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It’s
possible to see that for safety’s sake you can have only limited behavior
within an applet. In a real sense, the applet is a temporary extension to the
Web browser so its functionality must be limited along with its knowledge and
control. There are times, however, when you’d like to make a windowed
program do something else than sit on a Web page, and perhaps you’d like
it to do some of the things a “regular” application can do and yet
have the vaunted instant portability provided by Java. In previous chapters in
this book we’ve made command-line applications, but in some operating
environments (the Macintosh, for example) there isn’t a command line. So
for any number of reasons you’d like to build a windowed, non-applet
program using Java. This is certainly a reasonable desire.

Menus

Unlike
a system that uses resources, with Java and the AWT you must hand assemble all
the menus in source code. Here are the ice cream flavors again, used to create
menus:

//: Menu1.java
// Menus work only with Frames.
// Shows submenus, checkbox menu items
// and swapping menus.
import java.awt.*;
 
public class Menu1 extends Frame {
  String[] flavors = { "Chocolate", "Strawberry",
    "Vanilla Fudge Swirl", "Mint Chip",
    "Mocha Almond Fudge", "Rum Raisin",
    "Praline Cream", "Mud Pie" };
  TextField t = new TextField("No flavor", 30);
  MenuBar mb1 = new MenuBar();
  Menu f = new Menu("File");
  Menu m = new Menu("Flavors");
  Menu s = new Menu("Safety");
  // Alternative approach:
  CheckboxMenuItem[] safety = {
    new CheckboxMenuItem("Guard"),
    new CheckboxMenuItem("Hide")
  };
  MenuItem[] file = {
    new MenuItem("Open"),
    new MenuItem("Exit")
  };
  // A second menu bar to swap to:
  MenuBar mb2 = new MenuBar();
  Menu fooBar = new Menu("fooBar");
  MenuItem[] other = {
    new MenuItem("Foo"),
    new MenuItem("Bar"),
    new MenuItem("Baz"),
  };
  Button b = new Button("Swap Menus");
  public Menu1() {
    for(int i = 0; i < flavors.length; i++) {
      m.add(new MenuItem(flavors[i]));
      // Add separators at intervals:
      if((i+1) % 3 == 0)
        m.addSeparator();
    }
    for(int i = 0; i < safety.length; i++)
      s.add(safety[i]);
    f.add(s);
    for(int i = 0; i < file.length; i++)
      f.add(file[i]);
    mb1.add(f);
    mb1.add(m);
    setMenuBar(mb1);
    t.setEditable(false);
    add("Center", t);
    // Set up the system for swapping menus:
    add("North", b);
    for(int i = 0; i < other.length; i++)
      fooBar.add(other[i]);
    mb2.add(fooBar);
  }
  public boolean handleEvent(Event evt) {
    if(evt.id == Event.WINDOW_DESTROY)
      System.exit(0);
    else
      return super.handleEvent(evt);
    return true;
  }
  public boolean action(Event evt, Object arg) {
    if(evt.target.equals(b)) {
      MenuBar m = getMenuBar();
      if(m == mb1) setMenuBar(mb2);
      else if (m == mb2) setMenuBar(mb1);
    }
    else if(evt.target instanceof MenuItem) {
      if(arg.equals("Open")) {
        String s = t.getText();
        boolean chosen = false;
        for(int i = 0; i < flavors.length; i++)
          if(s.equals(flavors[i])) chosen = true;
        if(!chosen)
          t.setText("Choose a flavor first!");
        else
          t.setText("Opening "+ s +". Mmm, mm!");
      }
      else if(evt.target.equals(file[1]))
        System.exit(0);
      // CheckboxMenuItems cannot use String 
      // matching; you must match the target:
      else if(evt.target.equals(safety[0]))
        t.setText("Guard the Ice Cream! " +
          "Guarding is " + safety[0].getState());
      else if(evt.target.equals(safety[1]))
        t.setText("Hide the Ice Cream! " +
          "Is it cold? " + safety[1].getState());
      else
        t.setText(arg.toString());
    }
    else
      return super.action(evt, arg);
    return true;
  }
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Menu1 f = new Menu1();
    f.resize(300,200);
    f.show();
  }
} ///:~

In
this program I avoided the typical long lists of
add( )
calls for each menu because that seemed like a lot of unnecessary typing.
Instead, I placed the menu items into arrays and then simply stepped through
each array calling
add( )
in a
for
loop. This makes adding or subtracting a menu item less tedious.

As
an alternative approach (which I find less desirable since it requires more
typing), the
CheckboxMenuItems
are created in an array of handles called
safety;
this is true for the arrays
file
and
other
as well.

This
program creates not one but two
MenuBars
to demonstrate that menu bars can be actively swapped while the program is
running. You can see how a
MenuBar
is made up of
Menus,
and each
Menu
is made up of
MenuItems,
CheckboxMenuItems,
or even other
Menus
(which produce submenus). When a
MenuBar
is assembled it can be installed into the current program with the
setMenuBar( )
method. Note that when the button is pressed, it checks to see which menu is
currently installed using
getMenuBar( ),
then puts the other menu bar in its place.

When
testing for “Open,” notice that spelling and capitalization are
critical, but Java signals no error if there is no match with
“Open.” This kind of string comparison is a clear source of
programming errors.

The
checking and un-checking of the menu items is taken care of automatically, but
dealing with CheckboxMenuItems can be a bit surprising since for some reason
they don’t allow string matching. (Although string matching isn’t a
good approach, this seems inconsistent.) So you can match only the target
object and not its label. As shown, the getState( )
method
can be used to reveal the state. You can also change the state of a
CheckboxMenuItem
with
setState( ).

You
might think that one menu could reasonably reside on more than one menu bar.
This does seem to make sense because all you’re passing to the
MenuBar
add( )
method is a handle. However, if you try this, the behavior will be strange and
not what you expect. (It’s difficult to know if this is a bug or if they
intended it to work this way.)

Dialog
boxes
In
the following example, the dialog box is made up of a grid (using
GridLayout)
of a special kind of button that is defined here as class
ToeButton.
This button draws a frame around itself and, depending on its state, a blank,
an “x,” or an “o” in the middle. It starts out blank,
and then depending on whose turn it is, changes to an “x” or an
“o.” However, it will also flip back and forth between
“x” and “o” when you click on the button. (This makes
the tic-tac-toe concept only slightly more annoying than it already is.) In
addition, the dialog box can be set up for any number of rows and columns by
changing numbers in the main application window.

//: ToeTest.java
// Demonstration of dialog boxes
// and creating your own components
import java.awt.*;
 
class ToeButton extends Canvas {
  int state = ToeDialog.BLANK;
  ToeDialog parent;
  ToeButton(ToeDialog parent) {
    this.parent = parent;
  }
  public void paint(Graphics  g) {
    int x1 = 0;
    int y1 = 0;
    int x2 = size().width - 1;
    int y2 = size().height - 1;
    g.drawRect(x1, y1, x2, y2);
    x1 = x2/4;
    y1 = y2/4;
    int wide = x2/2;
    int high = y2/2;
    if(state == ToeDialog.XX) {
      g.drawLine(x1, y1, x1 + wide, y1 + high);
      g.drawLine(x1, y1 + high, x1 + wide, y1);
    }
    if(state == ToeDialog.OO) {
      g.drawOval(x1, y1, x1+wide/2, y1+high/2);
    }
  }
  public boolean
  mouseDown(Event evt, int x, int y) {
    if(state == ToeDialog.BLANK) {
      state = parent.turn;
      parent.turn= (parent.turn == ToeDialog.XX ?
        ToeDialog.OO : ToeDialog.XX);
    }
    else
      state = (state == ToeDialog.XX ?
        ToeDialog.OO : ToeDialog.XX);
    repaint();
    return true;
  }
}
 
class ToeDialog extends Dialog {
  // w = number of cells wide
  // h = number of cells high
  static final int BLANK = 0;
  static final int XX = 1;
  static final int OO = 2;
  int turn = XX; // Start with x's turn
  public ToeDialog(Frame parent, int w, int h) {
    super(parent, "The game itself", false);
    setLayout(new GridLayout(w, h));
    for(int i = 0; i < w * h; i++)
      add(new ToeButton(this));
    resize(w * 50, h * 50);
  }
  public boolean handleEvent(Event evt) {
    if(evt.id == Event.WINDOW_DESTROY)
      dispose();
    else
      return super.handleEvent(evt);
    return true;
  }
}
 
public class ToeTest extends Frame {
  TextField rows = new TextField("3");
  TextField cols = new TextField("3");
  public ToeTest() {
    setTitle("Toe Test");
    Panel p = new Panel();
    p.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,2));
    p.add(new Label("Rows", Label.CENTER));
    p.add(rows);
    p.add(new Label("Columns", Label.CENTER));
    p.add(cols);
    add("North", p);
    add("South", new Button("go"));
  }
  public boolean handleEvent(Event evt) {
    if(evt.id == Event.WINDOW_DESTROY)
      System.exit(0);
    else
      return super.handleEvent(evt);
    return true;
  }
  public boolean action(Event evt, Object arg) {
    if(arg.equals("go")) {
      Dialog d = new ToeDialog(
        this,
        Integer.parseInt(rows.getText()),
        Integer.parseInt(cols.getText()));
      d.show();
    }
    else
      return super.action(evt, arg);
    return true;
  }
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Frame f = new ToeTest();
    f.resize(200,100);
    f.show();
  }
} ///:~

The
ToeButton
class keeps a handle to its parent, which must be of type
ToeDialog.
As before, this introduces high coupling because a
ToeButton
can be used only with a
ToeDialog,
but it solves a number of problems, and in truth it doesn’t seem like
such a bad solution because there’s no other kind of dialog that’s
keeping track of whose turn it is. Of course, you can take another approach,
which is to make
ToeDialog.turn
a
static
member of
ToeButton.
This eliminates the coupling, but prevents you from having more than one
ToeDialog
at a time. (More than one that works properly, anyway.)

The
constructor for
ToeDialog
is quite simple: it adds into a
GridLayout
as many buttons as you request, then resizes it for 50 pixels on a side for
each button. (If you don’t resize a
Window,
it won’t show up!) Note that
handleEvent( )
just calls
dispose( )
for a
WINDOW_DESTROY
so the whole application doesn’t go away.
You’ll
notice that the
ToeDialog
object is assigned to a
Dialog
handle
d.
This is an example of upcasting, although it really doesn’t make much
difference here since all that’s happening is the
show( )
method is called. However, if you wanted to call some method that existed only
in
ToeDialog
you would want to assign to a
ToeDialog
handle and not lose the information in an upcast.


File
dialogs

The
following application exercises the two forms of file dialogs, one for opening
and one for saving. Most of the code should by now be familiar, and all the
interesting activities happen in
action( )
for the two different button clicks:

//: FileDialogTest.java
// Demonstration of File dialog boxes
import java.awt.*;
 
public class FileDialogTest extends Frame {
  TextField filename = new TextField();
  TextField directory = new TextField();
  Button open = new Button("Open");
  Button save = new Button("Save");
  public FileDialogTest() {
    setTitle("File Dialog Test");
    Panel p = new Panel();
    p.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
    p.add(open);
    p.add(save);
    add("South", p);
    directory.setEditable(false);
    filename.setEditable(false);
    p = new Panel();
    p.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,1));
    p.add(filename);
    p.add(directory);
    add("North", p);
  }
  public boolean handleEvent(Event evt) {
    if(evt.id == Event.WINDOW_DESTROY)
      System.exit(0);
    else
      return super.handleEvent(evt);
    return true;
  }
  public boolean action(Event evt, Object arg) {
    if(evt.target.equals(open)) {
      // Two arguments, defaults to open file:
      FileDialog d = new FileDialog(this,
        "What file do you want to open?");
      d.setFile("*.java"); // Filename filter
      d.setDirectory("."); // Current directory
      d.show();
      String openFile;
      if((openFile = d.getFile()) != null) {
        filename.setText(openFile);
        directory.setText(d.getDirectory());
      } else {
        filename.setText("You pressed cancel");
        directory.setText("");
      }
    }
    else if(evt.target.equals(save)) {
      FileDialog d = new FileDialog(this,
        "What file do you want to save?",
        FileDialog.SAVE);
      d.setFile("*.java");
      d.setDirectory(".");
      d.show();
      String saveFile;
      if((saveFile = d.getFile()) != null) {
        filename.setText(saveFile);
        directory.setText(d.getDirectory());
      } else {
        filename.setText("You pressed cancel");
        directory.setText("");
      }
    }
    else
      return super.action(evt, arg);
    return true;
  }
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Frame f = new FileDialogTest();
    f.resize(250,110);
    f.show();
  }
} ///:~

CodeGuru Staff
CodeGuru Staff

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