MediaTracker

MediaTracker

A MediaTracker is an object that will check the status of an arbitrary number of images in parallel. To use MediaTracker, you create a new instance and use its addImage( ) method to track the loading status of an image. addImage( ) has the following general forms:

void addImage(Image imgObj, int imgID)

void addImage(Image imgObj, int imgID, int width, int height)

Here, imgObj is the image being tracked. Its identification number is passed in imgID. ID numbers do not need to be unique. You can use the same number with several images as a means of identifying them as part of a group. Furthermore, images with lower IDs are given priority over those with higher IDs when loading. In the second form, width and height specify the dimensions of the object when it is displayed.

Once you’ve registered an image, you can check whether it’s loaded, or you can wait for it to completely load. To check the status of an image, call checkID( ). The version used in this chapter is shown here:

boolean checkID(int imgID)

Here, imgID specifies the ID of the image you want to check. The method returns true if all images that have the specified ID have been loaded (or if an error or user-abort has terminated loading). Otherwise, it returns false. You can use the checkAll( ) method to see if all images being tracked have been loaded.

You should use MediaTracker when loading a group of images. If all of the images that you’re interested in aren’t downloaded, you can display something else to entertain the user until they all arrive.

Here’s an example that loads a three-image slide show and displays a nice bar chart of the loading progress:

/*

    <applet code="TrackedImageLoad" width=400 height=345>

    <param name="img"

    value="Lilies+SunFlower+ConeFlowers">

    </applet>

*/

import java.util.*; import java.applet.*; import java.awt.*;

public class TrackedImageLoad extends Applet implements Runnable { MediaTracker tracker;

int tracked;

int frame_rate = 5; int current_img = 0; Thread motor;

static final int MAXIMAGES = 10; Image img[] = new Image[MAXIMAGES]; String name[] = new String[MAXIMAGES]; volatile boolean stopFlag;

public void init() {

tracker = new MediaTracker(this);

StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(getParameter("img"), "+");

while(st.hasMoreTokens() && tracked <= MAXIMAGES) { name[tracked] = st.nextToken();

img[tracked] = getImage(getDocumentBase(), name[tracked] + ".jpg");

tracker.addImage(img[tracked], tracked); tracked++;

}

}

public void paint(Graphics g) { String loaded = "";

int donecount = 0;

for(int i=0; i<tracked; i++) {

if (tracker.checkID(i, true)) {

donecount++;

loaded += name[i] + " ";

}

}

Dimension d = getSize(); int w = d.width;

int h = d.height;

if (donecount == tracked) { frame_rate = 1;

Image i = img[current_img++]; int iw = i.getWidth(null); int ih = i.getHeight(null);

g.drawImage(i, (w - iw)/2, (h - ih)/2, null); if (current_img >= tracked)

current_img = 0;

} else {

int x = w * donecount / tracked; g.setColor(Color.black); g.fillRect(0, h/3, x, 16); g.setColor(Color.white); g.fillRect(x, h/3, w-x, 16); g.setColor(Color.black); g.drawString(loaded, 10, h/2);

}

}

public void start() { motor = new Thread(this); stopFlag = false; motor.start();

}

public void stop() { stopFlag = true;

}

public void run() { motor.setPriority(Thread.MIN_PRIORITY); while (true) {

repaint(); try {

Thread.sleep(1000/frame_rate);

} catch (InterruptedException e) { System.out.println("Interrupted"); return;

}

if(stopFlag)

return;

}

}

}

This example creates a new MediaTracker in the init( ) method and then adds each of the named images as a tracked image with addImage( ). In the paint( ) method, it calls checkID( ) on each of the images that we’re tracking. If all of the images are loaded, they are displayed. If not, a simple bar chart of the number of images loaded is shown, with the names of the fully loaded images displayed underneath the bar.