JavaUsing Lists in MIDlets

Using Lists in MIDlets

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Java Programming Notes # 2582


 

Preface

This is one in a series of tutorial lessons designed to teach you how to write programs using the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit for CLDC. The first lesson was titled Getting Started with MIDlets and the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit for CLDC. The previous lesson was titled Using Alerts, Images, Timers, and Gauges in MIDlets (see Resources).

What you will learn

In this lesson, you will learn about the Choice interface and the List class, which implements the Choice interface. You will learn about the composition of a Choice object. You will learn about implicit, exclusive, and multiple Choice types. You will learn about the selected state of a Choice element of each of the different types. You will learn how to create a List, how to display it in the Sun cell phone emulator, and how to determine which elements in the List are selected.

A MIDlet development framework

For this lesson, you will need the updated version of the MIDlet development framework named WTKFramework03, which was provided in the earlier lesson titled Using Alerts, Images, Timers, and Gauges in MIDlets (see Resources).

Viewing tip

I recommend that you open another copy of this document in a separate browser window and use the following links to easily find and view the figures and listings while you are reading about them.

Figures

  • Figure 1. Partial class hierarchy for MIDP 2.0.
  • Figure 2. Methods of the Choice interface as declared in MIDP 2.0.
  • Figure 3. An implicit List object in the cell phone emulator.
  • Figure 4. Partial standard output for List01 and an implicit List object.
  • Figure 5. An exclusive List object in the cell phone emulator.
  • Figure 6. Partial standard output for List01 and an exclusive List object.
  • Figure 7. A multiple choice List object in the cell phone emulator.
  • Figure 8. Partial standard output for List01 and a multiple choice List object.
  • Figure 9. Additional methods of the List class.

Listings

  • Listing 1. Beginning of the class for the MIDlet named List01.
  • Listing 2. The constructor for the MIDlet named List01.
  • Listing 3. The startApp method for the MIDlet named List01.
  • Listing 4. The destroyApp method for the MIDlet named List01.
  • Listing 5. The complete MIDlet program named List01.

Supplementary material

I recommend that you also study the other lessons in my extensive collection of online Java tutorials. You will find a consolidated index at www.DickBaldwin.com.

General background information

A partial class hierarchy for MIDP 2.0 is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Partial class hierarchy for MIDP 2.0.

  • Object
    • Displayable
      • Screen
        • TextBox
        • Alert
        • List
        • Form
      • Canvas (abstract)
        • GameCanvas (abstract)
    • Display
    • Ticker
    • AlertType
    • Image
    • Item
      • Gauge
      • ChoiceGroup
    • Timer
    • TimerTask

I have discussed and illustrated the classes shown in boldface Italics in earlier lessons. I will discuss and illustrate the List class and the Choice interface in this lesson. I will discuss and illustrate the Form, Item, ChoiceGroup, Canvas and GameCanvas classes in future lessons.

The Choice interface

The List class implements the Choice interface. To understand a class, you must understand the interfaces that it implements.

According to Sun,

“Choice defines an API for a user interface components implementing selection from predefined number of choices. Such UI components are List and ChoiceGroup. The contents of the Choice are represented with strings and images.”

An indexed object

Elements within a Choice object are referred to by their indices. The indices are consecutive integers in the range from zero to one less than the value returned by the size method. An index of zero refers to the first element.

The parts of a Choice element

Each element of a Choice is composed of the following parts:

  • A text string part
  • An Image part
  • A font attribute

Getter and setter methods are provided for all three parts.  As you might expect, the font attribute applies to the text string part.

Elements may be inserted, appended, and deleted after a Choice object has been created.

The Image

If there is an image, the cell phone displays the image at the beginning of the text string as shown by the red, green, and blue ball images in Figure 3.

Some Choice components use selection indicators such as a radio button or a checkbox as shown in Figure 5 and Figure 7. When a selection indicator is present, the image is placed between the selection indicator and the beginning of the text string.

Types of Choice objects

The boldface text in Figure 4 shows the result of querying the system to determine and display the string part of the selected elements in the List shown in Figure 3. The output shown in Figure 4 is the value of the string part of the selected element in Figure 3.

An exclusive List object

Figure 5 shows an exclusive List object. Note that the List element with a string part of “One” is both highlighted and selected.

Figure 5. An exclusive List object in the cell phone emulator.

Selecting an element

The Sun cell phone emulator uses radio buttons to indicate which element is selected. To select an element, navigate to that element using the up and down arrow keys on the cell phone emulator keypad and then click the large square button that is surrounded by arrows.  This causes the radio button associated with the highlighted element to indicate that the element is selected.

The corresponding standard output

Figure 6 shows a partial listing of the standard output for the exclusive List object shown in Figure 5. The boldface text in Figure 6 matches the selected element in Figure 5.

Figure 6. Partial standard output for List01 and an exclusive List object.

OUT: Construct MIDlet
OUT: Construct Image objects
OUT: Create List
OUT: Populate list
OUT: Display list
OUT: Identify selected elements
OUT: Selected: One
OUT: Destroy MIDlet

A multiple choice List object

Figure 7 shows a multiple choice List object. Note that two of the elements have check marks in the squares to the left of the string.

Figure 7. A multiple choice List object in the cell phone emulator.

Selecting elements

This type of List object allows the user to select none, one, or more elements in any combination. To select an element, navigate to the element using the up and down arrow keys and then click the large square button. This will place a check mark in the square on the cell phone display indicating that the element is selected. To de-select an element that was previously selected, navigate to the selected element and click the large square button. That will cause the check mark to disappear.

The corresponding standard output

Figure 8 shows a partial listing of the standard output for the multiple choice List shown in Figure 7. Note that the two elements identified as being selected in Figure 8 match the checked elements in Figure 7.

Figure 8. Partial standard output for List01 and a multiple choice List object.

OUT: Construct MIDlet
OUT: Construct Image objects
OUT: Create List
OUT: Populate list
OUT: Display list
OUT: Identify selected elements
OUT: Selected: Zero
OUT: Selected: Two
OUT: Destroy MIDlet

What is a List?

According to Sun, a List is

“A Screen containing list of choices. … When a List is present on the display, the user can interact with it by selecting elements and possibly by traversing and scrolling among them.”

Types of Lists

The List class implements the Choice interface.  List objects may be created with Choice types of

  • Choice.EXCLUSIVE
  • Choice.MULTIPLE
  • Choice.IMPLICIT

You learned about these different types in the earlier discussion of the Choice interface. (Note that the Choice.POPUP type is valid only for ChoiceGroup, will be discussed in a future lesson.)

Selection

The mechanics of selecting List elements may vary from one cell phone to the next. For the Sun cell phone emulator, a List element is selected by first highlighting the element using the up and down arrow keys and then clicking the large square button shown in Figure 3.

In an EXCLUSIVE List, the select operation selects the highlighted element and deselects the previously selected element. In a MULTIPLE List, the select operation toggles the selected state of the target element, leaving the selected state of other elements unchanged. In an IMPLICIT List, no explicit select operation is required. The highlighted element is implicitly selected.

Constructors for the List class

There are two overloaded constructors for the List class. One of the constructors requires the following four parameters:

  • String title
  • int listType (Choice.EXCLUSIVE, Choice.MULTIPLE, or Choice.IMPLICIT)
  • String[] stringElements
  • Image[] imageElements

The other constructor requires only the first two parameters shown above.

The first two parameters in the above list of constructor parameters are self-explanatory.

The last two parameters allow the programmer to pass references to two array objects that contain references to the String parts and the Image parts for all of the elements that will initially appear in the List. Regardless of which constructor is used to construct the List, elements can later be added to or deleted from the List using the first eight methods shown in Figure 2.

Methods of the List class

The List class defines all of the Choice interface methods shown in Figure 2 plus the four methods shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Additional methods of the List class.

  • setSelectCommand(Command command) – Sets the Command to be used for an IMPLICIT List selection action.
  • removeCommand(Command cmd) – The same as Displayable.removeCommand but with the following additional semantics.
  • setTicker(Ticker ticker) – Sets a ticker for use with this Displayable, replacing any previous ticker.
  • setTitle(String s) – Sets the title of the Displayable.

I will have more to say about commands and interactive MIDlets in a future lesson. I will discuss methods similar to the first two methods in Figure 9 at that time.

You learned about the use of a Ticker object in the earlier lesson titled Introduction to the MIDlet User Interface, Part 1 (see Resources). Therefore, the method named setTicker shouldn’t require further explanation. The method named setTitle is self-explanatory.

Discussion and sample code

 
MIDlet testing
The MIDlets in this lesson were tested using a Java SE 6 compiler, targeted at a V1.4 virtual machine, and WTK 2.5.2 running under Windows XP.

The MIDlet named List01

The purpose of this MIDlet is to illustrate the creation and processing of a List user interface object. The processing of the List consists simply of determining and displaying which elements of the List are selected.

Three types are illustrated

You can add and remove comment indicators in the MIDlet code to activate any one of three statements to create a List object having one of the following Choice types:

  • IMPLICIT
  • EXCLUSIVE
  • MULTIPLE

Operation

The MIDlet displays the List using the Sun cell phone emulator (see Figures 3, 5, and 7) and allows the user twenty seconds to select one or more list elements. Then the MIDlet identifies and displays the selected elements on the standard output device immediately before entering the destroyed state.

Selecting elements

Using the Sun cell phone emulator, you can highlight a List element using the up and down arrow keys on the emulator keypad (also see the sidebar).

For the IMPLICIT type of List, the highlighted element is also the selected element. For the EXCLUSIVE and MULTIPLE types of List, you must make the selection by first highlighting the element and then clicking the large button on the cell phone emulator keypad that is surrounded by arrow keys (see Figure 3).

Will discuss in fragments

As is my custom, I will present and explain the code in this MIDlet in fragments. A complete listing of the MIDlet is presented in Listing 5 near the end of the lesson.

Beginning of the class

Listing 1 shows the beginning of the class for the MIDlet named List01.

Listing 1. Beginning of the class for the MIDlet named List01.

public class List01 extends MIDlet{
  Image redBallImage;
  Image greenBallImage;
  Image blueBallImage;
  List list;

Instance variables

 
Allowable image file types
See the discussion in the earlier lesson titled Using Alerts, Images, Timers, and Gauges in MIDlets (see Resources) regarding the allowable image file types.

The class begins by declaring several instance variables, including three variables of type Image that will be used to represent the red, green, and blue ball images shown in Figure 3. To run this MIDlet, you will need to put three small image files in the same directory as the source code. You can either give the files the following names, or you can modify the code in Listing 2 to match the names of your image files:

  • blueball.PNG
  • greenball.PNG
  • redball.PNG

The constructor

Listing 2 shows the constructor in its entirety.

Listing 2. The constructor for the MIDlet named List01.

  public List01(){//constructor
    System.out.println("Construct MIDlet");

    try{
      System.out.println("Construct Image objects");
      //Make certain that the image files specified
      // below are in the same directory as the source
      // file.
      redBallImage = Image.createImage(
                                   "/List01/redball.PNG");
      greenBallImage = Image.createImage(
                                 "/List01/greenball.PNG");
      blueBallImage = Image.createImage(
                                  "/List01/blueball.PNG");
    }catch(Exception e){
      e.printStackTrace();
    }//end catch

    System.out.println("Create List");
    //Activate one and only one of the following
    // statements to create a List with the specified
    // choice type.
    //list = new List("List Title",Choice.IMPLICIT);
    list = new List("List Title",Choice.EXCLUSIVE);
    //list = new List("List Title",Choice.MULTIPLE);
  }//end constructor

You learned about images in the earlier lesson titled Using Alerts, Images, Timers, and Gauges in MIDlets (see Resources). Therefore, the code in Listing 2 involving images should not require further explanation.

Construct a List object

The last statement in Listing 2 constructs a new List object using the version of the constructor that requires only two parameters: the title and the type.

Note that only one of the List constructor statements shown in Listing 2 should be activated by adding and removing comment indicators. By activating each of these three statements one at a time, you should be able to replicate the output shown on the Sun cell phone emulator in Figures 3, 5, and 7 (except that your images will probably be different).

The startApp method

The startApp method is shown in its entirety in Listing 3.

Listing 3. The startApp method for the MIDlet named List01.

  public void startApp(){

    System.out.println("Populate list");
    list.append("Zero",redBallImage);
    list.append("One",greenBallImage);
    list.append("Two",blueBallImage);

    //Make the List be the current display.
    System.out.println("Display list");
    Display.getDisplay(this).setCurrent(list);

    //Sleep for 20 seconds.
    try{Thread.currentThread().sleep(20000);
    } catch(Exception e){}

    //Enter the destroyed state.
    this.destroyApp(true);
  }//end startApp

You should already know the purpose of the startApp method

I am assuming that by now you will have studied the earlier lessons in this series (see Resources) and it should no longer be necessary for me to describe the purpose of the methods named

  • startApp
  • pauseApp
  • destroyApp

Populate, display, sleep, and destroy the MIDlet

Listing 3 makes three calls to the append method described in Figure 2 to populate the List object with the text strings and images shown in Figure 3.

Then the startApp method in Listing 3 causes the List to become the current Displayable object and goes to sleep for twenty seconds. Upon awakening at the end of twenty seconds, the startApp method calls the destroyApp method to cause the MIDlet to enter the destroyed state.

The pauseApp method

The pauseApp method is empty in this MIDlet. You can view the empty method in Listing 5.

The destroyApp method

The destroyApp method is shown in its entirety in Listing 4. Note that the incoming parameter to the destroyApp method is ignored by the code in Listing 4.

Listing 4. The destroyApp method for the MIDlet named List01.

public void destroyApp(boolean unconditional){

    System.out.println("Identify selected elements");

    for(int cnt = 0;cnt < list.size();cnt++){
      if(list.isSelected(cnt)){
        System.out.println(
                      "Selected: " + list.getString(cnt));
      }//end if
    }//end for loop

    System.out.println("Destroy MIDlet");
    notifyDestroyed();
  }//end destroyApp
  
}//end class List01

Identify and display the selected elements

Listing 4 uses a call to the isSelected method described in Figure 2 inside a for loop to test each element and determine if the element is selected. If so, a message to that effect is displayed on the standard output device as shown in Figure 8. Once an element has been identified as being selected, the getString method is called to get the text string part of the element. The text string is used to construct the message.

Enter the destroyed state

After displaying the selected elements, the destroyApp method calls the notifyDestroyed method to signal the AMS that the MIDlet is entering the destroyed state.

End of the MIDlet

Listing 4 also signals the end of the MIDlet class named List01.

Run the program

I encourage you to copy the MIDlet code from Listing 5. Run the MIDlet in the updated MIDlet development framework named WTKFramework03 that I provided in the lesson titled Using Alerts, Images, Timers, and Gauges in MIDlets (see Resources). Experiment with the MIDlet code, making changes and running your modified MIDlets in conjunction with the framework program. See if you can explain the results produced by your changes.

Don’t forget that you will need to download and install the latest version of the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit for CLDC (see Resources). As of the date this lesson is being written, the latest version of the toolkit is WTK2.5.2. In addition you will need three small image files to replace the red, green, and blue ball images in Figure 3.

Summary

In this lesson, you learned about the Choice interface and the List class, which implements the Choice interface. You learned that a Choice object is composed of a text string, an image, and a font attribute. You learned about implicit, exclusive, and multiple Choice types. You learned about the selected state of a Choice element of each of the different types. You learned how to create a List, how to display it in the Sun cell phone emulator, and how to determine which elements in the List are selected.

What’s next?

In the next lesson, you will learn about the class named Item. Then you will learn how to create a Form and how to populate it with objects of the following classes: String, StringItem, Image, ImageItem, ChoiceGroup, DateField, Gauge (interactive), Gauge (non-interactive), Spacer, and TextField. You will also learn about layout directives and appearance modes.

Resources

Complete program listing

A complete listing of the MIDlet program discussed in this lesson is shown in Listing 5 below.

Listing 5. The complete MIDlet program named List01.

tr>

/*List01.java
Copyright 2007, R.G.Baldwin

The purpose of this program is to illustrate the creation
and simple processing of a List user interface object.

Add and remove comment indicators to activate one of three
given statements to create a List object having one of the
following Choice types:

IMPLICIT
EXCLUSIVE
MULTIPLE

The MIDlet displays the list and allows the user twenty
seconds to select one or more list elements.  Then it
identifies and displays the selected elements on the
standard output device immediately before entering the
destroyed state..

Using the Sun cell phone emulator, you can highlight a
List item using the up and down arrow keys.

For IMPLICIT, the highlighted item is also the selected
item.

For EXCLUSIVE and MULTIPLE, make the selection by first
highlighting the item and then clicking the large button
on the cell phone emulator keypad that is surrounded by
arrow keys.

Tested using a Java SE 6 compiler, targeted at a V1.4
virtual machine, and WTK 2.5.2 running under Windows XP.
*********************************************************/

package List01;

import javax.microedition.lcdui.Display;
import javax.microedition.lcdui.List;
import javax.microedition.lcdui.Choice;
import javax.microedition.midlet.MIDlet;
import javax.microedition.lcdui.Image;

public class List01 extends MIDlet{
  Image redBallImage;
  Image greenBallImage;
  Image blueBallImage;
  List list;
  //----------------------------------------------------//

  public List01(){//constructor
    System.out.println("Construct MIDlet");

    try{
      System.out.println("Construct Image objects");
      //Make certain that the image files specified
      // below are in the same directory as the source
      // file.
      redBallImage = Image.createImage(
                                   "/List01/redball.PNG");
      greenBallImage = Image.createImage(
                                 "/List01/greenball.PNG");
      blueBallImage = Image.createImage(
                                  "/List01/blueball.PNG");
    }catch(Exception e){
      e.printStackTrace();
    }//end catch

    System.out.println("Create List");
    //Activate one and only one of the following
    // statements to create a List with the specified
    // choice type.
    //list = new List("List Title",Choice.IMPLICIT);
    list = new List("List Title",Choice.EXCLUSIVE);
    //list = new List("List Title",Choice.MULTIPLE);
  }//end constructor
  //----------------------------------------------------//

  public void startApp(){

    System.out.println("Populate list");
    list.append("Zero",redBallImage);
    list.append("One",greenBallImage);
    list.append("Two",blueBallImage);

    //Make the List be the current display.
    System.out.println("Display list");
    Display.getDisplay(this).setCurrent(list);

    //Sleep for 20 seconds.
    try{Thread.currentThread().sleep(20000);
    } catch(Exception e){}

    //Enter the destroyed state.
    this.destroyApp(true);
  }//end startApp
  //----------------------------------------------------//

  public void pauseApp(){
  }//end pauseApp
  //----------------------------------------------------//

  public void destroyApp(boolean unconditional){
    System.out.println("Identify selected elements");
    for(int cnt = 0;cnt < list.size();cnt++){
      if(list.isSelected(cnt)){
        System.out.println(
                      "Selected: " + list.getString(cnt));
      }//end if
    }//end for loop

    System.out.println("Destroy MIDlet");
    notifyDestroyed();
  }//end destroyApp
  //----------------------------------------------------//

}//end class List01

Copyright

Copyright 2008, 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 have gained a worldwide following among experienced and aspiring programmers. He has also published articles in JavaPro magazine.

In addition to his programming expertise, Richard has many years of practical experience in Digital Signal Processing (DSP). His first job after he earned his Bachelor’s degree was doing DSP in the Seismic Research Department of Texas Instruments. (TI is still a world leader in DSP.) In the following years, he applied his programming and DSP expertise to other interesting areas including sonar and underwater acoustics.

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@DickBaldwin.com

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