swingx

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The other type of actions used by the architecture are the internal swing Actions (refered to as behaviour actions) that are embedded within the {@link javax.swing.ActionMap} of a {@link javax.swing.JComponent}.

These two types of actions are distinct from each other: user actions have a lot of properties but very little semantics by default (unless explicity bound). Behavior actions have no properties but have semantics. These two types of actions are linked by the action id which is the value of the Action.ACTION_COMMAND_KEY

The {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.AbstractActionExt} class extends the Swing concept of the Action by adding support for toggle or two state actions. Toggle type actions may be grouped into a set of mutually exclusive actions. This binary actions are represented in the user interface as JToggleButtons, JCheckBoxMenuItems or JRadioButtonMenuItems.

There are two types of user actions: A {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.BoundAction} is an action that will invoke a specific method. It may be bound to an explict component, a callback method on an object instance or one or more listeners. A {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.TargetableAction} is an action that doesn't have an explicit binding and the invocation will be sent to an arbitrator (the {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.TargetManager}) which dispatches the Action to the "current component" - represented by a Targetable instance. The current component may be explictly set by some programmatic policy (for example, changes in state).

By defalt, the current component will be driven by the focus policy as dictated by the current FocusManager. If the current component cannot handle the action then the action will be dispatched up the containment hierarchy until the action is consumed. If the action is not consumed then it will be dispatched to the Application instance which manages an application global set of actions.

These are the key classes or the actions architecture:

{@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.ActionManager}

A repository of all shared actions in the application. There will be one instance per application which can be accessed via the Application object (was ClientApp)

{@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.ActionContainerFactory}

Constructs JMenuBars, JMenus, JPopupMenus and JToolBars using lists of action ids. This functionality may be migrated into ActionManager.

{@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.TargetableAction}

Represents an unbound Action. The invocation of this action will be dispatched to the TargetManager.

{@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.BoundAction}

Represents an action which has an exclicit binding.

{@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.TargetManager}

Manages the targetable policy for actions which have no explicit binding. The policy can be set by changes in application state, event based criteria or whatever. If the policy has not been set then it will dispatch the action to the current focusable component.

{@link org.jdesktop.swingx.action.Targetable}

An interface that contains a few methods which expose actions to the TargetManager. Targetable objects don't have to be visual components they only have to be able to handle action invocations.

The automatic completion feature allows the user to enter a few characters using the keyboard - meanwhile, the computer "guesses" what the user intents to enter. Take a look at the example below to get an idea of the resulting user experience. Suppose the user types 'J','O','R' and 'G'...

The easiest way to get automatic completion for a component is to use the {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.AutoCompleteDecorator AutoCompleteDecorator}.

Enabling automatic completion for e.g. a JComboBox is only one line of code:

import org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.AutoCompleteDecorator;
[...]
JComboBox comboBox = [...];
AutoCompleteDecorator.decorate(comboBox);

When the combo box is not editable when calling {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.AutoCompleteDecorator#decorate(JComboBox) decorate}, the automatic completion will be strict (only allowing items contained in the combo box). When the combo box is editable it will also be possible to enter items that are not contained in the combo box.

Take care when enabling automatic completion for a JComboBox that is used as the cell editor for a JTable. You need to use the special {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.ComboBoxCellEditor ComboBoxCellEditor} instead of the standard DefaultCellEditor:

JTable table = [...];
JComboBox comboBox = [...];
[...]
TableColumn column = table.getColumnModel().getColumn([...]);
column.setCellEditor(new ComboBoxCellEditor(comboBox));

If you want to enable automatic completion for a component that is not supported by the {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.AutoCompleteDecorator AutoCompleteDecorator}, you need to implement {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.AbstractAutoCompleteAdaptor AbstractAutoCompleteAdaptor}. For an example see {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.ComboBoxAdaptor ComboBoxAdaptor} and {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.ListAdaptor ListAdaptor}.

The automatic completion works only for subclasses of {@link javax.swing.text.JTextComponent JTextComponent}. So you either use a component that contains a JTextComponent (e.g. JComboBox) or you connect a JTextComponent with another component (e.g. a JTextField and a JList). Of course, it's also possible to enable automatic completion for a JTextComponent without another visual component.

Once you have a custom implementation of {@link org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.AbstractAutoCompleteAdaptor AbstractAutoCompleteAdaptor}, you normally would only have to make three more calls:

AbstractAutoCompleteAdaptor adaptor = new YourAdaptor([...]);
AutoCompleteDocument document = new AutoCompleteDocument(adaptor, true); // or false if you need non-strict matching
AutoCompleteDecorator.decorate(yourTextComponent, document, adaptor);

Package Specification

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Package Specification

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Package Specification

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• Adding look and feel support for custom components

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Package Specification

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