Swings - Event Handling

Event Handling in swings,

Change in the state of an object is known as event i.e. event describes the change in state of source. Events are generated as result of user interaction with the graphical user interface components.
For example, clicking on a button, moving the mouse, entering a character through keyboard,selecting an item from list, scrolling the page are the activities that causes an event to happen

The events can be broadly classified into two categories:

• Foreground Events - Those events which require the direct interaction of user.They are generated as consequences of a person interacting with the graphical components in Graphical User Interface. For example, clicking on a button, moving the mouse, entering a character through keyboard,selecting an item from list, scrolling the page etc.
• Background Events - Those events that require the interaction of end user are known as background events. Operating system interrupts, hardware or software failure, timer expires, an operation completion are the example of background events.

Event Handling is the mechanism that controls the event and decides what should happen if an event occurs. This mechanism have the code which is known as event handler that is executed when an event occurs. Java Uses the Delegation Event Model to handle the events. This model defines the standard mechanism to generate and handle the events.Let's have a brief introduction to this model.

The Delegation Event Model has the following key participants namely:

• Source - The source is an object on which event occurs. Source is responsible for providing information of the occurred event to it's handler. Java provide as with classes for source object.
• Listener - It is also known as event handler.Listener is responsible for generating response to an event. From java implementation point of view the listener is also an object. Listener waits until it receives an event. Once the event is received , the listener process the event an then returns.

Example,

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class SwingControlDemo {

   private JFrame mainFrame;
   private JLabel headerLabel;
   private JLabel statusLabel;
   private JPanel controlPanel;

   public SwingControlDemo(){
      prepareGUI();
   }

   public static void main(String[] args){
      SwingControlDemo swingControlDemo = new SwingControlDemo();  
      swingControlDemo.showEventDemo();       
   }
      
   private void prepareGUI(){
      mainFrame = new JFrame("Java SWING Examples");
      mainFrame.setSize(400,400);
      mainFrame.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, 1));

      headerLabel = new JLabel("",JLabel.CENTER );
      statusLabel = new JLabel("",JLabel.CENTER);        

      statusLabel.setSize(350,100);
      mainFrame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
         public void windowClosing(WindowEvent windowEvent){
         System.exit(0);
         }        
      });    
      controlPanel = new JPanel();
      controlPanel.setLayout(new FlowLayout());

      mainFrame.add(headerLabel);
      mainFrame.add(controlPanel);
      mainFrame.add(statusLabel);
      mainFrame.setVisible(true);  
   }

   private void showEventDemo(){
      headerLabel.setText("Control in action: Button"); 

      JButton okButton = new JButton("OK");
      JButton submitButton = new JButton("Submit");
      JButton cancelButton = new JButton("Cancel");

      okButton.setActionCommand("OK");
      submitButton.setActionCommand("Submit");
      cancelButton.setActionCommand("Cancel");

      okButton.addActionListener(new ButtonClickListener()); 
      submitButton.addActionListener(new ButtonClickListener()); 
      cancelButton.addActionListener(new ButtonClickListener()); 

      controlPanel.add(okButton);
      controlPanel.add(submitButton);
      controlPanel.add(cancelButton);       

      mainFrame.setVisible(true);  
   }

   private class ButtonClickListener implements ActionListener{
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
         String command = e.getActionCommand();  
         if( command.equals( "OK" ))  {
            statusLabel.setText("Ok Button clicked.");
         }
         else if( command.equals( "Submit" ) )  {
            statusLabel.setText("Submit Button clicked."); 
         }
         else  {
            statusLabel.setText("Cancel Button clicked.");
         }   
      }  
   }
}