CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaswingdialogpanel
Frank
Frank

Reputation: 31096

With Java Swing App, how to get values from a dialog panel into the main app?

In my Swing app, users can click a button to open a dialog panel and enter some values, then they can click "Ok" on that panel to close it and return to the main program, but how can I pass the values they enter to the main program without saving them to a file first ?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 6372

Answers (7)

Sporniket
Sporniket

Reputation: 339

The class implementing your dialog panel must have a link to your main program, and your main program must provide a method with parameters that will be the values to transmit.

Then your dialog panel class listen to the Ok button, and on the button click, it retrieve the values and use them with the aforementionned method.

class Main {
    //...
    private Dialog myDialog ;

    public Main(){
        //...
        myDialog = new Dialog(this);
        //...
    }

    //...

    public void onDialogOk(String valueA, int valueB)
    {
        //...
    }
}

class Dialog implement ActionListener{
    //...
    private Main myMain ;

    public setMain(Main main){
        myMain = main;
    }

    public Dialog(Main main){
        //...
        setMain(main) ;

        //...
        JButton ok = new JButton("ok") ;
        ok.addActionListener(this);
    }

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { 
        // retrieve form values
        String valueA = ... ;
        int valueB = Integer.parse(...);
        myMain.onDialogOK(valueA, valueB) ; //DONE
    }
}

Upvotes: 0

nnn
nnn

Reputation: 11

Just define an interface with a single method (like: "returnToCaller(returntype rt)") in your dialog class.

The Constructor of the dialog takes an instance of this interface as input, and uses it to return results on exit/ok.

The mainmodule (window or whatever) simply instantiates the dialog and thus makes annonymous use of the interface, defininng the return method, sort of like a delegate (c#).

The call then being:

    MyDialog md = new MyDialog(new MyDialog.ReturnToCaller() {
        public void returnToCaller(ReturnValues rv) {
                         // Handle the values here
        }
    });
    md.setModal(true);
    md.setVisible(true);

Upvotes: 1

kurhan
kurhan

Reputation: 22

May be you would like to try this solution:

class MyDialog {

private static String[] returnValues = new String[10]
private static MyDialog dialog;

private MyDialog() {
  initDialog()
}

private void closeDialog()
{
     dispose();
}

private initDialog()
{

 //....
 btnOk = new JButton("OK");
  jTextField1 = new JTextField();
  ...
  jTextField10 = new JTextField();
  ...
  ActionListener btnOK_click = new ActionListener() {

        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
        {
            returnValues[0] = jTextField1.getText();
            ...
            returnValues[9] = jTextField10.getText();
            closeDialog();  
        }
  }
  btnOk.addActionListener(btnOk_click);
}

public static String[] showMyDialog() {
    dialog = new MyDialog();
    dialog.setVisible(true);
    return returnValues;
}

}

Upvotes: -1

jfpoilpret
jfpoilpret

Reputation: 10519

Rather than using just the poor Java Observable/Observer API, I'd rather advise you take a look at an "Event Bus", which should be particularly suited for your situation.

Two implementations of Event Buses:

  • EventBus very general event bus, can be used in any situation
  • GUTS Event Bus specific to Guice dependency injection library

One of these should help you with your current problem.

Upvotes: 1

Eugene Ryzhikov
Eugene Ryzhikov

Reputation: 17369

I would suggest MVC(Model-view-controller) design. So dialog will be you view and possibly controller. But have to have a domain class which will be your model. For example, if the dialog is created to edit personal data, then you can have class called Person which will hold the data. The dialog should be designed in the way so you can set and get a Person from it.

Upvotes: 0

Tom Hawtin - tackline
Tom Hawtin - tackline

Reputation: 147164

The UI should usually be layered upon the underlying application. (IMO, the UI should itself be split into layers, but that another rant.) Pass in a relevant part of your application to the creation of your UI. When you are ready for values to go from the UI to the application (which could be an OK button on a multi-page dialog, down to every keystroke), push the data to the application component.

Upvotes: 1

akf
akf

Reputation: 39495

There are a couple things you could do:

  • You could create an Observer/Observable relationship between your app and the dialog, and make the dialog publish an event when the dialog closes with the values in the event.
  • You could maintain a handle to your dialog in your app, and when you call setVisible(false) on dialog, you can query the dialog for its data.

Upvotes: 2

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