Lecture 8

Event-Driven Programming

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 Motivations
Suppose you want to write a GUI
program that lets the user enter a
loan amount, annual interest rate,
and number of years and click the
Compute Payment button to obtain
the monthly payment and total
payment. How do you accomplish
the task? You have to use event-
driven programming to write the
code to respond to the button-
LoanCalculator Run
clicking event.
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 Objectives
▪ To get a taste of event-driven programming (§15.1).
▪ To describe events, event sources, and event classes (§15.2).
▪ To define handler classes, register handler objects with the source object, and write
the code to handle events (§15.3).
▪ To define handler classes using inner classes (§15.4).
▪ To define handler classes using anonymous inner classes (§15.5).
▪ To simplify event handling using lambda expressions (§15.6).
▪ To develop a GUI application for a loan calculator (§15.7).
▪ To write programs to deal with MouseEvents (§15.8).
▪ To write programs to deal with KeyEvents (§15.9).
▪ To create listeners for processing a value change in an observable object (§15.10).
▪ To use the Animation, PathTransition, FadeTransition, and Timeline classes to
develop animations (§15.11).
▪ To develop an animation for simulating a bouncing ball (§15.12).

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 Procedural vs. Event-Driven
Programming
▪ Procedural programming is executed in
procedural order.

▪ In event-driven programming, code is executed

upon activation of events.

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Taste of Event-Driven Programming

The example displays a button in the frame. A

message is displayed on the console when a
button is clicked.

HandleEvent Run

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 Handling GUI Events

Source object (e.g., button)

Listener object contains a method for
processing the event.

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animation
Trace Execution
public class HandleEvent extends Application {
public void start(Stage primaryStage) { 1. Start from the
… main method to
OKHandlerClass handler1 = new OKHandlerClass(); create a window and
btOK.setOnAction(handler1); display it
CancelHandlerClass handler2 = new CancelHandlerClass();
btCancel.setOnAction(handler2);
…
primaryStage.show(); // Display the stage
}
}

class OKHandlerClass implements EventHandler<ActionEvent> {

@Override
public void handle(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("OK button clicked");
}
}
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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animation
Trace Execution
public class HandleEvent extends Application {
public void start(Stage primaryStage) { 2. Click OK
…
OKHandlerClass handler1 = new OKHandlerClass();
btOK.setOnAction(handler1);
CancelHandlerClass handler2 = new CancelHandlerClass();
btCancel.setOnAction(handler2);
…
primaryStage.show(); // Display the stage
}
}

class OKHandlerClass implements EventHandler<ActionEvent> {

@Override
public void handle(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("OK button clicked");
}
}
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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animation
Trace Execution
public class HandleEvent extends Application {
public void start(Stage primaryStage) { 3. The JVM invokes
… the listener’s handle
OKHandlerClass handler1 = new OKHandlerClass(); method
btOK.setOnAction(handler1);
CancelHandlerClass handler2 = new CancelHandlerClass();
btCancel.setOnAction(handler2);
…
primaryStage.show(); // Display the stage
}
}

class OKHandlerClass implements EventHandler<ActionEvent> {

@Override
public void handle(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("OK button clicked");
}
}
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Events
❑ An event can be defined as a type of signal
to the program that something has
happened.

❑ The event is generated by external user

actions such as mouse movements, mouse
clicks, or keystrokes.

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 Event Classes

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 Event Information
An event object contains whatever properties are
pertinent to the event. You can identify the source
object of the event using the getSource() instance
method in the EventObject class. The subclasses of
EventObject deal with special types of events,
such as button actions, window events, mouse
movements, and keystrokes. Table 16.1 lists
external user actions, source objects, and event
types generated.

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Selected User Actions and Handlers

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 The Delegation Model

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 The Delegation Model: Example

Button btOK = new Button("OK");

OKHandlerClass handler = new OKHandlerClass();
btOK.setOnAction(handler);

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 Example: First Version for
ControlCircle (no listeners)
Now let us consider to write a program that uses
two buttons to control the size of a circle.

ControlCircleWithoutEventHandling Run

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 Example: Second Version for
ControlCircle (with listener for Enlarge)
Now let us consider to write a program that uses
two buttons to control the size of a circle.

ControlCircle Run

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 Inner Class Listeners
A listener class is designed specifically to
create a listener object for a GUI
component (e.g., a button). It will not be
shared by other applications. So, it is
appropriate to define the listener class
inside the frame class as an inner class.

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 Inner Classes
Inner class: A class is a member of another class.
Advantages: In some applications, you can use an
inner class to make programs simple.
An inner class can reference the data and methods
defined in the outer class in which it nests, so you
do not need to pass the reference of the outer class
to the constructor of the inner class.

ShowInnerClass

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 Inner Classes, cont.

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 Inner Classes (cont.)
Inner classes can make programs simple and
concise.
An inner class supports the work of its
containing outer class and is compiled into a
class named
OuterClassName$InnerClassName.class.
For example, the inner class InnerClass in
OuterClass is compiled into
OuterClass$InnerClass.class.
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 Inner Classes (cont.)
❑ An inner class can be declared public,
protected, or private subject to the same
visibility rules applied to a member of the
class.
❑ An inner class can be declared static. A
static inner class can be accessed using
the outer class name. A static inner class
cannot access nonstatic members of the
outer class
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 Anonymous Inner Classes
❑ An anonymous inner class must always extend a superclass or
implement an interface, but it cannot have an explicit extends or
implements clause.
❑ An anonymous inner class must implement all the abstract
methods in the superclass or in the interface.
❑ An anonymous inner class always uses the no-arg constructor
from its superclass to create an instance. If an anonymous inner
class implements an interface, the constructor is Object().
❑ An anonymous inner class is compiled into a class named
OuterClassName$n.class. For example, if the outer class Test
has two anonymous inner classes, these two classes are
compiled into Test$1.class and Test$2.class.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Anonymous Inner Classes (cont.)
Inner class listeners can be shortened using
anonymous inner classes. An anonymous inner class is
an inner class without a name. It combines declaring
an inner class and creating an instance of the class in
one step. An anonymous inner class is declared as
follows:
new SuperClassName/InterfaceName() {
// Implement or override methods in superclass or interface
// Other methods if necessary
}

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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Anonymous Inner Classes (cont.)

/AnonymousHandlerDemo Run

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 Simplifying Event Handing Using
Lambda Expressions
Lambda expression is a new feature in Java 8. Lambda
expressions can be viewed as an anonymous method with a
concise syntax. For example, the following code in (a) can
be greatly simplified using a lambda expression in (b) in
three lines.
btEnlarge.setOnAction( btEnlarge.setOnAction(e -> {
new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() { // Code for processing event e
@Override });
public void handle(ActionEvent e) {
// Code for processing event e
}
}
});

(a) Anonymous inner class event handler (b) Lambda expression event handler

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Basic Syntax for a Lambda Expression
The basic syntax for a lambda expression is either
(type1 param1, type2 param2, ...) -> expression
or
(type1 param1, type2 param2, ...) -> { statements; }

The data type for a parameter may be explicitly

declared or implicitly inferred by the compiler. The
parentheses can be omitted if there is only one
parameter without an explicit data type.
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Single Abstract Method Interface (SAM)
The statements in the lambda expression is all for
that method. If it contains multiple methods, the
compiler will not be able to compile the lambda
expression. So, for the compiler to understand
lambda expressions, the interface must contain
exactly one abstract method. Such an interface is
known as a functional interface, or a Single Abstract
Method (SAM) interface.
AnonymousHandlerDemo Run

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rights reserved.
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Problem: Loan Calculator

LoanCalculator Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
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The MouseEvent Class

MouseEventDemo Run

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 The KeyEvent Class

KeyEventDemo Run

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The KeyCode Constants

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Example: Control Circle with Mouse
and Key

ControlCircleWithMouseAndKey Run

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 Listeners for Observable Objects
You can add a listener to process a value change in an
observable object.
An instance of Observable is known as an observable object,
which contains the addListener(InvalidationListener
listener) method for adding a listener. Once the value is
changed in the property, a listener is notified. The listener class
should implement the InvalidationListener interface, which
uses the invalidated(Observable o) method to handle the
property value change. Every binding property is an instance of
Observable.
ObservablePropertyDemo Run

DisplayResizableClock Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Animation
JavaFX provides the Animation class with the core
functionality for all animations.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
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 PathTransition

PathTransitionDemo Run

FlagRisingAnimation Run

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 FadeTransition
The FadeTransition class animates the change of the
opacity in a node over a given time.

FadeTransitionDemo Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
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 Timeline
PathTransition and FadeTransition define specialized
animations. The Timeline class can be used to program any
animation using one or more KeyFrames. Each
KeyFrame is executed sequentially at a specified time
interval. Timeline inherits from Animation.

TimelineDemo Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
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 Clock Animation

ClockAnimation Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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Case Study: Bouncing Ball

BallPane BounceBallControl Run

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rights reserved.
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