragGestureRecognized()

method responds to a drag gesture.

Cursor cursor = null;

if (event.getDragAction() == DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY) {
cursor = DragSource.DefaultCopyDrop;
}
event.startDrag(cursor, this);

The startDrag() method of the DragGestureEvent finally starts the

drag operation. We will specify two parameters. The cursor type
and the Transferable object.
public Object getTransferData(DataFlavor flavor) {
return null;
}
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public DataFlavor[] getTransferDataFlavors() {
return new DataFlavor[0];
}
public boolean isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor flavor) {
return false;
}

The object that implements the Transferable interface must

implement these three methods. As I have already mentioned,
we left these methods unimplemented for now.

A complex drag and drop example

In the following example, we create a complex drag and drop
example. We create a drag source a drop target and a
transferable object.
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Cursor;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.FlowLayout;
java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor;
java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable;
java.awt.datatransfer.UnsupportedFlavorException;
java.awt.dnd.DnDConstants;
java.awt.dnd.DragGestureEvent;
java.awt.dnd.DragGestureListener;
java.awt.dnd.DragSource;
java.awt.dnd.DropTarget;
java.awt.dnd.DropTargetAdapter;
java.awt.dnd.DropTargetDropEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import
import
import
import

javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JColorChooser;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;

public class ComplexExample extends JFrame

implements DragGestureListener {
JPanel panel;
JPanel left;
public ComplexExample() {
setTitle("Complex Example");
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panel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT, 50, 15));

JButton openb = new JButton("Choose Color");
openb.setFocusable(false);
left = new JPanel();
left.setBackground(Color.red);
left.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
openb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
JColorChooser clr = new JColorChooser();
Color color = clr.showDialog(panel, "Choose Color", Color.white);
left.setBackground(color);
}
});
JPanel right = new JPanel();
right.setBackground(Color.white);
right.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
new MyDropTargetListener(right);
DragSource ds = new DragSource();
ds.createDefaultDragGestureRecognizer(left,
DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY, this);
panel.add(openb);
panel.add(left);
panel.add(right);
add(panel);
pack();
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setVisible(true);
}
public void dragGestureRecognized(DragGestureEvent event) {
Cursor cursor = null;
JPanel panel = (JPanel) event.getComponent();
Color color = panel.getBackground();
if (event.getDragAction() == DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY) {
cursor = DragSource.DefaultCopyDrop;
}
event.startDrag(cursor, new TransferableColor(color));
}
class MyDropTargetListener extends DropTargetAdapter {
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private DropTarget dropTarget;

private JPanel panel;
public MyDropTargetListener(JPanel panel) {
this.panel = panel;
dropTarget = new DropTarget(panel, DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY,
this, true, null);
}
public void drop(DropTargetDropEvent event) {
try {
Transferable tr = event.getTransferable();
Color color = (Color) tr.getTransferData(TransferableColor.colorFlavor);
if (event.isDataFlavorSupported(TransferableColor.colorFlavor)) {
event.acceptDrop(DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY);
this.panel.setBackground(color);
event.dropComplete(true);
return;
}
event.rejectDrop();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
event.rejectDrop();
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new ComplexExample();
}
}
class TransferableColor implements Transferable {
protected static DataFlavor colorFlavor =
new DataFlavor(Color.class, "A Color Object");
protected static DataFlavor[] supportedFlavors = {
colorFlavor,
DataFlavor.stringFlavor,
};
Color color;
public TransferableColor(Color color) { this.color = color; }

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public DataFlavor[] getTransferDataFlavors() { return supportedFlavors; }
public boolean isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor flavor) {
if (flavor.equals(colorFlavor) ||
flavor.equals(DataFlavor.stringFlavor)) return true;
return false;
}
public Object getTransferData(DataFlavor flavor)
throws UnsupportedFlavorException
{
if (flavor.equals(colorFlavor))
return color;
else if (flavor.equals(DataFlavor.stringFlavor))
return color.toString();
else
throw new UnsupportedFlavorException(flavor);
}
}

The code example shows a button and two panels. The button
displays a colour chooser dialog and sets a colour for the first
panel. The colour can be dragged into the second panel.
This example will enhance the previous one. We will add a drop
target and a custom transferable object.
new MyDropTargetListener(right);

We register a drop target listener with the right panel.

event.startDrag(cursor, new TransferableColor(color));

The startDrag() method

a Transferable object.

has

two

parameters.

cursor

public MyDropTargetListener(JPanel panel) {

this.panel = panel;
dropTarget = new DropTarget(panel, DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY,
this, true, null);
}

In the MyDropTargetListener we create a drop target object.

Transferable tr = event.getTransferable();
Color color = (Color) tr.getTransferData(TransferableColor.colorFlavor);
if (event.isDataFlavorSupported(TransferableColor.colorFlavor)) {
event.acceptDrop(DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY);
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this.panel.setBackground(color);
event.dropComplete(true);
return;
}

We get the data being transferred. In our case it is a colour

object. Here we set the colour of the right panel.
event.rejectDrop();

If the conditions for a drag and drop operation are not fulfilled,
we reject it.
protected static DataFlavor colorFlavor =
new DataFlavor(Color.class, "A Color Object");

In the

TransferableColor,

we create a new

DataFlavor

object.

protected static DataFlavor[] supportedFlavors = {

colorFlavor,
DataFlavor.stringFlavor,
};

Here we specify, what data flavors we support. In our case it is

a
custom
defined
colour
flavor
and
a
predefined DataFlavor.stringFlavor.
public Object getTransferData(DataFlavor flavor)
throws UnsupportedFlavorException
{
if (flavor.equals(colorFlavor))
return color;
else if (flavor.equals(DataFlavor.stringFlavor))
return color.toString();
else
throw new UnsupportedFlavorException(flavor);
}

Return an object for a specific data flavour.

Figure: A
complex example

This part of the Java Swing tutorial was dedicated to Swing drap
and drop operations.
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 11:

Painting in Swing
Swing's painting system is able to render vector graphics,
images, and outline font-based text. Painting is needed in
applications when we want to change or enhance an existing
widget, or if we are creating a custom widget from scratch To
do the painting, we use the painting API provided by the Swing
toolkit.
The painting is done within the paintComponent() method. In the
painting process, we use theGraphics2D object.

2D Vector Graphics
There are two different computer graphics. Vector and raster
graphics. Raster graphics represents images as a collection of
pixels. Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such
as points, lines, curves or polygons to represent images. These
primitives are created using mathematical equations.
Both types of computer graphics have advantages and
disadvantages. The advantages of vector graphics over raster
are:

smaller size

ability to zoom indefinitely

moving, scaling, filling or rotating does not degrade the quality of an

image

Types of primitives

points
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lines

polylines

polygons

circles

ellipses

Splines

Points
The most simple graphics primitive is point. It is a single dot on
the window. There is no method to draw a point in Swing. To
draw a point, we use the drawLine() method. We use one point
twice.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.Insets;
java.util.Random;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
g2d.setColor(Color.blue);
for (int i = 0; i <= 1000; i++) {
Dimension size = getSize();
Insets insets = getInsets();
int w = size.width - insets.left - insets.right;
int h = size.height - insets.top - insets.bottom;
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Random r = new Random();

int x = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % w;
int y = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % h;
g2d.drawLine(x, y, x, y);
}
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class PointsExample extends JFrame {
public PointsExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(250, 200);
setTitle("Points");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
PointsExample ex = new PointsExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

One point is difficult to observe. Therefore, we will randomly

draw 1000 points on the panel surface.
class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

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We are drawing on a custom drawing panel, which is

a JPanel component. The drawing panel will later be added to
a JFrame component.
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}

Custom painting is performed inside the paintComponent() method,

which we override. Thesuper.paintComponent() method calls the
method of the parent class. It does some necessary work to
prepare component for drawing. Actual drawing is delegated to
the doDrawing() method.
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;

Painting in Swing is done on the

Graphics2D

object.

g2d.setColor(Color.blue);

We will paint our points in blue colour.

Dimension size = getSize();
Insets insets = getInsets();

The size of the window includes borders and titlebar. We do not

paint there.
int w = size.width - insets.left - insets.right;
int h = size.height - insets.top - insets.bottom;

Here we calculate the area, where we will effectively paint our

points.
Random r = new Random();
int x = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % w;
int y = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % h;

We get a random number in range of the size of area that we

computed above.
g2d.drawLine(x, y, x, y);

Here we draw the point. As we already said, we use

a drawLine() method. We specify the same point twice.

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Figure: Points

Lines
A line is a simple graphics primitive. It is drawn using two
points.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BasicStroke;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
float[]
float[]
float[]
float[]

dash1
dash2
dash3
dash4

=
=
=
=

{2f,
{1f,
{4f,
{4f,

0f,
1f,
0f,
4f,

2f};
1f};
2f};
1f};

g2d.drawLine(20, 40, 250, 40);

BasicStroke bs1 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash1, 2f);
BasicStroke bs2 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash2, 2f);
BasicStroke bs3 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash3, 2f);
BasicStroke bs4 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash4, 2f);
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g2d.setStroke(bs1);
g2d.drawLine(20, 80, 250, 80);
g2d.setStroke(bs2);
g2d.drawLine(20, 120, 250, 120);
g2d.setStroke(bs3);
g2d.drawLine(20, 160, 250, 160);
g2d.setStroke(bs4);
g2d.drawLine(20, 200, 250, 200);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class LinesExample extends JFrame {
public LinesExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(280, 270);
setTitle("Lines");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
LinesExample ex = new LinesExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the example, we draw five lines. The first line is drawn using
the default values. Other will have a different stroke. The stroke
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is created using the BasicStroke class. It defines a basic set of

rendering attributes for the outlines of graphics primitives.
float[] dash1 = { 2f, 0f, 2f };

Here we create a dash that we use in the stroke object.

BasicStroke bs1 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash1, 2f )

This code creates a stroke. The stroke defines the line width,
end caps, line joins, miter limit, dash and the dash phase.

Figure: Lines

Rectangles
To draw rectangles, we use the drawRect() method. To fill
rectangles with the current color, we use the fillRect() method.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;

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g2d.setColor(new Color(212, 212, 212));
g2d.drawRect(10, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(130, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(250, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(10, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(130, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(250, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(10, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(130, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(250, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(125, 167, 116));
g2d.fillRect(10, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(42, 179, 231));
g2d.fillRect(130, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(70, 67, 123));
g2d.fillRect(250, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(130, 100, 84));
g2d.fillRect(10, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(252, 211, 61));
g2d.fillRect(130, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(241, 98, 69));
g2d.fillRect(250, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(217, 146, 54));
g2d.fillRect(10, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(63, 121, 186));
g2d.fillRect(130, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(31, 21, 1));
g2d.fillRect(250, 195, 90, 60);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class RectanglesExample extends JFrame {
public RectanglesExample() {
initUI();
}

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public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(360, 300);
setTitle("Rectangles");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
RectanglesExample ex = new RectanglesExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the example we draw nine coloured rectangles.

g2d.setColor(new Color(212, 212, 212));
g2d.drawRect(10, 15, 90, 60);
...

We set the colour of the outline of the rectangle to a soft gray

colour, so that it does not interfere with the fill colour. To draw
the outline of the rectangle, we use the drawRect() method. The
first two parameters are the x and y values. The third and
fourth are width and height.
g2d.fillRect(10, 15, 90, 60);

To fill the rectangle with a colour, we use the

186

fillRect()

method.

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Figure: Rectangles

Textures
A texture is a bitmap image applied to a shape. To work with
textures in Java 2D, we use theTexturePaint class.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.Rectangle;
java.awt.TexturePaint;
java.awt.image.BufferedImage;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import
import
import
import
import

java.io.IOException;
java.util.logging.Logger;
java.util.logging.Level;
javax.imageio.ImageIO;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

BufferedImage slate;
BufferedImage java;
BufferedImage pane;
TexturePaint slatetp;
TexturePaint javatp;
TexturePaint panetp;
public DrawPanel() {
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loadImages();
}
private void loadImages() {
try {
slate = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource("slate.png"));
java = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource("java.png"));
pane = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource("pane.png"));
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(Textures.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE,
null, ex);
}
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
slatetp = new TexturePaint(slate, new Rectangle(0, 0, 90, 60));
javatp = new TexturePaint(java, new Rectangle(0, 0, 90, 60));
panetp = new TexturePaint(pane, new Rectangle(0, 0, 90, 60));
g2d.setPaint(slatetp);
g2d.fillRect(10, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setPaint(javatp);
g2d.fillRect(130, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setPaint(panetp);
g2d.fillRect(250, 15, 90, 60);
}
}
public class Textures extends JFrame {
public Textures() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
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setSize(360, 120);
setTitle("Textures");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
Textures ex = new Textures();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the code example, we fill three rectangles with three

different textures.
slate = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource("slate.png"));

Here we read the image into the buffered image.

slatetp = new TexturePaint(slate, new Rectangle(0, 0, 90, 60));

We create a

TexturePaint

class out of the buffered image.

g2d.setPaint(slatetp);
g2d.fillRect(10, 15, 90, 60);

We fill a rectangle with a texture.

Figure: Textures

Gradients
In computer graphics, gradient is a smooth blending of shades
from light to dark or from one colour to another. In 2D drawing
programs and paint programs, gradients are used to create
colourful backgrounds and special effects as well as to simulate
lights and shadows. (answers.com)
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package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.GradientPaint;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
GradientPaint gp1 = new GradientPaint(5, 5,
Color.red, 20, 20, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp1);
g2d.fillRect(20, 20, 300, 40);
GradientPaint gp2 = new GradientPaint(5, 25,
Color.yellow, 20, 2, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp2);
g2d.fillRect(20, 80, 300, 40);
GradientPaint gp3 = new GradientPaint(5, 25,
Color.green, 2, 2, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp3);
g2d.fillRect(20, 140, 300, 40);
GradientPaint gp4 = new GradientPaint(25, 25,
Color.blue, 15, 25, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp4);
g2d.fillRect(20, 200, 300, 40);
GradientPaint gp5 = new GradientPaint(0, 0,
Color.orange, 0, 20, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp5);
g2d.fillRect(20, 260, 300, 40);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}

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}
public class GradientsExample extends JFrame {
public GradientsExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(350, 350);
setTitle("Gradients");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
GradientsExample ex = new GradientsExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

Our code example presents five rectangles with gradients.

GradientPaint gp4 = new GradientPaint(25, 25,
Color.blue, 15, 25, Color.black, true);

To work with gradients, we use Java Swing's GradientPaint class.

By manipulating the colour values and the starting end ending
points, we can get different results.
g2d.setPaint(gp5);

The gradient is activated calling the

191

setPaint()

method.

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Figure: Gradients

Drawing text
Drawing is done with the drawString() method. We specify the
string we want to draw and the position of the text on the
window area.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Font;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.RenderingHints;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
RenderingHints rh = new RenderingHints(
RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
rh.put(RenderingHints.KEY_RENDERING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_RENDER_QUALITY);

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g2d.setRenderingHints(rh);
Font font = new Font("URW Chancery L", Font.BOLD, 21);
g2d.setFont(font);
g2d.drawString("Not marble, nor the gilded monuments", 20, 30);
g2d.drawString("Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;", 20, 60);
g2d.drawString("But you shall shine more bright in these contents",
20, 90);
g2d.drawString("Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.",
20, 120);
g2d.drawString("When wasteful war shall statues overturn,", 20, 150);
g2d.drawString("And broils root out the work of masonry,", 20, 180);
g2d.drawString("Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick "
+ "fire shall burn", 20, 210);
g2d.drawString("The living record of your memory.", 20, 240);
g2d.drawString("'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity", 20, 270);
g2d.drawString("Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still "
+ "find room", 20, 300);
g2d.drawString("Even in the eyes of all posterity", 20, 330);
g2d.drawString("That wear this world out to the ending doom.", 20, 360);
g2d.drawString("So, till the judgment that yourself arise,", 20, 390);
g2d.drawString("You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.", 20, 420);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class DrawingText extends JFrame {
public DrawingText() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(500, 470);
setTitle("Sonnet55");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {

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SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
DrawingText ex = new DrawingText();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In our example, we draw a sonnet on the panel component.

RenderingHints rh = new RenderingHints(
RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
rh.put(RenderingHints.KEY_RENDERING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_RENDER_QUALITY);
g2d.setRenderingHints(rh);

This code is to make our text look better. We apply a technique

called antialiasing.
Font font = new Font("URW Chancery L", Font.BOLD, 21);
g2d.setFont(font);

We choose a specific font for our text.

g2d.drawString("Not marble, nor the gilded monuments", 20, 30);

This is the code that draws the text.

Images
On of the most important capabililies of a toolkit is the ability to
display images. An image is an array of pixels. Each pixel
represents a colour at a given position. We can use components
likeJLabel to display an image, or we can draw it using the Java
2D API.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.Image;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JFrame;
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import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
class DrawPanel extends JPanel {
Image img;
public DrawPanel() {
loadImage();
Dimension dm = new Dimension(img.getWidth(null), img.getHeight(null));
setPreferredSize(dm);
}
private void loadImage() {
img = new ImageIcon("slanec.png").getImage();
}
private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
g2d.drawImage(img, 0, 0, null);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class ImageExample extends JFrame {
public ImageExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setTitle("Image");
pack();
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
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@Override
public void run() {
ImageExample ex = new ImageExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

This example will draw an image on the panel. The image will
fit the JFrame window.
public DrawPanel() {
loadImage();
Dimension dm = new Dimension(img.getWidth(null), img.getHeight(null));
setPreferredSize(dm);
}

In
the
constructor
of
the DrawPanel class,
we
call
the loadImage() method. We determine the image dimensions and
set the preffered size of the panel component. This will together
with the pack()method display the image to fit exactly the
window.
private void loadImage() {
img = new ImageIcon("slanec.png").getImage();
}

The method loads an image from the disk. We use

the ImageIcon class. This class simplyfies the work with the
images in Java Swing.
g2d.drawImage(this.img, 0, 0, null);

The image is drawn using the

drawImage()

method.

In this chapter, we did some painting.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 12:

Painting in Swing
Swing's painting system is able to render vector graphics,
images, and outline font-based text. Painting is needed in
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applications when we want to change or enhance an existing

widget, or if we are creating a custom widget from scratch To
do the painting, we use the painting API provided by the Swing
toolkit.
The painting is done within the paintComponent() method. In the
painting process, we use theGraphics2D object.

2D Vector Graphics
There are two different computer graphics. Vector and raster
graphics. Raster graphics represents images as a collection of
pixels. Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such
as points, lines, curves or polygons to represent images. These
primitives are created using mathematical equations.
Both types of computer graphics have advantages and
disadvantages. The advantages of vector graphics over raster
are:

smaller size

ability to zoom indefinitely

moving, scaling, filling or rotating does not degrade the quality of an

image

Types of primitives

points

lines

polylines

polygons

circles

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ellipses

Splines

Points
The most simple graphics primitive is point. It is a single dot on
the window. There is no method to draw a point in Swing. To
draw a point, we use the drawLine() method. We use one point
twice.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.Insets;
java.util.Random;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
g2d.setColor(Color.blue);
for (int i = 0; i <= 1000; i++) {
Dimension size = getSize();
Insets insets = getInsets();
int w = size.width - insets.left - insets.right;
int h = size.height - insets.top - insets.bottom;
Random r = new Random();
int x = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % w;
int y = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % h;
g2d.drawLine(x, y, x, y);
}
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {

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super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class PointsExample extends JFrame {
public PointsExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(250, 200);
setTitle("Points");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
PointsExample ex = new PointsExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

One point is difficult to observe. Therefore, we will randomly

draw 1000 points on the panel surface.
class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

We are drawing on a custom drawing panel, which is

a JPanel component. The drawing panel will later be added to
a JFrame component.
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}

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Custom painting is performed inside the paintComponent() method,

which we override. Thesuper.paintComponent() method calls the
method of the parent class. It does some necessary work to
prepare component for drawing. Actual drawing is delegated to
the doDrawing() method.
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;

Painting in Swing is done on the

Graphics2D

object.

g2d.setColor(Color.blue);

We will paint our points in blue colour.

Dimension size = getSize();
Insets insets = getInsets();

The size of the window includes borders and titlebar. We do not

paint there.
int w = size.width - insets.left - insets.right;
int h = size.height - insets.top - insets.bottom;

Here we calculate the area, where we will effectively paint our

points.
Random r = new Random();
int x = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % w;
int y = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % h;

We get a random number in range of the size of area that we

computed above.
g2d.drawLine(x, y, x, y);

Here we draw the point. As we already said, we use

a drawLine() method. We specify the same point twice.

Figure: Points

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Lines
A line is a simple graphics primitive. It is drawn using two
points.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BasicStroke;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
float[]
float[]
float[]
float[]

dash1
dash2
dash3
dash4

=
=
=
=

{2f,
{1f,
{4f,
{4f,

0f,
1f,
0f,
4f,

2f};
1f};
2f};
1f};

g2d.drawLine(20, 40, 250, 40);

BasicStroke bs1 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash1, 2f);
BasicStroke bs2 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash2, 2f);
BasicStroke bs3 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash3, 2f);
BasicStroke bs4 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash4, 2f);
g2d.setStroke(bs1);
g2d.drawLine(20, 80, 250, 80);
g2d.setStroke(bs2);
g2d.drawLine(20, 120, 250, 120);
g2d.setStroke(bs3);
g2d.drawLine(20, 160, 250, 160);
g2d.setStroke(bs4);
g2d.drawLine(20, 200, 250, 200);
}
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@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class LinesExample extends JFrame {
public LinesExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(280, 270);
setTitle("Lines");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
LinesExample ex = new LinesExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the example, we draw five lines. The first line is drawn using
the default values. Other will have a different stroke. The stroke
is created using the BasicStroke class. It defines a basic set of
rendering attributes for the outlines of graphics primitives.
float[] dash1 = { 2f, 0f, 2f };

Here we create a dash that we use in the stroke object.

BasicStroke bs1 = new BasicStroke(1, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
BasicStroke.JOIN_ROUND, 1.0f, dash1, 2f )

This code creates a stroke. The stroke defines the line width,
end caps, line joins, miter limit, dash and the dash phase.
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Figure: Lines

Rectangles
To draw rectangles, we use the drawRect() method. To fill
rectangles with the current color, we use the fillRect() method.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
g2d.setColor(new Color(212, 212, 212));
g2d.drawRect(10, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(130, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(250, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(10, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(130, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(250, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(10, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(130, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.drawRect(250, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(125, 167, 116));
g2d.fillRect(10, 15, 90, 60);

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g2d.setColor(new Color(42, 179, 231));
g2d.fillRect(130, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(70, 67, 123));
g2d.fillRect(250, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(130, 100, 84));
g2d.fillRect(10, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(252, 211, 61));
g2d.fillRect(130, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(241, 98, 69));
g2d.fillRect(250, 105, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(217, 146, 54));
g2d.fillRect(10, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(63, 121, 186));
g2d.fillRect(130, 195, 90, 60);
g2d.setColor(new Color(31, 21, 1));
g2d.fillRect(250, 195, 90, 60);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class RectanglesExample extends JFrame {
public RectanglesExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(360, 300);
setTitle("Rectangles");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
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public void run() {
RectanglesExample ex = new RectanglesExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the example we draw nine coloured rectangles.

g2d.setColor(new Color(212, 212, 212));
g2d.drawRect(10, 15, 90, 60);
...

We set the colour of the outline of the rectangle to a soft gray

colour, so that it does not interfere with the fill colour. To draw
the outline of the rectangle, we use the drawRect() method. The
first two parameters are the x and y values. The third and
fourth are width and height.
g2d.fillRect(10, 15, 90, 60);

To fill the rectangle with a colour, we use the

fillRect()

method.

Figure: Rectangles

Textures
A texture is a bitmap image applied to a shape. To work with
textures in Java 2D, we use theTexturePaint class.
package com.zetcode;
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import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.Rectangle;
java.awt.TexturePaint;
java.awt.image.BufferedImage;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import
import
import
import
import

java.io.IOException;
java.util.logging.Logger;
java.util.logging.Level;
javax.imageio.ImageIO;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

BufferedImage slate;
BufferedImage java;
BufferedImage pane;
TexturePaint slatetp;
TexturePaint javatp;
TexturePaint panetp;
public DrawPanel() {
loadImages();
}
private void loadImages() {
try {
slate = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource("slate.png"));
java = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource("java.png"));
pane = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource("pane.png"));
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(Textures.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE,
null, ex);
}
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
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slatetp = new TexturePaint(slate, new Rectangle(0, 0, 90, 60));

javatp = new TexturePaint(java, new Rectangle(0, 0, 90, 60));
panetp = new TexturePaint(pane, new Rectangle(0, 0, 90, 60));
g2d.setPaint(slatetp);
g2d.fillRect(10, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setPaint(javatp);
g2d.fillRect(130, 15, 90, 60);
g2d.setPaint(panetp);
g2d.fillRect(250, 15, 90, 60);
}
}
public class Textures extends JFrame {
public Textures() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(360, 120);
setTitle("Textures");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
Textures ex = new Textures();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In the code example, we fill three rectangles with three

different textures.
slate = ImageIO.read(this.getClass().getResource("slate.png"));

Here we read the image into the buffered image.

slatetp = new TexturePaint(slate, new Rectangle(0, 0, 90, 60));
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We create a

TexturePaint

class out of the buffered image.

g2d.setPaint(slatetp);
g2d.fillRect(10, 15, 90, 60);

We fill a rectangle with a texture.

Figure: Textures

Gradients
In computer graphics, gradient is a smooth blending of shades
from light to dark or from one colour to another. In 2D drawing
programs and paint programs, gradients are used to create
colourful backgrounds and special effects as well as to simulate
lights and shadows. (answers.com)
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.GradientPaint;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
GradientPaint gp1 = new GradientPaint(5, 5,
Color.red, 20, 20, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp1);
g2d.fillRect(20, 20, 300, 40);
GradientPaint gp2 = new GradientPaint(5, 25,
Color.yellow, 20, 2, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp2);
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g2d.fillRect(20, 80, 300, 40);
GradientPaint gp3 = new GradientPaint(5, 25,
Color.green, 2, 2, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp3);
g2d.fillRect(20, 140, 300, 40);
GradientPaint gp4 = new GradientPaint(25, 25,
Color.blue, 15, 25, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp4);
g2d.fillRect(20, 200, 300, 40);
GradientPaint gp5 = new GradientPaint(0, 0,
Color.orange, 0, 20, Color.black, true);
g2d.setPaint(gp5);
g2d.fillRect(20, 260, 300, 40);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class GradientsExample extends JFrame {
public GradientsExample() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(350, 350);
setTitle("Gradients");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
GradientsExample ex = new GradientsExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
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}
});
}
}

Our code example presents five rectangles with gradients.

GradientPaint gp4 = new GradientPaint(25, 25,
Color.blue, 15, 25, Color.black, true);

To work with gradients, we use Java Swing's GradientPaint class.

By manipulating the colour values and the starting end ending
points, we can get different results.
g2d.setPaint(gp5);

The gradient is activated calling the

setPaint()

method.

Figure: Gradients

Drawing text
Drawing is done with the drawString() method. We specify the
string we want to draw and the position of the text on the
window area.
package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.Font;
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import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.RenderingHints;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
RenderingHints rh = new RenderingHints(
RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
rh.put(RenderingHints.KEY_RENDERING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_RENDER_QUALITY);
g2d.setRenderingHints(rh);
Font font = new Font("URW Chancery L", Font.BOLD, 21);
g2d.setFont(font);
g2d.drawString("Not marble, nor the gilded monuments", 20, 30);
g2d.drawString("Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;", 20, 60);
g2d.drawString("But you shall shine more bright in these contents",
20, 90);
g2d.drawString("Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.",
20, 120);
g2d.drawString("When wasteful war shall statues overturn,", 20, 150);
g2d.drawString("And broils root out the work of masonry,", 20, 180);
g2d.drawString("Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick "
+ "fire shall burn", 20, 210);
g2d.drawString("The living record of your memory.", 20, 240);
g2d.drawString("'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity", 20, 270);
g2d.drawString("Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still "
+ "find room", 20, 300);
g2d.drawString("Even in the eyes of all posterity", 20, 330);
g2d.drawString("That wear this world out to the ending doom.", 20, 360);
g2d.drawString("So, till the judgment that yourself arise,", 20, 390);
g2d.drawString("You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.", 20, 420);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}

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public class DrawingText extends JFrame {
public DrawingText() {
initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setSize(500, 470);
setTitle("Sonnet55");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
DrawingText ex = new DrawingText();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

In our example, we draw a sonnet on the panel component.

RenderingHints rh = new RenderingHints(
RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
rh.put(RenderingHints.KEY_RENDERING,
RenderingHints.VALUE_RENDER_QUALITY);
g2d.setRenderingHints(rh);

This code is to make our text look better. We apply a technique

called antialiasing.
Font font = new Font("URW Chancery L", Font.BOLD, 21);
g2d.setFont(font);

We choose a specific font for our text.

g2d.drawString("Not marble, nor the gilded monuments", 20, 30);

This is the code that draws the text.

Images
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On of the most important capabililies of a toolkit is the ability to

display images. An image is an array of pixels. Each pixel
represents a colour at a given position. We can use components
likeJLabel to display an image, or we can draw it using the Java
2D API.
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.Image;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

class DrawPanel extends JPanel {

Image img;
public DrawPanel() {
loadImage();
Dimension dm = new Dimension(img.getWidth(null), img.getHeight(null));
setPreferredSize(dm);
}
private void loadImage() {
img = new ImageIcon("slanec.png").getImage();
}
private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
g2d.drawImage(img, 0, 0, null);
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
}
public class ImageExample extends JFrame {
public ImageExample() {

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initUI();
}
public final void initUI() {
DrawPanel dpnl = new DrawPanel();
add(dpnl);
setTitle("Image");
pack();
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ImageExample ex = new ImageExample();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

This example will draw an image on the panel. The image will
fit the JFrame window.
public DrawPanel() {
loadImage();
Dimension dm = new Dimension(img.getWidth(null), img.getHeight(null));
setPreferredSize(dm);
}

In
the
constructor
of
the DrawPanel class,
we
call
the loadImage() method. We determine the image dimensions and
set the preffered size of the panel component. This will together
with the pack()method display the image to fit exactly the
window.
private void loadImage() {
img = new ImageIcon("slanec.png").getImage();
}

The method loads an image from the disk. We use

the ImageIcon class. This class simplyfies the work with the
images in Java Swing.

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g2d.drawImage(this.img, 0, 0, null);

The image is drawn using the

drawImage()

method.

In this chapter, we did some painting.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 13:

Resizable
Swing

component

in

Java

In this part of the Java Swing tutorial, we will create a resizable

component.

Resizable component
Resizable components are often used when creating charts or
diagrams. A common resizable component is a chart in a
spreadsheet application. The chart can be moved over a table
widget of the application and resized.
In order to create a component that can be freely dragged over
a panel, we use a panel with absolute positioning enabled. In
our example, we will create a component that we can freely
move over a parent window and resize.
Eight small rectangles are drawn on the border of our resizable
component when it has the focus. The rectangles serve as
dragging points, where we can draw the component and start
resizing. The following example is based on an example
from this blog.
ResizableComponentEx.java
package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.Color;

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import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.EventQueue;
java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JPanel;

public class ResizableComponentEx extends JFrame {

private Resizable res;
public ResizableComponentEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JPanel pnl = new JPanel(null);
add(pnl);
JPanel area = new JPanel();
area.setBackground(Color.white);
res = new Resizable(area);
res.setBounds(50, 50, 200, 150);
pnl.add(res);
addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
@Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent me) {
requestFocus();
res.repaint();
}
});
setSize(350, 300);
setTitle("Resizable component");
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ResizableComponentEx ex = new ResizableComponentEx();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}
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ResizableComponentEx

sets up the panel and the component.

JPanel pnl = new JPanel(null);

We use absolute positioning for a resizable component. By

providing null to the constructor of aJPanel, we create a panel
with absolute positioning.
addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
@Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent me) {
requestFocus();
res.repaint();
}
});

If we press on the parent panel, e.g outside the resizable

component, we grab focus and repaint the component. The
rectangles over the border will disappear.
ResizableBorder.java
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Component;
java.awt.Cursor;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.Insets;
java.awt.Rectangle;
java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
javax.swing.SwingConstants;
javax.swing.border.Border;

public class ResizableBorder implements Border {

private int dist = 8;
int locations[] = {
SwingConstants.NORTH, SwingConstants.SOUTH, SwingConstants.WEST,
SwingConstants.EAST, SwingConstants.NORTH_WEST,
SwingConstants.NORTH_EAST, SwingConstants.SOUTH_WEST,
SwingConstants.SOUTH_EAST
};
int cursors[] = {
Cursor.N_RESIZE_CURSOR,
Cursor.S_RESIZE_CURSOR,
Cursor.W_RESIZE_CURSOR,
Cursor.E_RESIZE_CURSOR, Cursor.NW_RESIZE_CURSOR,
Cursor.NE_RESIZE_CURSOR,
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Cursor.SW_RESIZE_CURSOR, Cursor.SE_RESIZE_CURSOR
};
public ResizableBorder(int dist) {
this.dist = dist;
}
@Override
public Insets getBorderInsets(Component component) {
return new Insets(dist, dist, dist, dist);
}
@Override
public boolean isBorderOpaque() {
return false;
}
@Override
public void paintBorder(Component component, Graphics g, int x, int y,
int w, int h) {
g.setColor(Color.black);
g.drawRect(x + dist / 2, y + dist / 2, w - dist, h - dist);
if (component.hasFocus()) {
for (int i = 0; i < locations.length; i++) {
Rectangle rect = getRectangle(x, y, w, h, locations[i]);
g.setColor(Color.WHITE);
g.fillRect(rect.x, rect.y, rect.width - 1, rect.height - 1);
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g.drawRect(rect.x, rect.y, rect.width - 1, rect.height - 1);
}
}
}
private Rectangle getRectangle(int x, int y, int w, int h, int location) {
switch (location) {
case SwingConstants.NORTH:
return new Rectangle(x + w / 2 - dist / 2, y, dist, dist);
case SwingConstants.SOUTH:
return new Rectangle(x + w / 2 - dist / 2, y + h - dist, dist,
dist);
case SwingConstants.WEST:
return new Rectangle(x, y + h / 2 - dist / 2, dist, dist);
case SwingConstants.EAST:
return new Rectangle(x + w - dist, y + h / 2 - dist / 2, dist,
dist);
case SwingConstants.NORTH_WEST:
return new Rectangle(x, y, dist, dist);
case SwingConstants.NORTH_EAST:
return new Rectangle(x + w - dist, y, dist, dist);
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case SwingConstants.SOUTH_WEST:
return new Rectangle(x, y + h - dist, dist, dist);
case SwingConstants.SOUTH_EAST:
return new Rectangle(x + w - dist, y + h - dist, dist, dist);
}
return null;
}
public int getCursor(MouseEvent me) {
Component c = me.getComponent();
int w = c.getWidth();
int h = c.getHeight();
for (int i = 0; i < locations.length; i++) {
Rectangle rect = getRectangle(0, 0, w, h, locations[i]);
if (rect.contains(me.getPoint())) {
return cursors[i];
}
}
return Cursor.MOVE_CURSOR;
}
}

is responsible for drawing the border of the

component and determining the type of the cursor to use.
ResizableBorder

int locations[] = {
SwingConstants.NORTH, SwingConstants.SOUTH, SwingConstants.WEST,
SwingConstants.EAST, SwingConstants.NORTH_WEST,
SwingConstants.NORTH_EAST, SwingConstants.SOUTH_WEST,
SwingConstants.SOUTH_EAST
};

These are locations where the rectangles are drawn. These

locations are also grabbing points, where it is possible to grab
the component and resize it.
g.setColor(Color.black);
g.drawRect(x + dist / 2, y + dist / 2, w - dist, h - dist);

In the paintBorder() method, we draw the border of the resizable

component. The upper code draws the outer border of the
component.
if (component.hasFocus()) {
for (int i = 0; i < locations.length; i++) {
Rectangle rect = getRectangle(x, y, w, h, locations[i]);
g.setColor(Color.WHITE);
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g.fillRect(rect.x, rect.y, rect.width - 1, rect.height - 1);
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g.drawRect(rect.x, rect.y, rect.width - 1, rect.height - 1);
}
}

The eight rectangles are drawn only in case that the resizable
component currently has focus.
private Rectangle getRectangle(int x, int y, int w, int h, int location) {
switch (location) {
case SwingConstants.NORTH:
return new Rectangle(x + w / 2 - dist / 2, y, dist, dist);
case SwingConstants.SOUTH:
return new Rectangle(x + w / 2 - dist / 2, y + h - dist, dist,
dist);
...
}

The

getRectangle()

method returns the coordinates of a rectangle.

public int getCursor(MouseEvent me) {

Component c = me.getComponent();
int w = c.getWidth();
int h = c.getHeight();
for (int i = 0; i < locations.length; i++) {
Rectangle rect = getRectangle(0, 0, w, h, locations[i]);
if (rect.contains(me.getPoint())) {
return cursors[i];
}
}
return Cursor.MOVE_CURSOR;
}

The getCursor() method gets the cursor type for the grab point in
question.
Resizable.java
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.BorderLayout;
java.awt.Component;
java.awt.Cursor;
java.awt.Point;
java.awt.Rectangle;
java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.event.MouseInputAdapter;
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import javax.swing.event.MouseInputListener;
public class Resizable extends JComponent {
public Resizable(Component comp) {
this(comp, new ResizableBorder(8));
}
public Resizable(Component comp, ResizableBorder border) {
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
add(comp);
addMouseListener(resizeListener);
addMouseMotionListener(resizeListener);
setBorder(border);
}
private void resize() {
if (getParent() != null) {
((JComponent) getParent()).revalidate();
}
}
MouseInputListener resizeListener = new MouseInputAdapter() {
@Override
public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent me) {
if (hasFocus()) {
ResizableBorder border = (ResizableBorder) getBorder();
setCursor(Cursor.getPredefinedCursor(border.getCursor(me)));
}
}
@Override
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent mouseEvent) {
setCursor(Cursor.getDefaultCursor());
}
private int cursor;
private Point startPos = null;
@Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent me) {
ResizableBorder border = (ResizableBorder) getBorder();
cursor = border.getCursor(me);
startPos = me.getPoint();
requestFocus();
repaint();
}
@Override
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public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent me) {
if (startPos != null) {
int
int
int
int

x = getX();
y = getY();
w = getWidth();
h = getHeight();

int dx = me.getX() - startPos.x;

int dy = me.getY() - startPos.y;
switch (cursor) {
case Cursor.N_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(h - dy < 50)) {
setBounds(x, y + dy, w, h - dy);
resize();
}
break;
case Cursor.S_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(h + dy < 50)) {
setBounds(x, y, w, h + dy);
startPos = me.getPoint();
resize();
}
break;
case Cursor.W_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(w - dx < 50)) {
setBounds(x + dx, y, w - dx, h);
resize();
}
break;
case Cursor.E_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(w + dx < 50)) {
setBounds(x, y, w + dx, h);
startPos = me.getPoint();
resize();
}
break;
case Cursor.NW_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(w - dx < 50) && !(h - dy < 50)) {
setBounds(x + dx, y + dy, w - dx, h - dy);
resize();
}
break;
case Cursor.NE_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(w + dx < 50) && !(h - dy < 50)) {
setBounds(x, y + dy, w + dx, h - dy);
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startPos = new Point(me.getX(), startPos.y);
resize();
}
break;
case Cursor.SW_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(w - dx < 50) && !(h + dy < 50)) {
setBounds(x + dx, y, w - dx, h + dy);
startPos = new Point(startPos.x, me.getY());
resize();
}
break;
case Cursor.SE_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(w + dx < 50) && !(h + dy < 50)) {
setBounds(x, y, w + dx, h + dy);
startPos = me.getPoint();
resize();
}
break;
case Cursor.MOVE_CURSOR:
Rectangle bounds = getBounds();
bounds.translate(dx, dy);
setBounds(bounds);
resize();
}
setCursor(Cursor.getPredefinedCursor(cursor));
}
}
@Override
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent mouseEvent) {
startPos = null;
}
};
}

The Resizable class represents the component that is being

resized and moved on the window.
private void resize() {
if (getParent() != null) {
((JComponent)getParent()).revalidate();
}
}

The resize() method is called, after we have resized the

component. The revalidate() method will cause the component to
be redrawn.
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MouseInputListener resizeListener = new MouseInputAdapter() {
@Override
public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent me) {
if (hasFocus()) {
ResizableBorder border = (ResizableBorder) getBorder();
setCursor(Cursor.getPredefinedCursor(border.getCursor(me)));
}
}
...
}

We change the cursor type, when we hover the cursor over the
grab points. The cursor type changes only if the component has
focus.
@Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent me) {
ResizableBorder border = (ResizableBorder) getBorder();
cursor = border.getCursor(me);
startPos = me.getPoint();
requestFocus();
repaint();
}

If we click on the resizable component, we change the cursor,

get the starting point of dragging, give focus to the component,
and redraw it.
int
int
int
int

x = getX();
y = getY();
w = getWidth();
h = getHeight();

int dx = me.getX() - startPos.x;

int dy = me.getY() - startPos.y;

In the mouseDragged() method, we determine the x and y

coordinates of the cursor and width and height of the
component. We calculate the distances that we make during
the mouse drag event.
case Cursor.N_RESIZE_CURSOR:
if (!(h - dy < 50)) {
setBounds(x, y + dy, w, h - dy);
resize();
}
break;

For all resizing we ensure that the component is not smaller

than 50 px. Otherwise, we could make it so small that we would
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eventually
hide
the
component.
relocates and resizes the component.

The

setBounds()

method

Figure: Resizable component

In this part of the Java Swing tutorial, we have created a

resizable component.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 14:

The Puzzle game in Java Swing

In this chapter, we will create a simple puzzle game in Java
Swing toolkit.

Puzzle
The goal of this little game is to form a picture. Buttons
containing images are moved by clicking on them. Only buttons
adjacent to the empty button can be moved.
package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
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import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Graphics2D;
java.awt.GridLayout;
java.awt.Image;
java.awt.Point;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
java.awt.image.CropImageFilter;
java.awt.image.FilteredImageSource;
java.io.File;
java.io.IOException;
java.util.ArrayList;
java.util.Collections;
java.util.List;
java.util.logging.Level;
java.util.logging.Logger;
javax.imageio.ImageIO;
javax.swing.AbstractAction;
javax.swing.BorderFactory;
javax.swing.ImageIcon;
javax.swing.JButton;
javax.swing.JComponent;
javax.swing.JFrame;
javax.swing.JOptionPane;
javax.swing.JPanel;

class MyButton extends JButton {

private boolean isLastButton;
public MyButton() {
super();
initUI();
}
public MyButton(Image image) {
super(new ImageIcon(image));
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
isLastButton = false;
BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.gray);
addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
@Override
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public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.yellow));
}
@Override
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.gray));
}
});
}
public void setLastButton() {
isLastButton = true;
}
public boolean isLastButton() {
return isLastButton;
}
}
public class PuzzleEx extends JFrame {
private JPanel panel;
private BufferedImage source;
private ArrayList<MyButton> buttons;
ArrayList<Point> solution = new ArrayList();
private
private
private
private
private

Image image;
MyButton lastButton;
int width, height;
final int DESIRED_WIDTH = 300;
BufferedImage resized;

public PuzzleEx() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new

Point(0,
Point(0,
Point(0,
Point(1,
Point(1,
Point(1,
Point(2,
Point(2,
Point(2,
Point(3,

0));
1));
2));
0));
1));
2));
0));
1));
2));
0));
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solution.add(new Point(3, 1));
solution.add(new Point(3, 2));
buttons = new ArrayList();
panel = new JPanel();
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.gray));
panel.setLayout(new GridLayout(4, 3, 0, 0));
try {
source = loadImage();
int h = getNewHeight(source.getWidth(), source.getHeight());
resized = resizeImage(source, DESIRED_WIDTH, h,
BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
} catch (IOException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(PuzzleEx.class.getName()).log(
Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
width = resized.getWidth(null);
height = resized.getHeight(null);
add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++) {
image = createImage(new FilteredImageSource(resized.getSource(),
new CropImageFilter(j * width / 3, i * height / 4,
(width / 3), height / 4)));
MyButton button = new MyButton(image);
button.putClientProperty("position", new Point(i, j));
if (i == 3 && j == 2) {
lastButton = new MyButton();
lastButton.setBorderPainted(false);
lastButton.setContentAreaFilled(false);
lastButton.setLastButton();
lastButton.putClientProperty("position", new Point(i, j));
} else {
buttons.add(button);
}
}
}
Collections.shuffle(buttons);
buttons.add(lastButton);
for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
MyButton btn = buttons.get(i);
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panel.add(btn);
btn.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.gray));
btn.addActionListener(new ClickAction());
}
pack();
setTitle("Puzzle");
setResizable(false);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
private int getNewHeight(int w, int h) {
double ratio = DESIRED_WIDTH / (double) w;
int newHeight = (int) (h * ratio);
return newHeight;
}
private BufferedImage loadImage() throws IOException {
BufferedImage bimg = ImageIO.read(new File("icesid.jpg"));
return bimg;
}
private BufferedImage resizeImage(BufferedImage originalImage, int width,
int height, int type) throws IOException {
BufferedImage resizedImage = new BufferedImage(width, height, type);
Graphics2D g = resizedImage.createGraphics();
g.drawImage(originalImage, 0, 0, width, height, null);
g.dispose();
return resizedImage;
}
private class ClickAction extends AbstractAction {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
checkButton(e);
checkSolution();
}
private void checkButton(ActionEvent e) {
int lidx = 0;
for (MyButton button : buttons) {
if (button.isLastButton()) {
lidx = buttons.indexOf(button);
}
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}
JButton button = (JButton) e.getSource();
int bidx = buttons.indexOf(button);
if ((bidx - 1 == lidx) || (bidx + 1 == lidx)
|| (bidx - 3 == lidx) || (bidx + 3 == lidx)) {
Collections.swap(buttons, bidx, lidx);
updateButtons();
}
}
private void updateButtons() {
panel.removeAll();
for (JComponent btn : buttons) {
panel.add(btn);
}
panel.validate();
}
}
private void checkSolution() {
ArrayList<Point> current = new ArrayList();
for (JComponent btn : buttons) {
current.add((Point) btn.getClientProperty("position"));
}
if (compareList(solution, current)) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(panel, "Finished",
"Congratulation", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
}
}
public static boolean compareList(List ls1, List ls2) {
return ls1.toString().contentEquals(ls2.toString());
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
PuzzleEx puzzle = new PuzzleEx();
puzzle.setVisible(true);
}
});
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}
}

We use an image of a Sid character from the Ice Age movie. We

scale the image and cut it into 12 pieces. These pieces are used
by JButton components. The last piece is not used; we have an
empty button instead. You can download some reasonably large
picture and use it in this game.
addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
@Override
public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.yellow));
}
@Override
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.gray));
}
});

When we hover a mouse pointer over the button, its border

changes to yellow colour.
public boolean isLastButton() {
return isLastButton;
}

There is one button that we call the last button. It is a button

that does not have an image. Other buttons swap space with
this one.
private final int DESIRED_WIDTH = 300;

The image that we use to form is scaled to have the desired

width. With the getNewHeight() method we calculate the new
height, keeping the image's ratio.
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
solution.add(new
...

Point(0,
Point(0,
Point(0,
Point(1,

0));
1));
2));
0));

The solution array list stores the correct order of buttons which
forms the image. Each button is identified by one Point.
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panel.setLayout(new GridLayout(4, 3, 0, 0));

We use a GridLayout to store our components. The layout consists

of 4 rows and 3 columns.
image = createImage(new FilteredImageSource(resized.getSource(),
new CropImageFilter(j * width / 3, i * height / 4,
(width / 3), height / 4)));

is used to cut a rectangular shape from the

already resized image source. It is meant to be used in
conjunction with a FilteredImageSource object to produce cropped
versions of existing images.
CropImageFilter

button.putClientProperty("position", new Point(i, j));

Buttons are identified by their position client property. It is a point

containing the button's correct row and colum position in the
picture. These properties are used to find out if we have the
correct order of buttons in the window.
if (i == 3 && j == 2) {
lastButton = new MyButton();
lastButton.setBorderPainted(false);
lastButton.setContentAreaFilled(false);
lastButton.setLastButton();
lastButton.putClientProperty("position", new Point(i, j));
} else {
buttons.add(button);
}

The button with no image is called the last button; it is placed

at the end of the grid in the bottom-right corner. It is the button
that swaps its position with the adjacent button that is being
clicked. We set its isLastButton flag with the setLastButton() method.
Collections.shuffle(buttons);
buttons.add(lastButton);

We randomly reorder the elements of the buttons list. The last

button, i.e. the button with no image, is inserted at the end of
the list. It is not supposed to be shuffled, it always goes at the
end when we start the Puzzle game.
for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
MyButton btn = buttons.get(i);
panel.add(btn);
btn.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.gray));
btn.addActionListener(new ClickAction());
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}

All the components from the buttons list are placed on the panel.
We create some gray border around the buttons and add a click
action listener.
private int getNewHeight(int w, int h) {
double ratio = DESIRED_WIDTH / (double) w;
int newHeight = (int) (h * ratio);
return newHeight;
}

The getNewHeight() method calculates the height of the image

based on the desired width. The image's ratio is kept. We scale
the image using these values.
private BufferedImage loadImage() throws IOException {
BufferedImage bimg = ImageIO.read(new File("icesid.jpg"));
return bimg;
}

A JPG image is loaded from the disk. ImageIO's read() method

returns a BufferedImage, which is Swing's important class for
manipulating images.
private BufferedImage resizeImage(BufferedImage originalImage, int width,
int height, int type) throws IOException {
BufferedImage resizedImage = new BufferedImage(width, height, type);
Graphics2D g = resizedImage.createGraphics();
g.drawImage(originalImage, 0, 0, width, height, null);
g.dispose();
return resizedImage;
}

The original image is resized by creating a new BufferedImage with

new dimensions. We paint from the original image into this new
buffered image.
private void checkButton(ActionEvent e) {
int lidx = 0;
for (MyButton button : buttons) {
if (button.isLastButton()) {
lidx = buttons.indexOf(button);
}
}
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JButton button = (JButton) e.getSource();
int bidx = buttons.indexOf(button);
if ((bidx - 1 == lidx) || (bidx + 1 == lidx)
|| (bidx - 3 == lidx) || (bidx + 3 == lidx)) {
Collections.swap(buttons, bidx, lidx);
updateButtons();
}
}

Buttons are stored in an array list. This list is then mapped to

the grid of the panel. We get the indexes of the last button and
the
clicked
button.
They
are
swapped
using
the Collections.swap() if they are adjacent.
private void updateButtons() {
panel.removeAll();
for (JComponent btn : buttons) {
panel.add(btn);
}
panel.validate();
}

The updateButtons() method maps the list to the panel's grid. First,
all components are removed with the removeAll() method. A for
loop is used to go trough the buttons list to add the reordered
buttons back to the panel's layout manager. Finally,
the validate() method implements the new layout.
private void checkSolution() {
ArrayList<Point> current = new ArrayList();
for (JComponent btn : buttons) {
current.add((Point) btn.getClientProperty("position"));
}
if (compareList(solution, current)) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(panel, "Finished",
"Congratulation", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
}
}

Solution checking is done by comparing the list of points of the

correctly ordered buttons with the current list containg the

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order of buttons from the window. A message dialog is shown in

case the solution is reached.

Figure: Puzzle

This was a puzzle game.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lesson 15:

Tetris
In this chapter, we will create a Tetris game clone in Java Swing.

Tetris
The Tetris game is one of the most popular computer games
ever created. The original game was designed and programmed
by a Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov in 1985. Since then,
Tetris is available on almost every computer platform in lots of
variations.
Tetris is called a falling block puzzle game. In this game, we
have seven different shapes calledtetrominoes: S-shape, Zshape, T-shape, L-shape, Line-shape, MirroredL-shape, and a
Square-shape. Each of these shapes is formed with four
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squares. The shapes are falling down the board. The object of
the Tetris game is to move and rotate the shapes so that they
fit as much as possible. If we manage to form a row, the row is
destroyed and we score. We play the Tetris game until we top
out.

Figure: Tetrominoes

The development
We do not have images for our Tetris game, we draw the
tetrominoes using Swing drawing API. Behind every computer
game, there is a mathematical model. So it is in Tetris.
Some ideas behind the game.
We use a

Timer

class to create a game cycle

The tetrominoes are drawn

The shapes move on a square by square basis (not pixel
by pixel)
Mathematically a board is a simple list of numbers
I have simplified the game a bit, so that it is easier to
understand. The game starts immediately, after it is launched.
We can pause the game by pressing the p key. The space key will
drop the Tetris piece immediately to the bottom. The d key will
drop the piece one line down. (It can be used to speed up the
falling a bit.) The game goes at constant speed, no acceleration
is implemented. The score is the number of lines that we have
removed.
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Tetris.java
package com.zetcode;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class Tetris extends JFrame {
private JLabel statusbar;
public Tetris() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
statusbar = new JLabel(" 0");
add(statusbar, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
Board board = new Board(this);
add(board);
board.start();
setSize(200, 400);
setTitle("Tetris");
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
public JLabel getStatusBar() {
return statusbar;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
Tetris game = new Tetris();
game.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

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In the Tetris.java file, we set up the game. We create a board on

which we play the game. We create a statusbar.
board.start();

The start() method starts the Tetris game. Immediately, after the
window appears on the screen.
Shape.java
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.Random;
public class Shape {
protected enum Tetrominoes { NoShape, ZShape, SShape, LineShape,
TShape, SquareShape, LShape, MirroredLShape };
private Tetrominoes pieceShape;
private int coords[][];
private int[][][] coordsTable;
public Shape() {
coords = new int[4][2];
setShape(Tetrominoes.NoShape);
}
public void setShape(Tetrominoes shape) {
coordsTable = new int[][][] {
{ { 0, 0 }, { 0, 0 }, { 0, 0 },
{ { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 }, { -1, 0 },
{ { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 }, { 1, 0 },
{ { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 }, { 0, 1 },
{ { -1, 0 }, { 0, 0 }, { 1, 0 },
{ { 0, 0 }, { 1, 0 }, { 0, 1 },
{ { -1, -1 }, { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 },
{ { 1, -1 }, { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 },
};

{ 0, 0 } },
{ -1, 1 } },
{ 1, 1 } },
{ 0, 2 } },
{ 0, 1 } },
{ 1, 1 } },
{ 0, 1 } },
{ 0, 1 } }

for (int i = 0; i < 4 ; i++) {

for (int j = 0; j < 2; ++j) {
coords[i][j] = coordsTable[shape.ordinal()][i][j];
}
}

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pieceShape = shape;
}
private void setX(int index, int x) { coords[index][0] = x; }
private void setY(int index, int y) { coords[index][1] = y; }
public int x(int index) { return coords[index][0]; }
public int y(int index) { return coords[index][1]; }
public Tetrominoes getShape() { return pieceShape; }
public void setRandomShape() {
Random r = new Random();
int x = Math.abs(r.nextInt()) % 7 + 1;
Tetrominoes[] values = Tetrominoes.values();
setShape(values[x]);
}
public int minX() {
int m = coords[0][0];
for (int i=0; i < 4; i++) {
m = Math.min(m, coords[i][0]);
}
return m;
}
public int minY() {
int m = coords[0][1];
for (int i=0; i < 4; i++) {
m = Math.min(m, coords[i][1]);
}
return m;
}
public Shape rotateLeft() {
if (pieceShape == Tetrominoes.SquareShape)
return this;
Shape result = new Shape();
result.pieceShape = pieceShape;
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
result.setX(i, y(i));
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result.setY(i, -x(i));
}
return result;
}
public Shape rotateRight() {
if (pieceShape == Tetrominoes.SquareShape)
return this;
Shape result = new Shape();
result.pieceShape = pieceShape;
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
result.setX(i, -y(i));
result.setY(i, x(i));
}
return result;
}
}

The

Shape

class provides information about a Tetris piece.

protected enum Tetrominoes { NoShape, ZShape, SShape, LineShape,

TShape, SquareShape, LShape, MirroredLShape };

The Tetrominoes enum holds all seven Tetris shapes. Plus the
empty shape called here NoShape.
public Shape() {
coords = new int[4][2];
setShape(Tetrominoes.NoShape);
}

This is the constructor of the Shape class. The

the actual coordinates of a Tetris piece.
coordsTable = new int[][][] {
{ { 0, 0 }, { 0, 0 }, { 0, 0 },
{ { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 }, { -1, 0 },
{ { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 }, { 1, 0 },
{ { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 }, { 0, 1 },
{ { -1, 0 }, { 0, 0 }, { 1, 0 },
{ { 0, 0 }, { 1, 0 }, { 0, 1 },
{ { -1, -1 }, { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 },
{ { 1, -1 }, { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 },

{ 0, 0 } },
{ -1, 1 } },
{ 1, 1 } },
{ 0, 2 } },
{ 0, 1 } },
{ 1, 1 } },
{ 0, 1 } },
{ 0, 1 } }
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coords

array holds

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};

The coordsTable array holds all possible coordinate values of our

Tetris pieces. This is a template from which all pieces take their
coordinate values.
for (int i = 0; i < 4 ; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < 2; ++j) {
coords[i][j] = coordsTable[shape.ordinal()][i][j];
}
}

Here we put one row of the coordinate values from

the coordsTable to a coords array of a Tetris piece. Note the use of
the ordinal() method. In C++, an enum type is esencially an
integer. Unlike in C++, Java enums are full classes. And the
ordinal() method returns the current position of the enum type
in the enum object.
The following image will help understand the coordinate values
a bit more. The coords array saves the coordinates of the Tetris
piece. For example, numbers { 0, -1 }, { 0, 0 }, { -1, 0 }, { -1,
-1 } , represent a rotated S-shape. The following diagram
illustrates the shape.

Figure: Coordinates
public Shape rotateLeft() {
if (pieceShape == Tetrominoes.SquareShape)
return this;
Shape result = new Shape();
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result.pieceShape = pieceShape;
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
result.setX(i, y(i));
result.setY(i, -x(i));
}
return result;
}

This code rotates the piece to the left. The square does not
have to be rotated. That's why we simply return the reference
to the current object. Looking at the previous image will help to
understand the rotation.
Board.java
package com.zetcode;
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import
import

java.awt.Color;
java.awt.Dimension;
java.awt.Graphics;
java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
java.awt.event.ActionListener;
java.awt.event.KeyAdapter;
java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
javax.swing.JLabel;
javax.swing.JPanel;
javax.swing.Timer;

import com.zetcode.Shape.Tetrominoes;
public class Board extends JPanel
implements ActionListener {
private final int BoardWidth = 10;
private final int BoardHeight = 22;
private
private
private
private
private
private
private
private
private
private

Timer timer;
boolean isFallingFinished = false;
boolean isStarted = false;
boolean isPaused = false;
int numLinesRemoved = 0;
int curX = 0;
int curY = 0;
JLabel statusbar;
Shape curPiece;
Tetrominoes[] board;

public Board(Tetris parent) {

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initBoard(parent);
}
private void initBoard(Tetris parent) {
setFocusable(true);
curPiece = new Shape();
timer = new Timer(400, this);
timer.start();
statusbar = parent.getStatusBar();
board = new Tetrominoes[BoardWidth * BoardHeight];
addKeyListener(new TAdapter());
clearBoard();
}
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (isFallingFinished) {
isFallingFinished = false;
newPiece();
} else {
oneLineDown();
}
}
private int squareWidth() { return (int) getSize().getWidth() / BoardWidth; }
private int squareHeight() { return (int) getSize().getHeight() / BoardHeight; }
private Tetrominoes shapeAt(int x, int y) { return board[(y * BoardWidth) +
x]; }
public void start() {
if (isPaused)
return;
isStarted = true;
isFallingFinished = false;
numLinesRemoved = 0;
clearBoard();
newPiece();
timer.start();
}
private void pause() {
if (!isStarted)
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return;
isPaused = !isPaused;
if (isPaused) {
timer.stop();
statusbar.setText("paused");
} else {
timer.start();
statusbar.setText(String.valueOf(numLinesRemoved));
}
repaint();
}
private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
Dimension size = getSize();
int boardTop = (int) size.getHeight() - BoardHeight * squareHeight();
for (int i = 0; i < BoardHeight; ++i) {
for (int j = 0; j < BoardWidth; ++j) {
Tetrominoes shape = shapeAt(j, BoardHeight - i - 1);
if (shape != Tetrominoes.NoShape)
drawSquare(g, 0 + j * squareWidth(),
boardTop + i * squareHeight(), shape);
}
}
if (curPiece.getShape() != Tetrominoes.NoShape) {
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
int x = curX + curPiece.x(i);
int y = curY - curPiece.y(i);
drawSquare(g, 0 + x * squareWidth(),
boardTop + (BoardHeight - y - 1) * squareHeight(),
curPiece.getShape());
}
}
}
@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
doDrawing(g);
}
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private void dropDown() {

int newY = curY;
while (newY > 0) {
if (!tryMove(curPiece, curX, newY - 1))
break;
--newY;
}
pieceDropped();
}
private void oneLineDown() {
if (!tryMove(curPiece, curX, curY - 1))
pieceDropped();
}
private void clearBoard() {
for (int i = 0; i < BoardHeight * BoardWidth; ++i)
board[i] = Tetrominoes.NoShape;
}
private void pieceDropped() {
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
int x = curX + curPiece.x(i);
int y = curY - curPiece.y(i);
board[(y * BoardWidth) + x] = curPiece.getShape();
}
removeFullLines();
if (!isFallingFinished)
newPiece();
}
private void newPiece() {
curPiece.setRandomShape();
curX = BoardWidth / 2 + 1;
curY = BoardHeight - 1 + curPiece.minY();
if (!tryMove(curPiece, curX, curY)) {
curPiece.setShape(Tetrominoes.NoShape);
timer.stop();
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isStarted = false;
statusbar.setText("game over");
}
}
private boolean tryMove(Shape newPiece, int newX, int newY) {
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
int x = newX + newPiece.x(i);
int y = newY - newPiece.y(i);
if (x < 0 || x >= BoardWidth || y < 0 || y >= BoardHeight)
return false;
if (shapeAt(x, y) != Tetrominoes.NoShape)
return false;
}
curPiece = newPiece;
curX = newX;
curY = newY;
repaint();
return true;
}
private void removeFullLines() {
int numFullLines = 0;
for (int i = BoardHeight - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
boolean lineIsFull = true;
for (int j = 0; j < BoardWidth; ++j) {
if (shapeAt(j, i) == Tetrominoes.NoShape) {
lineIsFull = false;
break;
}
}
if (lineIsFull) {
++numFullLines;
for (int k = i; k < BoardHeight - 1; ++k) {
for (int j = 0; j < BoardWidth; ++j)
board[(k * BoardWidth) + j] = shapeAt(j, k + 1);
}
}
}
if (numFullLines > 0) {

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numLinesRemoved += numFullLines;
statusbar.setText(String.valueOf(numLinesRemoved));
isFallingFinished = true;
curPiece.setShape(Tetrominoes.NoShape);
repaint();
}
}
private void drawSquare(Graphics g, int x, int y, Tetrominoes shape) {
Color colors[] = { new Color(0, 0,
new Color(102, 204, 102), new
new Color(204, 204, 102), new
new Color(102, 204, 204), new
};

0), new Color(204, 102, 102),

Color(102, 102, 204),
Color(204, 102, 204),
Color(218, 170, 0)

Color color = colors[shape.ordinal()];

g.setColor(color);
g.fillRect(x + 1, y + 1, squareWidth() - 2, squareHeight() - 2);
g.setColor(color.brighter());
g.drawLine(x, y + squareHeight() - 1, x, y);
g.drawLine(x, y, x + squareWidth() - 1, y);
g.setColor(color.darker());
g.drawLine(x + 1, y + squareHeight() - 1,
x + squareWidth() - 1, y + squareHeight() - 1);
g.drawLine(x + squareWidth() - 1, y + squareHeight() - 1,
x + squareWidth() - 1, y + 1);
}
class TAdapter extends KeyAdapter {
@Override
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
if (!isStarted || curPiece.getShape() == Tetrominoes.NoShape) {
return;
}
int keycode = e.getKeyCode();
if (keycode == 'p' || keycode == 'P') {
pause();
return;
}
if (isPaused)
return;
switch (keycode) {
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case KeyEvent.VK_LEFT:
tryMove(curPiece, curX - 1, curY);
break;
case KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT:
tryMove(curPiece, curX + 1, curY);
break;
case KeyEvent.VK_DOWN:
tryMove(curPiece.rotateRight(), curX, curY);
break;
case KeyEvent.VK_UP:
tryMove(curPiece.rotateLeft(), curX, curY);
break;
case KeyEvent.VK_SPACE:
dropDown();
break;
case 'd':
oneLineDown();
break;
case 'D':
oneLineDown();
break;
}
}
}
}

Finally, we have the

is located.
...
private
private
private
private
private
private
...

Board.java

file. This is where the game logic

boolean isFallingFinished = false;

boolean isStarted = false;
boolean isPaused = false;
int numLinesRemoved = 0;
int curX = 0;
int curY = 0;

We
initialize
some
important
variables.
The isFallingFinished variable determines, if the Tetris shape has
finished falling and we then need to create a new shape.
The numLinesRemoved counts the number of lines, we have
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removed so far. The curX and curY variables determine the actual
position of the falling Tetris shape.
setFocusable(true);

We must explicitly call the setFocusable() method. From now, the

board has the keyboard input.
timer = new Timer(400, this);
timer.start();

object fires one or more action events after a specified

delay. In our case, the timer calls theactionPerformed() method
each 400ms.
Timer

@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (isFallingFinished) {
isFallingFinished = false;
newPiece();
} else {
oneLineDown();
}
}

The actionPerformed() method checks if the falling has finished. If

so, a new piece is created. If not, the falling Tetris piece goes
one line down.
Inside the doDrawing() method, we draw all objects on the board.
The painting has two steps.
for (int i = 0; i < BoardHeight; ++i) {
for (int j = 0; j < BoardWidth; ++j) {
Tetrominoes shape = shapeAt(j, BoardHeight - i - 1);
if (shape != Tetrominoes.NoShape)
drawSquare(g, 0 + j * squareWidth(),
boardTop + i * squareHeight(), shape);
}
}

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In the first step we paint all the shapes, or remains of the

shapes that have been dropped to the bottom of the board. All
the squares are remembered in the board array. We access it
using theshapeAt() method.
if (curPiece.getShape() != Tetrominoes.NoShape) {
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
int x = curX + curPiece.x(i);
int y = curY - curPiece.y(i);
drawSquare(g, 0 + x * squareWidth(),
boardTop + (BoardHeight - y - 1) * squareHeight(),
curPiece.getShape());
}
}

In the second step, we paint the actual falling piece.

private void dropDown() {
int newY = curY;
while (newY > 0) {
if (!tryMove(curPiece, curX, newY - 1))
break;
--newY;
}
pieceDropped();
}

If we press the space key, the piece is dropped to the bottom.

We simply try to drop the piece one line down until it reaches
the bottom or the top of another fallen Tetris piece.
private void clearBoard() {
for (int i = 0; i < BoardHeight * BoardWidth; ++i)
board[i] = Tetrominoes.NoShape;
}

The clearBoard() method fills the board with empty

is later used at collision detection.
private void pieceDropped() {

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for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
int x = curX + curPiece.x(i);
int y = curY - curPiece.y(i);
board[(y * BoardWidth) + x] = curPiece.getShape();
}
removeFullLines();
if (!isFallingFinished)
newPiece();
}

The pieceDropped() method

puts
the
falling
piece
into
the board array. Once again, the board holds all the squares of
the pieces and remains of the pieces that has finished falling.
When the piece has finished falling, it is time to check, if we
can remove some lines off the board. This is the job of
theremoveFullLines() method. Then we create a new piece. More
precisely, we try to create a new piece.
private void newPiece() {
curPiece.setRandomShape();
curX = BoardWidth / 2 + 1;
curY = BoardHeight - 1 + curPiece.minY();
if (!tryMove(curPiece, curX, curY)) {
curPiece.setShape(Tetrominoes.NoShape);
timer.stop();
isStarted = false;
statusbar.setText("game over");
}
}

The newPiece() method creates a new Tetris piece. The piece gets
a
new
random
shape.
Then
we
compute
the
initial curX and curY values. If we cannot move to the initial
positions, the game is over. We top out. The timer is stopped.
We put game over string on the statusbar.
private boolean tryMove(Shape newPiece, int newX, int newY) {
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
int x = newX + newPiece.x(i);
int y = newY - newPiece.y(i);
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if (x < 0 || x >= BoardWidth || y < 0 || y >= BoardHeight)
return false;
if (shapeAt(x, y) != Tetrominoes.NoShape)
return false;
}
curPiece = newPiece;
curX = newX;
curY = newY;
repaint();
return true;
}

The tryMove() method tries to move the Tetris piece. The method
returns false if it has reached the board boundaries or it is
adjacent to the already fallen Tetris pieces.
int numFullLines = 0;
for (int i = BoardHeight - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
boolean lineIsFull = true;
for (int j = 0; j < BoardWidth; ++j) {
if (shapeAt(j, i) == Tetrominoes.NoShape) {
lineIsFull = false;
break;
}
}
if (lineIsFull) {
++numFullLines;
for (int k = i; k < BoardHeight - 1; ++k) {
for (int j = 0; j < BoardWidth; ++j)
board[(k * BoardWidth) + j] = shapeAt(j, k + 1);
}
}
}

Inside the removeFullLines() method, we check if there is any full

row among all rows in the board. If there is at least one full line,
it is removed. After finding a full line we increase the counter.
We move all the lines above the full row one line down. This
way we destroy the full line. Notice, that in our Tetris game, we
use so called naive gravity. This means, that the squares may
be left floating above empty gaps.
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Every Tetris piece has four squares. Each of the squares is

drawn with the drawSquare() method. Tetris pieces have different
colours.
g.setColor(color.brighter());
g.drawLine(x, y + squareHeight() - 1, x, y);
g.drawLine(x, y, x + squareWidth() - 1, y);

The left and top sides of a square are drawn with a brighter
color. Similarly, the bottom and right sides are drawn with
darker colours. This is to simulate a 3D edge.
We control the game with a keyboard. The control mechanism
is implemented with a KeyAdapter. This is an inner class that
overrides the keyPressed() method.
case KeyEvent.VK_LEFT:
tryMove(curPiece, curX - 1, curY);
break;

If we press the left arrow key, we try to move the falling piece
one square to the left.

Figure: Tetris
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This was the Tetris game.

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