Overview of Applets |
TheSimple
applet's display code (implemented in itspaint
method) is flawed: It doesn't support scrolling. Once the text it displays reaches the end of the display rectangle, you can't see any new text. Here's an example of the problem:
The simplest cure for this problem is to use a pre-made user interface (UI) component that has the right behavior.
Note: This page glosses over many details. To really learn about using UI components, go to Creating a User Interface.
Pre-Made UI Components
The AWT supplies the following UI components (the class that implements each component is listed in parentheses):
- Buttons (
java.awt.Button
)- Checkboxes (
java.awt.Checkbox
)- Single-line text fields (
java.awt.TextField
)- Larger text display and editing areas (
java.awt.TextArea
)- Labels (
java.awt.Label
)- Lists (
java.awt.List
)- Pop-up lists of choices (
java.awt.Choice
)- Sliders and scrollbars (
java.awt.Scrollbar
)- Drawing areas (
java.awt.Canvas
)- Menus (
java.awt.Menu
,java.awt.MenuItem
,java.awt.CheckboxMenuItem
)- Containers (
java.awt.Panel
,java.awt.Window
and its subclasses)Methods for Using UI Components in Applets
Because theApplet
class inherits from the AWTContainer
class, it's easy to add components to applets and to use layout managers to control the components' onscreen positions. Here are some of theContainer
methods an applet can use:
add
- Adds the specified
Component
.remove
- Removes the specified
Component
.setLayout
- Sets the layout manager.
Adding a Non-Editable Text Field to the
Simple
AppletTo make theSimple
applet use a scrolling, non-editable text field, we can use theTextField
class. Here is the revised source code. The changes are shown below.//Importing java.awt.Graphics is no longer necessary //since this applet no longer implements the paint method. . . . import java.awt.TextField; public class ScrollingSimple extends Applet { //Instead of using a StringBuffer, use a TextField: TextField field; public void init() { //Create the text field and make it uneditable. field = new TextField(); field.setEditable(false); //Set the layout manager so that the text field will be //as wide as possible. setLayout(new java.awt.GridLayout(1,0)); //Add the text field to the applet. add(field); validate(); addItem("initializing... "); } . . . void addItem(String newWord) { //This used to append the string to the StringBuffer; //now it appends it to the TextField. String t = field.getText(); System.out.println(newWord); field.setText(t + newWord); repaint(); } //The paint method is no longer necessary, //since the TextField repaints itself automatically.The revised
init
method creates an uneditable text field (aTextField
instance). It sets the applet's layout manager to one that makes the text field as wide as possible (you'll learn about layout managers in Laying Out Components within a Container) and then adds the text field to the applet.After all this, the
init
method calls thevalidate
method (whichApplet
inherits fromComponent
). Invokingvalidate
once after adding one or moreComponent
s to an applet is a bit of voodoo that ensures that theComponent
s draw themselves onscreen. If you want to delve into the arcane reasons whyvalidate
works, read Details of the Component Architecture.Below is the resulting applet.
Overview of Applets |