Interface PropertyEditor

Method Detail

• setValue

  void setValue(Object value)

  Set (or change) the object that is to be edited. Primitive types such as "int" must be wrapped as the corresponding object type such as "java.lang.Integer".

  Parameters:

  value - The new target object to be edited. Note that this object should not be modified by the PropertyEditor, rather the PropertyEditor should create a new object to hold any modified value.

• getValue

  Object getValue()

  Gets the property value.

  Returns:

  The value of the property. Primitive types such as "int" will be wrapped as the corresponding object type such as "java.lang.Integer".

• isPaintable

  boolean isPaintable()

  Determines whether this property editor is paintable.

  Returns:

  True if the class will honor the paintValue method.

• paintValue

  void paintValue(Graphics gfx,
                Rectangle box)

  Paint a representation of the value into a given area of screen real estate. Note that the propertyEditor is responsible for doing its own clipping so that it fits into the given rectangle.

  If the PropertyEditor doesn't honor paint requests (see isPaintable) this method should be a silent noop.

  The given Graphics object will have the default font, color, etc of the parent container. The PropertyEditor may change graphics attributes such as font and color and doesn't need to restore the old values.

  Parameters:

  gfx - Graphics object to paint into.

  box - Rectangle within graphics object into which we should paint.

• getJavaInitializationString

  String getJavaInitializationString()

  Returns a fragment of Java code that can be used to set a property to match the editors current state. This method is intended for use when generating Java code to reflect changes made through the property editor.

  The code fragment should be context free and must be a legal Java expression as specified by the JLS.

  Specifically, if the expression represents a computation then all classes and static members should be fully qualified. This rule applies to constructors, static methods and non primitive arguments.

  Caution should be used when evaluating the expression as it may throw exceptions. In particular, code generators must ensure that generated code will compile in the presence of an expression that can throw checked exceptions.

  Example results are:

  • Primitive expresssion: 2
  • Class constructor: new java.awt.Color(127,127,34)
  • Static field: java.awt.Color.orange
  • Static method: javax.swing.Box.createRigidArea(new java.awt.Dimension(0, 5))

  Returns:

  a fragment of Java code representing an initializer for the current value. It should not contain a semi-colon (';') to end the expression.

• getAsText

  String getAsText()

  Gets the property value as text.

  Returns:

  The property value as a human editable string.

  Returns null if the value can't be expressed as an editable string.

  If a non-null value is returned, then the PropertyEditor should be prepared to parse that string back in setAsText().

• setAsText

  void setAsText(String text)
                 throws IllegalArgumentException

  Set the property value by parsing a given String. May raise java.lang.IllegalArgumentException if either the String is badly formatted or if this kind of property can't be expressed as text.

  Parameters:

  text - The string to be parsed.

  Throws:

  IllegalArgumentException

• getTags

  String[] getTags()

  If the property value must be one of a set of known tagged values, then this method should return an array of the tags. This can be used to represent (for example) enum values. If a PropertyEditor supports tags, then it should support the use of setAsText with a tag value as a way of setting the value and the use of getAsText to identify the current value.

  Returns:

  The tag values for this property. May be null if this property cannot be represented as a tagged value.

• getCustomEditor

  Component getCustomEditor()

  A PropertyEditor may choose to make available a full custom Component that edits its property value. It is the responsibility of the PropertyEditor to hook itself up to its editor Component itself and to report property value changes by firing a PropertyChange event.

  The higher-level code that calls getCustomEditor may either embed the Component in some larger property sheet, or it may put it in its own individual dialog, or ...

  Returns:

  A java.awt.Component that will allow a human to directly edit the current property value. May be null if this is not supported.

• supportsCustomEditor

  boolean supportsCustomEditor()

  Determines whether this property editor supports a custom editor.

  Returns:

  True if the propertyEditor can provide a custom editor.

• addPropertyChangeListener

  void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)

  Adds a listener for the value change. When the property editor changes its value it should fire a PropertyChangeEvent on all registered PropertyChangeListeners, specifying the null value for the property name and itself as the source.

  Parameters:

  listener - the PropertyChangeListener to add

• removePropertyChangeListener

  void removePropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)

  Removes a listener for the value change.

  Parameters:

  listener - the PropertyChangeListener to remove