Dialog Boxes - AWT

Dialog Boxes

Often, you will want to use a dialog box to hold a set of related controls. Dialog boxes are primarily used to obtain user input and are often child windows of a top-level window. Dialog boxes don’t have menu bars, but in other respects, they function like frame windows. (You can add controls to them, for example, in the same way that you add controls to a frame window.) Dialog boxes may be modal or modeless. When a modal dialog box is active, all input is directed to it until it is closed. This means that you cannot access other parts of your program until you have closed the dialog box. When a modeless dialog box is active, input focus can be directed to another window in your program. Thus, other parts of your program remain active and accessible. In the AWT, dialog boxes are of type Dialog. Two commonly used constructors are shown here:

Dialog(Frame parentWindow, boolean mode) Dialog(Frame parentWindow, String title, boolean mode)

Here, parentWindow is the owner of the dialog box. If mode is true, the dialog box is modal. Otherwise, it is modeless. The title of the dialog box can be passed in title. Generally, you will subclass Dialog, adding the functionality required by your application.

Following is a modified version of the preceding menu program that displays a modeless dialog box when the New option is chosen. Notice that when the dialog box is closed, dispose( ) is called. This method is defined by Window, and it frees all system resources associated with the dialog box window.

     //Demonstrate Dialog box.

     import java.awt.*;

import java.awt.event.*; import java.applet.*; /*

<applet code="DialogDemo" width=250 height=250> </applet>

*/

     //Create a subclass of Dialog.

class SampleDialog extends Dialog implements ActionListener { SampleDialog(Frame parent, String title) {

super(parent, title, false); setLayout(new FlowLayout()); setSize(300, 200);

add(new Label("Press this button:")); Button b;

add(b = new Button("Cancel")); b.addActionListener(this);

}

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) { dispose();

}

public void paint(Graphics g) {

g.drawString("This is in the dialog box", 10, 70);

}

}

// Create a subclass of Frame.

class MenuFrame extends Frame {

String msg = ""; CheckboxMenuItem debug, test;

MenuFrame(String title) { super(title);

     //create menu bar and add it to frame

     MenuBar mbar = new MenuBar(); setMenuBar(mbar);

     //create the menu items

Menu file = new Menu("File"); MenuItem item1, item2, item3, item4;

file.add(item1 = new MenuItem("New...")); file.add(item2 = new MenuItem("Open...")); file.add(item3 = new MenuItem("Close")); file.add(new MenuItem("-")); file.add(item4 = new MenuItem("Quit...")); mbar.add(file);

Menu edit = new Menu("Edit"); MenuItem item5, item6, item7; edit.add(item5 = new MenuItem("Cut")); edit.add(item6 = new MenuItem("Copy")); edit.add(item7 = new MenuItem("Paste")); edit.add(new MenuItem("-"));

Menu sub = new Menu("Special", true); MenuItem item8, item9, item10; sub.add(item8 = new MenuItem("First")); sub.add(item9 = new MenuItem("Second")); sub.add(item10 = new MenuItem("Third")); edit.add(sub);

// these are checkable menu items

debug = new CheckboxMenuItem("Debug"); edit.add(debug);

test = new CheckboxMenuItem("Testing"); edit.add(test);

mbar.add(edit);

     //create an object to handle action and item events

     MyMenuHandler handler = new MyMenuHandler(this);

     //register it to receive those events

     item1.addActionListener(handler); item2.addActionListener(handler); item3.addActionListener(handler); item4.addActionListener(handler); item5.addActionListener(handler); item6.addActionListener(handler); item7.addActionListener(handler); item8.addActionListener(handler); item9.addActionListener(handler); item10.addActionListener(handler); debug.addItemListener(handler); test.addItemListener(handler);

     //create an object to handle window events

     MyWindowAdapter adapter = new MyWindowAdapter(this);

     //register it to receive those events

     addWindowListener(adapter);

}

public void paint(Graphics g) { g.drawString(msg, 10, 200);

if(debug.getState())

g.drawString("Debug is on.", 10, 220); else

g.drawString("Debug is off.", 10, 220);

if(test.getState())

g.drawString("Testing is on.", 10, 240); else

g.drawString("Testing is off.", 10, 240);

}

}

class MyWindowAdapter extends WindowAdapter { MenuFrame menuFrame;

public MyWindowAdapter(MenuFrame menuFrame) { this.menuFrame = menuFrame;

}

public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we) { menuFrame.dispose();

}

}

class MyMenuHandler implements ActionListener, ItemListener { MenuFrame menuFrame;

public MyMenuHandler(MenuFrame menuFrame) { this.menuFrame = menuFrame;

}

// Handle action events.

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) { String msg = "You selected ";

String arg = ae.getActionCommand();

     //Activate a dialog box when New is selected.

     if(arg.equals("New...")) {

msg += "New."; SampleDialog d = new

SampleDialog(menuFrame, "New Dialog Box"); d.setVisible(true);

}

     //Try defining other dialog boxes for these options.

     else

     if(arg.equals("Open..."))

msg += "Open.";

else if(arg.equals("Close")) msg += "Close.";

else if(arg.equals("Quit...")) msg += "Quit.";

else if(arg.equals("Edit")) msg += "Edit.";

else if(arg.equals("Cut")) msg += "Cut.";

else if(arg.equals("Copy")) msg += "Copy.";

else if(arg.equals("Paste")) msg += "Paste.";

else if(arg.equals("First")) msg += "First.";

else if(arg.equals("Second")) msg += "Second.";

else if(arg.equals("Third")) msg += "Third.";

else if(arg.equals("Debug")) msg += "Debug.";

else if(arg.equals("Testing")) msg += "Testing.";

menuFrame.msg = msg; menuFrame.repaint();

}

public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent ie) { menuFrame.repaint();

}

}

// Create frame window.

public class DialogDemo extends Applet { Frame f;

public void init() {

f = new MenuFrame("Menu Demo");

int width = Integer.parseInt(getParameter("width"));

int height = Integer.parseInt(getParameter("height"));

setSize(width, height);

f.setSize(width, height); f.setVisible(true);

}

public void start() { f.setVisible(true);

}

public void stop() { f.setVisible(false);

}

}

Here is sample output from the DialogDemo applet: