Understanding Action Objects in Java

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Viewing tip

You may find it useful to open another copy of this lesson in a separate
browser window.  That will make it easier for you to scroll back and
forth among the different figures and listings while you are reading about
them.

Supplementary material

I recommend that you also study the other lessons in my extensive collection
of online Java tutorials.  You will find those lessons published at
Gamelan.com. 
However, as of the date of this writing, Gamelan doesn’t maintain a consolidated
index of my Java tutorial lessons, and sometimes they are difficult to
locate there.  You will find a consolidated index at
Baldwin’s
Java Programming Tutorials.

An Action object is an object that is instantiated from any class
that implements the Action interface.

(To avoid confusion at the outset, let me point out that
the Action interface is not the same as the ActionListener
interface.)

This leads to the obvious question, “What is the Action interface?”

Sun summarizes the purpose of the Action interface in the following
way:

“The Action interface provides a useful extension
to the ActionListener interface in cases where the same functionality
may be accessed by several controls.”

A real-world example

Most text editors and word processors provide a copy action. 
Typically, the copy action makes it possible to highlight some text,
and to copy it to the system clipboard.

The copy action can often be initiated in several ways. 
There will usually be a copy item on the Edit menu. 
Usually, there will also be a copy button on a toolbar.

(Typically also, the copy item on the menu will have an
accelerator keystroke such as Ctrl+C, but that is the topic of a different
article.)

Need the same behavior

Regardless of whether the user initiates the copy action by selecting
the menu item or by clicking the toolbar button, the behavior should be
the same.  (That behavior is usually to copy highlighted text onto
the system clipboard.)

Copy action can be disabled

With the editor that I am using, whenever no text has been selected,
the copy action is disabled.  Whenever text is selected, the
copy
action becomes enabled.  It is important that the copy item
on the menu and the copy button on the toolbar become enabled and
disabled in unison.  (It would be very confusing if the copy menu
item were to become disabled while the copy button on the toolbar remains
enabled.)

ActionListener objects

In Java, the behavior of menu items and toolbar buttons is normally
controlled by registering ActionListener objects on those sources,
and defining the behavior in the actionPerformed method of the ActionListener
object.

(If you are unfamiliar with the use of Action listeners,
you will find numerous tutorial lessons that discuss the Delegation or
JavaBeans event model at Baldwin’s
Java Programming Tutorials.)

It is a straightforward matter to instantiate an ActionListener
object and to register it on more than one source (a menu item and a
toolbar button, for example).  This will guarantee that action
events will be handled in an identical way regardless of which source fires
the event.

Enable and disable

It is somewhat less straightforward to guarantee that all of the sources
are enabled and disabled in unison, particularly from a software maintenance
viewpoint.  Whenever the enabled state changes, it is necessary to
individually enable or disable all of the sources on which the ActionListener
object is registered.

Short of examining the source code, there is no easy way to determine
how many and which sources a given ActionListener object has been
registered on.  You could, of course, create and maintain a list of
such sources, but that would entail extra programming effort.

Action object to the rescue

This is where an Action object shines.  The Action
interface extends the ActionListener interface.  Therefore,
an Action object is an action listener, which provides a
definition for the actionPerformed method.

In addition, and this is very important, the Action object is
also a source of PropertyChange events.  (An ordinary ActionListener
object is not normally a source of PropertyChange events.)

Here is part of what Sun has to say about PropertyChange events:

“A “PropertyChange” event gets delivered whenever a bean
changes a “bound” or “constrained” property. A PropertyChangeEvent object
is sent as an argument to the PropertyChangeListener and VetoableChangeListener
methods.”

What are bound and constrained properties?

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of bound properties in
JavaBeans components, you will find several tutorial lessons on JavaBeans
components at Baldwin’s
Java Programming Tutorials.

In a nutshell, a bound property is a property that will:

• Register other objects that want to be notified when the value of the property
  changes
• Notify them when the value changes

(Constrained properties don’t come into play here,
so there is no need to discuss them further in this lesson.)

Two-way communication

An Action object has a bound property, of type boolean,
named enabled.  Whenever an Action object is set
or registered on an action-aware component, at least two
important things happen.

Registered as an ActionListener object

First, the Action object is registered as an ActionListener
object on the action-aware component.  The behavior of the
actionPerformed
method, as defined in the Action object, handles Action events
fired by the component.

What does action-aware mean?

An action-aware class is a class that either defines or inherits
the setAction method shown in Figure 1.  An action-aware
component is an object instantiated from such a class.

 

This is the method that sets up the two-way communication described
earlier (and sometimes does some other things as well, which I will
discuss later).

What are the action-aware components?

A review of the Java API documentation indicates that as of Java version
1.4.0, the following classes are action-aware according to the definition
given above.  (Note, however, not all of these classes are suitable
for instantiating typical Action objects.  For example, I can’t
think of a good reason to use a MetalScrollButton as an
Action
object, but there may be such a reason that I haven’t thought of.)

• AbstractButton
• JButton
• BasicArrowButton
• MetalScrollButton
• MetalComboBoxButton
• JMenuItem
• JCheckBoxMenuItem
• JMenu
• JRadioButtonMenuItem
• JToggleButton
• JCheckBox
• JRadioButton
• JTextField
• DefaultTreeCellEditor.DefaultTextField
• JPasswordField
• JFormattedTextField
• JComboBox

Establishes behavior of ActionEvent handler

The invocation of the setAction method on an action-aware
component sets the
Action property for the ActionEvent source.
In other words, it establishes the behavior that will be exhibited when
the action-aware component fires an
Action event.

The new Action replaces any previously set Action objects. 
However, it does not affect any ActionListener objects that were
independently added using the addActionListener method (I will
demonstrate this later). Also, if the Action object is already
a registered ActionListener, it is not re-registered.

Sets certain component properties

Another important result of setting the Action property on the
action-aware
component is that certain other properties belonging to the component are
also set from the values encapsulated in the Action object. 
The properties that get set may differ for different component classes. 
For example, if the component is a JButton, the properties that
get set include:

• The enabled property
• The property that controls the text on the face of the button
• The property that controls the Icon that appears on the button
• The text for the tool tip
• The Mnemonic for the button

You can learn more about this process by taking a look at the documentation
for the configurePropertiesFromAction method for the class of interest. 
This is the method that handles the configuration process for each different
component.

(Note that this documentation for version 1.4.0 is considerably
different from the documentation for version 1.3.1 with respect to the
AbstractButton,
JButton,
and JMenuItem classes.  In particular, the list of properties
that get set has been expanded in all three cases.  I don’t know if
this is the result of changes, or earlier typographical errors.)

For example, here is what Sun has to say about the configurePropertiesFromAction
method for the AbstractButton class (v 1.4.0):

“The properties which are set may differ for subclasses.
By default, the properties which get set are Text, Icon, Enabled, ToolTipText,
ActionCommand, and Mnemonic.”

The Sun documentation for the configurePropertiesFromAction method
for the JButton class says essentially the same thing as the documentation
for the AbstractButton class.

In comparison, here is what Sun has to say about the configurePropertiesFromAction
method for the JMenuItem class:

“By default, this method sets the same properties as AbstractButton.configurePropertiesFromAction(),
plus Accelerator.”

In other words, a JMenuItem object can set and track one property,
Accelerator,
which is not tracked by a JButton object.

PropertyChange notification

Earlier I stated that whenever an Action object is set
or registered on an action-aware component, at least two
important things happen.  I have been discussing the first of the
two things that happen.  It is now time to discuss the second important
thing that happens.

Setting the Action object on an action-aware component
causes the component to be registered as a PropertyChange listener
on the
Action object.  Thereafter, whenever the value of the
enabled
property of the Action object changes, the component is notified
of the change.

(It is the responsibility of the component to respond to
that notification and to cause its enabled property to track the
value of the enabled property of the Action object.)

Keyed properties

Certain other properties belonging to the Action object are also
tracked and updated on the component as the Action object’s keyed
properties change.

(Disclaimer:  Even though I refer to these values as
keyed properties, it is probably not technically correct to call them properties
or bound properties, because the methods for setting and getting their
values do not conform to the JavaBeans design patterns for properties. 
However, they behave like bound properties, meaning that the component
is notified when the values of the keyed properties change.)

A PropertyChangeListener

This update process is handled by causing the component to act like
a PropertyChangeListener registered on the Action object.

(The components can’t actually be PropertyChangeListeners
in their own right, because they neither define nor inherit the method
named PropertyChange.)

Some smoke and mirrors is being used here.  This process is handled
by the method named createActionPropertyChangeListener.

(I’m not certain exactly how this is handled, but my guess
is that the invocation of the setAction method on a particular component
causes the invocation of the createActionPropertyChangeListener
method on that component.  I suspect that this method instantiates
an object from a class that implements the PropertyChangeListener
interface.  This PropertyChangeListener object is registered
on the Action object so that it is notified when a property change
occurs.  My guess is that it also holds a reference to the component
for which it was instantiated.  When it is notified of a PropertyChange
event on the Action object, it updates the component’s properties
using current values from the Action object.  This causes the
component to behave like a
PropertyChangeListener.)

Overridden createActionPropertyChangeListener

Different overridden versions of the createActionPropertyChangeListener
method exist for different component classes, so the properties that are
tracked and updated may differ from one component class to the next.

For example, if the component is a JButton, the properties that
are tracked and automatically updated include those in the following list:

• The enabled property
• The property that controls the text on the face of the button
• The property that controls the Icon that appears on the button
• The text for the tool tip
• The Mnemonic for the button

Notification mechanism

In typical fashion, the propertyChange method shown in Figure
2 is invoked on every registered listener when the Action object
fires a PropertyChange event.

 

It is the responsibility of the propertyChange method in each
registered listener object to use this notification to cause the enabled
state of the component to track the value of the enabled property
of the
Action object.  This method also causes other properties
discussed above to track the values of the corresponding keyed properties
of the Action object.

Two different programming styles

Two different programming styles can be used to accomplish the above
behavior.  The first of those programming styles existed prior to
the release of JDK 1.3.  The second approach was released with JDK
1.3 and updated in JDK 1.4.0.

The earlier approach, (which is still supported in version 1.4.0
but is not the preferred approach), makes use of a specialized version
of the add method for three specific container types:  JMenu,
JPopupMenu,
and JToolBar.  (This method is limited to use with those
three container types).  The signature of the specialized version
of the add method for each of the three container types respectively
is:

• public JMenuItem add(Action a)
• public JMenuItem add(Action a)
• public JButton   add(Action a)

The specialized add method

This specialized version of the add method is defined for the
container classes JMenu, JPopupMenu, and JToolBar. 
Here are descriptions for this method as defined for those three classes
respectively:

• JMenu – Creates a new menu item attached to the specified Action
  object and appends it to the end of this menu.  Returns JMenuItem.
• JPopupMenu – Appends a new menu item to the end of the menu, which
  dispatches the specified Action object.  Returns JMenuItem.
• JToolBar – Adds a new JButton, which dispatches the action. 
  Returns JButton.

Not the preferred method

Although this method is still supported as of JDK 1.4.0, in all three
cases, Sun has something like the following to say:

As of JDK 1.3, this is no longer the preferred method for
adding Actions to a container. Instead it is recommended to configure a
control with an action using setAction, and then add that control
directly to the Container.

However …

Even though this is not the preferred approach, you are very likely
to encounter code that uses this approach.  Therefore, I am providing
a brief description of this approach, and will compare it with the preferred
approach.

(All of the discussion, from the beginning of the article
down to the beginning of the above discussion on the specialized
add
method, was based on the preferred approach.)

Use is restricted to three container types

It is important to emphasize that this approach can only be used with
the following container classes (because other container classes neither
define nor inherit the specialized version of the add method):

• JMenu
• JPopupMenu
• JToolBar

The preferred method, on the other hand, can be used with just about any
of the standard container classes.

(For example, you could place an action-aware component
in a JButton if you had a reason to do so.  However, you may
want to avoid using AWT container classes in order to avoid the problems
inherent in mixing heavyweight and lightweight components.)

The specialized add method

When the specialized add method is invoked on one of the three
containers listed above, passing an Action object as a parameter,
the following things happen:

• The container creates a component that is appropriate for that container:
• JMenu creates a JMenuItem
• JPopupMenu creates a JMenuItem
• JToolBar creates a JButton
• The container gets the appropriate properties (such as enabled and the
  icon) from the Action object to customize the component.
• The container checks the initial state of the Action object to determine
  if it is enabled or disabled, and renders the component in the same state.
• The container registers a PropertyChangeListener with the Action
  object so that it is notified of state changes. When the Action
  object changes from enabled to disabled, or back, the container makes the
  appropriate revisions and renders the component accordingly.

The major differences

The major differences between this approach and the preferred approach
seem to be:

• This approach is limited to only three types of containers, whereas the
  preferred approach can be used with just about any container.
• This approach can only be used with one specific component type for each
  of the three containers.  The preferred approach can pair any of a
  large number of component types with just about any container.

Much more general

The bottom line is that the preferred approach is the more general of
the two.  For example, if you had a reason to do so, you could put
an action-aware JTextField object in a JMenu object,
or an action-aware JRadioButton object in a JButton
object.

A sample program

Now it is time to take a look at some code.  A complete listing
of the sample program named ActionObj02 is shown in Listing 22 near
the end of this article.

This program uses the preferred approach to place two action-aware
components in each of the following three container types:  JMenu,
JToolBar,
and JPanel.

(Note that the earlier approach did not support the JPanel
container type.)

Two different Action objects are used to populate the three containers. 
Within each container, one of the components is registered with one of
the Action objects, and the other component is registered with the
other Action object.

The JMenu container is populated with two JMenuItem objects. 
The JToolBar container is populated with two JButton objects. 
The JPanel container is populated with one JButton object
and one JMenuItem object.

View at startup

Figure 3 shows a view of the program as it appears at startup (the
JMenu
object is hidden from view).

The title for the hidden menu is shown at the top in Figure 3. 
A tool bar object is shown immediately below the menu bar.  A JPanel
object is shown at the bottom.

The four checkboxes in the center are used to manipulate the enabled
and icon properties of the two Action objects.  This,
in turn, causes the enabled property of each of the components to
change, and also causes the icon displayed on each of the components to
change, when the checkboxes are checked and cleared.

The expanded menu

Figure 4 shows the screen display of the program with the menu expanded,
but with no other changes.

As you can see, the two menu items represent the same Action
objects as the components on the tool bar and the components in the JPanel.

Manipulating the Action objects

The checkboxes in the center can be used to manipulate the Action
objects.  For example, Figure 5 shows the output with one of the Action
objects disabled by checking the upper-left checkbox.  (Note that
the text on the checkbox also changes when it is checked.)

As you can see in Figure 5, disabling one of the Action objects
causes both of the visible action-aware components registered (as
PropertyChange listeners) on that object to be disabled.

(The menu also contains a component registered as a PropertyChange
listener on that Action object.  If you could see that component,
you would see that it is disabled also.)

In a similar fashion, checking the upper-right checkbox would disable the
other Action object and the three components registered as PropertyChange
listeners on it.

Toggle between two icons

The enabled property is clearly a property in the sense that
its setter and getter methods match the JavaBeans design
pattern for properties.

As we will see later, the property that specifies the icon to be displayed
on the components doesn’t use the standard setter and getter
methods for properties.  Regardless, changing the property that specifies
the icon in the Action object causes the components registered on
that object to display a different icon.

Figure 6 shows the result of checking the lower-left checkbox. 
Checking and clearing this checkbox toggles the specified icon in the
Action
object between two different gif files.

As you can see in Figure 6, changing the property that specifies the
icon in one of the Action objects causes the icon displayed on registered
components to change from a red ball to a blue ball.  Again, if you
could see the corresponding item on the menu, you would see that it has
changed also.

The Action interface

According to Sun,

“The Action interface provides a useful extension to the
ActionListener interface in cases where the same functionality may be accessed
by several controls.”

Previous sections in this article have discussed how such a capability
may be used.

Here is a quotation from John
Zukowski, which may help to illuminate the purpose of the Action
interface.

“The Action interface is an extension to the ActionListener
interface that’s very flexible for defining shared event handlers independent
of the components that act as the triggering agents. …, the interface
implements ActionListener and defines a lookup table data structure whose
keys act as bound properties. Then, when an Action is associated with a
component, these display properties are automatically carried over to it.”

The actionPerformed method and other things

Because the Action interface extends the ActionListener
interface, it declares the actionPerformed method.  In addition,
this interface makes it possible to define the following items in a single
location:

• Text strings that describe the properties of action-aware components
  associated with an Action object.
• Icons that may be displayed on action-aware components associated
  with an Action object.
• The enabled/disabled state that should be tracked by action-aware
  components registered as PropertyChange listeners on an Action
  object

The enabled/disabled state

In addition to the actionPerformed method inherited from the
ActionListener
interface, the Action interface declares six methods in support
of the functionality described above.

The two methods shown in Figure 7 are the standard JavaBeans setter
and getter methods for the enabled property.

 

Although it isn’t obvious in the method declarations, the enabled
property is a bound property as described earlier in this article.
(In
fact, the word bound doesn’t appear anywhere in the JavaDocs description
of javax.swing Interface Action for Java 2 Platform SE v1.4.0.)

PropertyChangeListener registration

The two methods shown in Figure 8 are the standard JavaBeans methods
for registering and unregistering a PropertyChangeListener object.

 

All objects that are registered as a PropertyChangeListener on
the Action object are notified when the value of any bound
property changes.

Keyed properties

The two methods shown in Figure 9 are used to put and get
the values of properties that I will refer to as keyed properties. 
These methods behave like typical put and get methods for
a hashtable object.

 

The values of these properties consist of:

• Text strings that describe the properties of action-aware components
  associated with an Action object
• References to ImageIcon objects that may be displayed on action-aware
  components associated with an Action object.

The keys

The keys associated with these values are declared by the Action
interface as public static final fields of type String, having
the following names and purposes.

• NAME – Used for storing the name for the action.  Appears at
  text on the face of a tool bar button or a menu item.
• SHORT_DESCRIPTION – Used for storing a short description for the
  action.  This description is used for tooltip text.
• SMALL_ICON – Used for storing a small icon for the action. 
  This icon appears on toolbar buttons and menu items.
• ACCELERATOR_KEY – Used for storing a KeyStroke to be used
  as the accelerator for the action.
• MNEMONIC_KEY – Used for storing a key code used as the mnemonic
  for the action.
• ACTION_COMMAND_KEY – Used to determine the command string for an
  ActionEvent
  object.
• DEFAULT – Can be used as the storage-retrieval key when setting
  or getting one of this object’s properties.
• LONG_DESCRIPTION – Used for storing a longer description for the
  action.

The key values

Because these fields are declared in an interface, they are inherently
final. 
They are all references to String objects.  Although the documentation
doesn’t specify the values encapsulated in the String objects, it
can be determined experimentally that as of version 1.4.0, the string values
encapsulated in the String objects are:

• Name
• ShortDescription
• SmallIcon
• AcceleratorKey
• MnemonicKey
• ActionCommandKey
• Default
• LongDescription

Whenever possible you should refer to the constants symbolically (as
in Action.NAME) and avoid using the encapsulated values explicitly. 
That way, if the encapsulated values change in some later version of Java,
it will be less likely that your code will become broken.

Key-value pairs

The values associated with these keys (in a key-value pair sense)
in any particular program are dependent on the program.  You will
see how some of these keys are used in the sample program to be discussed
later, so I won’t discuss them further at this time.

Keyed properties are bound properties

Apparently each of these keyed properties behaves like a bound
property; meaning that all registered PropertyChangeListener objects
are notified whenever the value of one of these properties changes. 
Whether or not that listener object takes any specific action as a result
of the change is determined by the author of the class from which the PropertyChangeListener
object is instantiated.

Implementing the Action interface

As is usually the case, you can start from scratch and define a new
class that implements the Action interface.  Among other things,
this will require you to provide PropertyChange support.

If you elect to take this route, I recommend that you consider using
an object instantiated from the PropertyChangeSupport class or the
SwingPropertyChangeSupport
class to handle the registration and notification of PropertyChangeListener
objects.

However, in most cases, you won’t need to start from scratch. 
Rather, you can define a new class that extends the AbstractAction
class, and override any methods whose behavior needs to be different from
that defined in that class.

The AbstractAction class

According to Sun,

“This class provides default implementations for the JFC
Action
interface. Standard behaviors like the get and set methods for Action
object properties (icon, text, and enabled) are defined here. The developer
need only subclass this abstract class and define the
actionPerformed
method.”

Often, by extending this class, instead of defining a new class that implements
the Action interface, you can save yourself a lot of programming
effort.

(As a side note regarding the importance of the Action
interface, more than two-dozen classes in v1.4.0 extend the AbstractAction
class.)

Fields of AbstractAction class

In addition to the final fields inherited from the Action
interface, this class defines the following two fields:

• SwingPropertyChangeSupport changeSupport
• boolean enabled

The first field contains a reference to an object instantiated from the
SwingPropertyChangeSupport
class.  As I mentioned earlier, this is a helper class designed to
register and notify PropertyChange listeners

The second field is of type boolean, and specifies whether the
action is enabled at a particular point in time.  The default value
is true.

Methods of AbstractAction class

The AbstractAction class provides default implementations for
each of the six methods declared in the Action interface (See
Figures 7, 8, and 9.)

In addition, the AbstractAction class defines the four methods
shown in Figure 10.

 

The behavior of the clone method should be self-explanatory.

firePropertyChange method

This method can be used in a subclass to fire a PropertyChange
event.  When a PropertyChange event is fired, the SwingPropertyChangeSupport
object will send the appropriate PropertyChangeEvent to all registered
PropertyChangeListener
objects.

getKeys method

Returns an array of Object references which are the keys for
which values have been set.  Returns null if no keys have their values
set.  Can be used in an action-aware component to identify
and get the values for keyed properties.

getPropertyChangeListeners()

Returns an array of all the PropertyChangeListeners added to this AbstractAction
object with addPropertyChangeListener().  The array is empty
if no listeners have been added.  Can be used in a subclass to get
a list of listeners.

Now for some code

As is my practice, I will discuss the program named ActionObj02 in
fragments.  A complete listing of the program is shown in Listing
22 near the end of the lesson.  The first fragment, shown in Listing
1, simply uses the main method to instantiate an object of the GUI
class.  I will discuss the definition of the GUI class later.

 

public class ActionObj02{
  public static void main(
                        String[] args){
    new GUI();
  }//end main
}//end ActionObj02

Listing 1

The MyAction class

Listing 2 shows the entire class definition for the MyAction
class from which Action objects will be instantiated.

 

class MyAction extends AbstractAction{
  public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
    System.out.println("Action: " + 
       ((AbstractButton)e.getSource()).
                   getActionCommand());
  }//end actionPerformed
}//end class MyAction

Listing 2

Note that the MyAction class doesn’t implement the Action
interface directly.  Rather, it extends the AbstractAction
class and implements the Action interface through inheritance. 
This causes it to inherit the default behavior of the methods defined in
the AbstractAction class and discussed earlier in this lesson.

Overrides actionPerformed

The MyAction class overrides the actionPerformed method. 
The overridden behavior of the method is to get and display the action
command for any source object
(on which it is registered) that
fires an ActionEvent.  By default, the action command
is simply the text that is visible on the face of the source object. Thus,
clicking any of the six components located on the JMenu, the JToolBar,
or the JPanel (see Figure 4) will cause the text on the face
of that component to be displayed.

The GUI class

Listing 3 shows the beginning of the GUI class.

 

class GUI extends JFrame{
  JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
  JMenu menu = new JMenu("Menu");
  JToolBar toolBar = new JToolBar();
  JPanel panel = new JPanel();

Listing 3

The code in Listing 3 creates the following container objects, which
are visible in Figure 4:

• JMenu
• JToolBar
• JPanel

Two Action objects

Listing 4 creates two Action objects (instances of the MyAction
class discussed above).  These two Action objects will
be registered on various action-aware components later.

 

  Action actionObj01 = new MyAction();
  Action actionObj02 = new MyAction();

Listing 4

Control

Listing 5 creates the four check boxes and a control panel shown in
the center of Figure 3.

 

  JCheckBox ckBox01 = new JCheckBox(
                          "Disable01");
  JCheckBox ckBox02 = new JCheckBox(
                          "Disable02");
  JCheckBox ckBox03 = new JCheckBox(
                      "Toggle Icon01");
  JCheckBox ckBox04 = new JCheckBox(
                      "Toggle Icon02");
  JPanel controlPanel = new JPanel();

Listing 5

The four check boxes will be used to manipulate the behavior of the
two Action objects, and hence the behavior of the six associated
action-aware
components.  Note that the text shown on the face of the checkboxes
will be modified when those checkboxes are checked and cleared.

The GUI constructor

Listing 6 shows the beginning of the constructor for the GUI
class.

 

  GUI(){//constructor
    menuBar.add(menu);

    menuBar.setBorder(
               new BevelBorder(
                  BevelBorder.RAISED));

    setJMenuBar(menuBar);

Listing 6

The code in Listing 6 adds the JMenu object to the JMenuBar
object, which is the standard way to construct a menu in Java.

Then it invokes the setBorder method on the menu bar to cause
its edges to become visible.  I did this to make it easy to visually
separate the menu bar from the tool bar that appears immediately below
it in Figure 3.  (You can learn more about Swing borders at Baldwin’s
Java Programming Tutorials.)

Set the JMenuBar

Finally, the code in Listing 6 adds the menu bar to the JFrame. 
Note, however, that this is accomplished by invoking the setJMenuBar
method on the JFrame object instead of invoking an add method,
(which
is the way that other components are normally added to a JFrame
container.)

A decorated JToolBarcontainer

Listing 7 decorates the JToolBar object with raised bevel borders,
and places it in the NORTH position of the JFrame object. 
This causes the toolbar to appear immediately below the menu bar in Figure
3.

 

    toolBar.setBorder(new BevelBorder(
                  BevelBorder.RAISED));
    getContentPane().add(
           toolBar,BorderLayout.NORTH);

Listing 7

(If need be, you can also learn more about the BorderLayout
manager and the getContentPane method at Baldwin’s
Java Programming Tutorials.)

A decorated JPanel container

Listing 8 decorates the JPanel object with raised bevel borders,
and places it in the SOUTH position of the JFrame object. 
This causes it to appear at the bottom of the JFrame in Figure 3.

 

    panel.setBorder(new BevelBorder(
                  BevelBorder.RAISED));
    getContentPane().add(
             panel,BorderLayout.SOUTH);

Listing 8

Setting keyed values

Except for the definition of the MyAction class discussed earlier,
very little of the code discussed so far has been specific to the Action
interface.  However, the code in Listing 9 is very specific to the
Action
interface.

 

    actionObj01.putValue(
            Action.NAME,"actionObj01");

Listing 9

Listing 9 invokes the putValue method on one of the Action
objects to set the value for one of the keyed properties. 
As mentioned earlier, each Action object has a container for keyed
properties that behaves much as a hashtable behaves.  Values
are stored against keys, and can be accessed later by specifying
the key.

Values are stored in that container by invoking the putValue
method and passing a key and a value as parameters. 
In this case, one of the constants (final variables) defined in
the Action interface is used as the key.  The literal
String
object “actionObj01” is passed as the value.

(Note that as discussed earlier, the constant is referred
to symbolically as Action.NAME, and no explicit use is made of the
actual String value encapsulated in that constant.)

The remaining keyed properties

Listing 10 sets the values for each of the remaining keyed properties.

 

    actionObj01.putValue(
       Action.SMALL_ICON,new ImageIcon(
                       "redball.gif"));
    actionObj01.putValue(
            Action.SHORT_DESCRIPTION,
            "ToolTip for actionObj01");
 
    actionObj02.putValue(
            Action.NAME,"actionObj02");
    actionObj02.putValue(
       Action.SMALL_ICON,new ImageIcon(
                         "bulb2.gif"));
    actionObj02.putValue(
            Action.SHORT_DESCRIPTION,
            "ToolTip for actionObj02");

Listing 10

As mentioned earlier, these keyed properties behave as bound
properties, meaning that registered objects are notified when their
values change.  Checking and clearing two of the checkboxes in this
program causes the values of the SMALL_ICON properties to change,
thus causing the icons displayed on the components registered on the respective
Action
objects to change accordingly.

Build the menu

Code that I discussed earlier created a menu bar and placed a menu on
that bar.  Now the time has come to place some menu items on that
menu.  This process begins in Listing 11.

 

    JMenuItem mnuA1 = new JMenuItem();
    mnuA1.setAction(actionObj01);
    menu.add(mnuA1);

Listing 11

Invoke the setAction method

The code in Listing 11 is very significant relative to the use of Action
objects.  Listing 11 instantiates a new JMenuItem object and
then invokes the setAction method on that object, passing a reference
to one of the Action objects as a parameter.

As discussed earlier, this causes the Action object to be registered
as an action listener on the JMenuItem object.

PropertyChange listener registration

More importantly, however, for the purpose of this discussion, invocation
of the setAction method causes the JMenuItem object to be
registered as a PropertyChange listener on the Action object. 
Following this, when the enabled property, or any of the keyed
properties of the Action object change, the JMenuItem
object will be notified of the change.

The JMenuItem class is designed such that this will cause some
of the corresponding properties on the
JMenuItem object to change
in order to track the change on the Action object.  (A JMenuItem
object doesn’t set or track all of the indexed properties.)

After the JMenuItem object has been properly prepared, it is
added to the menu in Listing 11.

An alternative to invoking setAction

Listing 12 shown an alternative approach to invoking the setAction
method on the new JMenuItem object.  (This approach appears
to achieve the same result as the invocation of the setAction method.).

 

    //Put a JMenuItem on the menu. Set
    // its Action object in the
    // constructor. This is a 
    // different approach.
    JMenuItem mnuA2 = 
            new JMenuItem(actionObj02);
    menu.add(mnuA2);

Listing 12

The JMenuItem class has a constructor that accepts a reference
to an Action object as a parameter, and according to the Sun documentation,
“Creates
a menu item whose properties are taken from the specified Action.”

An understatement

It appears that the statement in the Sun documentation is something
of an understatement.  In particular, it appears that constructing
the JMenuItem object in this manner causes the action property
of that object to be set to the Action object, just as though the
setAction
method were invoked on that object as in Listing 11.

As explained in the discussion of Listing 11, this involves much more
than the Sun documentation statement would imply.  In particular,
the Action object becomes an action listener on the JMenuItem
object, and the JMenuItem also becomes a change listener
on the
Action object.

Registration of two action listeners

Registering an Action object on an action-aware component
does not prohibit the registration of ordinary ActionListener objects
on the same component.  This is illustrated in Listing 13.

 

    JButton butB1 = new JButton();

    butB1.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
          System.out.println(
           "Ordinary Action Listener");
        }//end actionPerformed()
      }//end ActionListener
    );//end addActionListener

    butB1.setAction(actionObj01);

    toolBar.add(butB1);

Listing 13

Listing 13 instantiates a new JButton object, and then uses an
anonymous inner class to register an ordinary ActionListener object
on that component.

(If you are unfamiliar with anonymous inner classes, see
Baldwin’s
Java Programming Tutorials.)

Then it invokes the setAction method on the same JButton
object, which causes the specified Action object to also be registered
as an action listener on the JButton object.

Two actionPerformed methods are invoked

Thereafter, when the JButton object is clicked with the mouse,
causing an action event to be fired by the JButton object, the following
two lines of text appear on the screen:

Action: actionObj01

Ordinary Action Listener

The first line of output text is produced by the actionPerformed
method defined in the Action object (see Listing 2).

The second line of output text is produced by the actionPerformed
method defined for the ordinary ActionListener object (see Listing
13).

Finish populating the toolbar

Listing 14 finishes populating the toolbar by placing another JButton
object on the toolbar.

 

    JButton butB2 = new JButton();
    butB2.setAction(actionObj02);
    toolBar.add(butB2);

Listing 14

Listing 14 invokes the setAction method on the JButton
object to register the other Action object on that JButton. 
Thus, two different Action objects are registered on the two JButton
objects on the toolbar.

Synchronized with menu items

Furthermore, the same two Action objects that are registered
on the JButton objects on the tool bar are also registered on the
two JMenuItem objects on the menu.  Thus, the menu items and
the toolbar buttons are tied together (in pairs) so as to behave
in a synchronous fashion.

When one of the Action objects becomes disabled, the corresponding
menu item and the corresponding toolbar button also become disabled. 
When the other Action object becomes disabled, the other menu item
and the other toolbar button become disabled.

When an Action object becomes enabled, the corresponding menu
item and the corresponding toolbar button become enabled.

When the value of the keyed property of an Action object
identified with the key Action.SMALL_ICON changes, the corresponding
menu item and the corresponding toolbar button track the change. 
This causes the image displayed on both of those components to change.

Various containers can be used

Probably the most common use of the Action interface is to synchronize
the behavior of items on a menu with buttons on a toolbar.  However,
the use of the Action interface is not confined to those two types
of containers.  Rather, the Action interface can be used to
synchronize the behavior of action-aware components in just about
any kind of container.  This is illustrated in Listing 15.

(You may want to avoid AWT containers to avoid the problems
involved in mixing heavyweight and lightweight components.  For example,
it appears that you cannot control icons on a JButton that is placed
in an AWT Panel.)

    JButton butC = new JButton();
    butC.setAction(actionObj01);
    panel.add(butC);

    JMenuItem mnuC = new JMenuItem();
    mnuC.setAction(actionObj02);
    panel.add(mnuC);

Listing 15

Populate the JPanel

Listing 15 creates a new JButton object and a new JMenuItem
object and places them in a common JPanel container object. 
The setAction method is used, along with the same two Action
objects discussed earlier, to synchronize the behavior of these two components
with the two components on the menu, and the two components on the toolbar.

(Hopefully by now you will have compiled and run this program. 
Due to the limitations of my verbal descriptions of behavior, running the
program may ultimately be necessary for you to fully understand how this
program behaves.)

Construct control panel, set size, etc.

Listing 16 constructs the control panel containing check boxes that
will be used to manipulate the properties of the two Action objects. 
Listing 16 also sets the size of the GUI and makes it visible.

 

    //Construct the control panel and
    // put it in the Center
    controlPanel.setLayout(
              new GridLayout(2,2,3,3));
    controlPanel.add(ckBox01);
    controlPanel.add(ckBox02);
    controlPanel.add(ckBox03);
    controlPanel.add(ckBox04);
    getContentPane().add(controlPanel,
                  BorderLayout.CENTER);
    
    //Set the size and make the GUI
    // visible
    setSize(350,200);
    setVisible(true);
    setTitle("Copyright 2002, " +
                        "R.G.Baldwin");

Listing 16

The code in Listing 16 is completely straightforward and doesn’t deserve
further discussion in this article.

Register checkbox event handlers to manipulate
Action properties

The anonymous inner listener class in Listing 17 makes it possible for
the user to manipulate the enabled property of one of the Action
objects and its associated visual components.

The code in Listing 17, (and the code that follows in other listings),
registers ActionListener objects on each of the checkboxes.

(Note that these ActionListener objects registered on the
checkboxes are completely independent of the Action objects registered
on the action-aware components.)

This control structure makes it possible for the user to disable and enable
the two Action objects independently of one another simply by checking
or clearing the checkboxes.

This control structure also makes it possible to toggle the icons between
two different images on each Action object when the Action
object is enabled.

 

    ckBox01.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
          if(e.getActionCommand().
                  equals("Disable01")){
            ckBox01.setText(
                           "Enable01");
            actionObj01.setEnabled(
                                false);
            //Disable ability to toggle
            // the IconImage.
            ckBox03.setEnabled(false);
          }else{
            ckBox01.setText(
                          "Disable01");
            actionObj01.setEnabled(
                                 true);
            //Enable ability to toggle
            // the IconImage.
            ckBox03.setEnabled(true);
          }//end else
        }//end actionPerformed()
      }//end ActionListener
    );//end addActionListener
  
Listing 17

Two important statements

Although the code in Listing 17 appears to be long and complex, it is
relatively straightforward.

The actionPerformed method shown in Listing 17 is invoked when
the checkbox fires an action event (when the user checks or clears the
checkbox).  Let me draw your attention to the two boldface statements
in Listing 17.  These two statements use the current state of the
checkbox object to make a decision between two alternatives, and then to
change the value of the enabled property of the Action object
referred to by actionObj01.   (The state of the checkbox
object
is also changed accordingly.)

When the value of the enabled property of the Action object
is changed, the three components registered earlier as change listeners
on the Action object are notified of the change.  The code
in the classes from which those components were instantiated causes them
to become enabled or disabled accordingly.  In other words, the enabled
state of all three components tracks the enabled property of the
Action
object.

The other Action object

The code in Listing 18 uses a different checkbox object to provide essentially
the same enabled/disabled control for the other Action object
and its associated components.  Since this code replicates the code
in Listing 17, I deleted most of it for brevity.  You can view all
of the code in Listing 22 near the end of this lesson.

 

    ckBox02.addActionListener(
      //...code deleted for brevity
    );//end addActionListener

Listing 18

Manipulate the icons

Listing 19 is an anonymous inner listener class that makes it possible
for the user to manipulate a keyed property value of an Action
object, the value of which specifies the icon to be displayed on registered
components.

Basically, this code causes the value of the property that specifies
the icon displayed on the components to toggle between two different ImageIcon
objects based on two different gif files.

 

    ckBox03.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
          //Get file name for the
          // ImageIcon object.
          String gif = (actionObj01.
                 getValue(
                   Action.SMALL_ICON)).
                            toString();

          if((gif).equals(
                       "redball.gif")){
            actionObj01.putValue(
                     Action.SMALL_ICON,
                      new ImageIcon(
                      "blueball.gif"));
          }else{
            actionObj01.putValue(
               Action.SMALL_ICON,
                         new ImageIcon(
                       "redball.gif"));
          }//end else
           
        }//end actionPerformed()
      }//end ActionListener
    );//end addActionListener    

Listing 19

Change the displayed icon

The logic in Listing 19 is straightforward.  When the checkbox
fires an action event, the code in the actionPerformed method uses
the getValue method of the Action interface to get the name
of the gif file that specifies the icon.  Then it changes the
value of that keyed property in the Action object to an ImageIcon
object based on the other gif file, thereby toggling the value between
two ImageIcon objects based on the two different gif files.

When the value of this keyed property changes, the three components
that were earlier registered as change listeners on the Action
object are notified of the change.  The code in the classes from which
the three components were instantiated causes the icon that is displayed
on the component to track the corresponding property value of the Action
object.

Do it again for the other Action object

Listing 20 provides the same icon toggling capability for the other
Action
object.  Once again, since this code replicates the code in Listing
19, I deleted most of it for brevity.  You can view all of the code
in Listing 22 near the end of this lesson.

 

    ckBox04.addActionListener(
      //... code deleted for brevity
    );//end addActionListener

Listing 20

Finally, the end of the program

Listing 21 is a simple WindowListener that terminates the program when
the user clicks the close button on the JFrame object. 
This is relatively standard material, which should not require a discussion
in this context.

 

    this.addWindowListener(
      new WindowAdapter(){
        public void windowClosing(
                        WindowEvent e){
          System.exit(0);
        }//end windowClosing()
      }//end WindowAdapter
    );//end addWindowListener
  }//end constructor
}//end GUI class

Listing 21

Listing 21 is also the end of the GUI class definition.

 

(Note that you will need a couple of gif files containing
small images to use as ImageIcon objects.  Any small image
will do.  Just be sure to handle the file names properly.)

/*ActionObj02.java 
Rev 03/30/02
Copyright 2002, R.G.Baldwin

Illustrates use of action objects.
Uses the setAction method that was 
released with V1.3

Tested using JDK 1.4.0 under 
Win2000.
**************************************/
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class ActionObj02{
  public static void main(
                        String[] args){
    new GUI();
  }//end main
}//end ActionObj02
//===================================//

class GUI extends JFrame{
  //Create three containers
  JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
  JMenu menu = new JMenu("Menu");
  JToolBar toolBar = new JToolBar();
  JPanel panel = new JPanel();

  //Create two Action objects
  Action actionObj01 = new MyAction();
  Action actionObj02 = new MyAction();
  
  //Create four check boxes and a
  // control panel, which will be used
  // to manipulate the Action objects
  // and their visual components.
  JCheckBox ckBox01 = new JCheckBox(
                          "Disable01");
  JCheckBox ckBox02 = new JCheckBox(
                          "Disable02");
  JCheckBox ckBox03 = new JCheckBox(
                      "Toggle Icon01");
  JCheckBox ckBox04 = new JCheckBox(
                      "Toggle Icon02");
  JPanel controlPanel = new JPanel();
  
  GUI(){//constructor
    //Construct and decorate the menu
    // and put it in place.
    menuBar.add(menu);
    menuBar.setBorder(
               new BevelBorder(
                  BevelBorder.RAISED));
    setJMenuBar(menuBar);
    
    //Decorate the JToolBar and place
    // it in the North position.
    toolBar.setBorder(new BevelBorder(
                  BevelBorder.RAISED));
    getContentPane().add(
           toolBar,BorderLayout.NORTH);
    
    //Decorate the JPanel and place it
    // in the South position.
    panel.setBorder(new BevelBorder(
                  BevelBorder.RAISED));
    getContentPane().add(
             panel,BorderLayout.SOUTH);

    //Set some keyed properties for
    // each of the two Action objects.
    actionObj01.putValue(
            Action.NAME,"actionObj01");
    actionObj01.putValue(
       Action.SMALL_ICON,new ImageIcon(
                       "redball.gif"));
    actionObj01.putValue(
            Action.SHORT_DESCRIPTION,
            "ToolTip for actionObj01");
 
    actionObj02.putValue(
            Action.NAME,"actionObj02");
    actionObj02.putValue(
       Action.SMALL_ICON,new ImageIcon(
                         "bulb2.gif"));
    actionObj02.putValue(
            Action.SHORT_DESCRIPTION,
            "ToolTip for actionObj02");

    //Put a JMenuItem on the menu.  Set
    // its Action object using the
    // setAction method. This is 
    // one approach.
    JMenuItem mnuA1 = new JMenuItem();
    mnuA1.setAction(actionObj01);
    menu.add(mnuA1);

    //Put a JMenuItem on the menu. Set
    // its Action object in the
    // constructor. This is a 
    // different approach.
    JMenuItem mnuA2 = 
            new JMenuItem(actionObj02);
    menu.add(mnuA2);


    //Put a JButton on the toolbar.
    // Set its Action object using the
    // setAction method.  Also register
    // an ordinary Action listener
    // on it.
    JButton butB1 = new JButton();
    butB1.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
          System.out.println(
           "Ordinary Action Listener");
        }//end actionPerformed()
      }//end ActionListener
    );//end addActionListener
    butB1.setAction(actionObj01);
    toolBar.add(butB1);

    //Put a JButton on the toolbar.
    // Set its Action object.
    JButton butB2 = new JButton();
    butB2.setAction(actionObj02);
    toolBar.add(butB2);

    //Put a JButton on the JPanel.
    // Set its Action object.
    JButton butC = new JButton();
    butC.setAction(actionObj01);
    panel.add(butC);

    //Put a JMenuItem on the JPanel.
    // Set its Action object.
    JMenuItem mnuC = new JMenuItem();
    mnuC.setAction(actionObj02);
    panel.add(mnuC);


    //Construct the control panel and
    // put it in the Center
    controlPanel.setLayout(
              new GridLayout(2,2,3,3));
    controlPanel.add(ckBox01);
    controlPanel.add(ckBox02);
    controlPanel.add(ckBox03);
    controlPanel.add(ckBox04);
    getContentPane().add(controlPanel,
                  BorderLayout.CENTER);
    
    //Set the size and make the GUI
    // visible
    setSize(350,200);
    setVisible(true);
    setTitle("Copyright 2002, " +
                        "R.G.Baldwin");
   
    //The following anonymous inner
    // allow the user to manipulate the
    // Action objects and their 
    // associated visual components.
    
    //Register ActionListener objects
    // on each of the check boxes.
    // This makes it possible to 
    // disable and enable the two
    // Actions objects independently of
    // one another.  It also makes it
    // possible to toggle the icons
    // between two different images
    // on each Action object when the
    // Action object is enabled.
    ckBox01.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
          if(e.getActionCommand().
                  equals("Disable01")){
            ckBox01.setText(
                           "Enable01");
            actionObj01.setEnabled(
                                false);
            //Disable ability to toggle
            // the IconImage.
            ckBox03.setEnabled(false);
          }else{
            ckBox01.setText(
                          "Disable01");
            actionObj01.setEnabled(
                                 true);
            //Enable ability to toggle
            // the IconImage.
            ckBox03.setEnabled(true);
          }//end else
        }//end actionPerformed()
      }//end ActionListener
    );//end addActionListener
  
    ckBox02.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
          if(e.getActionCommand().
                  equals("Disable02")){
            ckBox02.setText(
                           "Enable02");
            actionObj02.setEnabled(
                                false);
            //Disable ability to toggle
            // the IconImage.
            ckBox04.setEnabled(false);
          }else{
            ckBox02.setText(
                          "Disable02");
            actionObj02.setEnabled(
                                 true);
            //Enable ability to toggle
            // the IconImage.
            ckBox04.setEnabled(true);
          }//end else
        }//end actionPerformed()
      }//end ActionListener
    );//end addActionListener

    ckBox03.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
          //Get file name for the
          // ImageIcon object.
          String gif = (actionObj01.
                 getValue(
                   Action.SMALL_ICON)).
                            toString();

          if((gif).equals(
                       "redball.gif")){
            actionObj01.putValue(
                     Action.SMALL_ICON,
                      new ImageIcon(
                      "blueball.gif"));
          }else{
            actionObj01.putValue(
               Action.SMALL_ICON,
                         new ImageIcon(
                       "redball.gif"));
          }//end else
           
        }//end actionPerformed()
      }//end ActionListener
    );//end addActionListener    
   
    ckBox04.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener(){
        public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
          //Get file name for the
          // ImageIcon object.
          String gif = (actionObj02.
                 getValue(
                   Action.SMALL_ICON)).
                            toString();

          if((gif).equals(
                       "bulb2.gif")){
            actionObj02.putValue(
               Action.SMALL_ICON,
                         new ImageIcon(
                      "bulb1.gif"));
          }else{
            actionObj02.putValue(
               Action.SMALL_ICON,
                         new ImageIcon(
                         "bulb2.gif"));
          }//end else
           
        }//end actionPerformed()
      }//end ActionListener
    );//end addActionListener

    //Create a WindowListener used
    // to terminate the program
    this.addWindowListener(
      new WindowAdapter(){
        public void windowClosing(
                        WindowEvent e){
          System.exit(0);
        }//end windowClosing()
      }//end WindowAdapter
    );//end addWindowListener
  }//end constructor
}//end GUI class

//===================================//

//This is the class from which the
// Action objects are instantiated.
class MyAction extends AbstractAction{
  public void actionPerformed(
                        ActionEvent e){
    System.out.println("Action: " + 
       ((AbstractButton)e.getSource()).
                   getActionCommand());
  }//end actionPerformed
}//end class MyAction

Listing 22

Copyright 2002, Richard G. Baldwin.  Reproduction in whole or in
part in any form or medium without express written permission from Richard
Baldwin is prohibited.

About the author

Richard Baldwin
is a college professor (at Austin Community College in Austin, TX) and
private consultant whose primary focus is a combination of Java, C#, and
XML. In addition to the many platform and/or language independent benefits
of Java and C# applications, he believes that a combination of Java, C#,
and XML will become the primary driving force in the delivery of structured
information on the Web.

Richard has participated in numerous consulting projects, and he
frequently provides onsite training at the high-tech companies located
in and around Austin, Texas.  He is the author of Baldwin’s Programming
Tutorials,
which has gained a worldwide following among experienced and aspiring programmers.
He has also published articles in JavaPro magazine.

Richard holds an MSEE degree from Southern Methodist University and
has many years of experience in the application of computer technology
to real-world problems.

baldwin.richard@iname.com

# # #