Component Methods

Prior to Java 1.1, you could not subclass Component or Container. With the introduction of the LightweightPeer, you can now subclass either Component or Container. However, since you no longer have a native peer, you must rely on your container to provide a display area and other services that are normally provided by a full-fledged peer. Because you cannot rely on your peer to determine your alignment, the Component class now has five constants to indicate six possible alignment settings (one constant is used twice). The alignment constants designate where to position a lightweight component; their values range from 0.0 to 1.0. The lower the number, the closer the component will be placed to the origin (top left corner) of the space allotted to it.[1]

[1] As of Beta 3, these constants appear to be seldom used. The getAlignmentX() and getAlignmentY() methods return these values, but there are no setAlignment methods.

public static final float BOTTOM_ALIGNMENT

The BOTTOM_ALIGNMENT constant indicates that the component should align itself to the bottom of its available space. It is a return value from the method getAlignmentY().

public static final float CENTER_ALIGNMENT

The CENTER_ALIGNMENT constant indicates that the component should align itself to the middle of its available space. It is a return value from either the getAlignmentX() or getAlignmentY() method. This constant represents both the horizontal and vertical center.

public static final float LEFT_ALIGNMENT

The LEFT_ALIGNMENT constant indicates that the component should align itself to the left side of its available space. It is a return value from getAlignmentX().

public static final float RIGHT_ALIGNMENT

The RIGHT_ALIGNMENT constant indicates that the component should align itself to the right side of its available space. It is a return value from the method getAlignmentX().

public static final float TOP_ALIGNMENT

The TOP_ALIGNMENT constant indicates that the component should align itself to the top of its available space. It is a return value from getAlignmentY().

protected Locale locale

The protected locale variable can be accessed by calling the getLocale() method.

Prior to Java 1.1, there was no public or protected constructor for Component. Only package members were able to subclass Component directly. With the introduction of lightweight peers, components can exist without a native peer, so the constructor was made protected, allowing you to create your own Component subclasses.

protected Component()

The constructor for Component creates a new component without a native peer. Since you no longer have a native peer, you must rely on your container to provide a display area. This allows you to create components that require fewer system resources than components that subclass Canvas. The example in the "Using an event multicaster" section of the previous chapter is of a lightweight component. Use the SystemColor class to help you colorize the new component appropriately or make it transparent.

public Toolkit getToolkit ()

The getToolkit() method returns the current Toolkit of the Component. This returns the parent's Toolkit (from a getParent() call) when the Component has not been added to the screen yet or is lightweight. If there is no parent, getToolkit() returns the default Toolkit. Through the Toolkit, you have access to the details of the current platform (like screen resolution, screen size, and available fonts), which you can use to adjust screen real estate requirements or check on the availability of a font.

public Color getForeground ()

The getForeground() method returns the foreground color of the component. If no foreground color is set for the component, you get its parent's foreground color. If none of the component's parents have a foreground color set, null is returned.

public void setForeground (Color c)

The setForeground() method changes the current foreground color of the area of the screen occupied by the component to c. After changing the color, it is necessary for the screen to refresh before the change has any effect. To refresh the screen, call repaint().

public Color getBackground ()

The getBackground() method returns the background color of the component. If no background color is set for the component, its parent's background color is retrieved. If none of the component's parents have a background color set, null is returned.

public void setBackground (Color c)

The setBackground() method changes the current background color of the area of the screen occupied by the component to c. After changing the color, it is necessary for the screen to refresh before the change has any affect. To refresh the screen, call repaint().

public Font getFont ()

The getFont() method returns the font of the component. If no font is set for the component, its parent's font is retrieved. If none of the component's parents have a font set, null is returned.

public synchronized void setFont (Font f)

The setFont() method changes the component's font to f. If the font family (such as TimesRoman) provided within f is not available on the current platform, the system uses a default font family, along with the supplied size and style (plain, bold, italic). Depending upon the platform, it may be necessary to refresh the component/screen before seeing any changes.

Changing the font of a component could have an affect on the layout of the component.

public synchronized ColorModel getColorModel ()

The getColorModel() method returns the ColorModel used to display the current component. If the component is not displayed, the ColorModel from the component's Toolkit is used. The normal ColorModel for a Java program is 8 bits each for red, green, and blue.

public Graphics getGraphics ()

The getGraphics() method gets the component's graphics context. Most noncontainer components do not manage them correctly and therefore throw an InternalError exception when you call this method. The Canvas component is one that does since you can draw on that directly. If the component is not visible, null is returned.

public FontMetrics getFontMetrics (Font f)

The getFontMetrics() method retrieves the component's view of the FontMetrics for the requested font f. Through the FontMetrics, you have access to the platform-specific sizing for the appearance of a character or string.

public Locale getLocale ()

The getLocale() method retrieves the current Locale of the component, if it has one. Using a Locale allows you to write programs that can adapt themselves to different languages and different regional variants. If no Locale has been set, getLocale() returns the parent's Locale.[2] If the component has no locale of its own and no parent (i.e., it isn't in a container), getLocale() throws the run-time exception IllegalComponentStateException.

[2] For more on the Locale class, see the Java Fundamental Classes Reference from O'Reilly & Associates.

public void setLocale (Locale l)

The setLocale() method changes the current Locale of the component to l. In order for this change to have any effect, you must localize your components so that they have different labels or list values for different environments. Localization is part of the broad topic of internationalization and is beyond the scope of this book.

public Cursor getCursor ()

The getCursor() method retrieves the component's current Cursor. If one hasn't been set, the default is Cursor.DEFAULT_CURSOR. The Cursor class is described fully in Cursor. Prior to Java 1.1, the ability to associate cursors with components was restricted to frames.

public synchronized void setCursor (Cursor c)

The setCursor() method changes the current Cursor of the component to c. The change takes effect as soon as the cursor is moved. Lightweight components cannot change their cursors.

Component provides a handful of methods for positioning and sizing objects. Most of these are used behind the scenes by the system. You will also need them if you create your own LayoutManager or need to move or size an object. All of these depend on support for the functionality from the true component's peer.

public Point getLocation ()
public Point location ()

The getLocation() method returns the current position of the Component in its parent's coordinate space. The Point is the top left corner of the bounding box around the Component.

location()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public Point getLocationOnScreen ()

The getLocationOnScreen() method returns the current position of the Component in the screen's coordinate space. The Point is the top left corner of the bounding box around the Component. If the component is not showing, the getLocationOnScreen() method throws the IllegalComponentStateException run-time exception.

public void setLocation (int x, int y)
public void move (int x, int y)

The setLocation() method moves the Component to the new position (x, y). The coordinates provided are in the parent container's coordinate space. This method calls setBounds() to move the component. The LayoutManager of the container may make it impossible to change a component's location.

Calling this method with a new position for the component generates a ComponentEvent with the ID COMPONENT_MOVED.

move()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public void setLocation (Point p)

This setLocation() method moves the component to the position specified by the given Point. It is the same as calling setLocation(p.x, p.y).

Calling this method with a new position for the component generates a ComponentEvent with the ID COMPONENT_MOVED.

public Dimension getSize ()
public Dimension size ()

The getSize() method returns the width and height of the component as a Dimension object.

size()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public void setSize (int width, int height)
public void resize (int width, int height)

The setSize() method changes the component's width and height to the width and height provided. width and height are specified in pixels. The component is resized by a call to setBounds(). The LayoutManager of the Container that contains the component may make it impossible to change a component's size.

Calling this method with a new size for the component generates a ComponentEvent with the ID COMPONENT_RESIZED.

resize()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public void setSize (Dimension d)
public void resize (Dimension d)

This setSize() method changes the component's width and height to the Dimension d provided. The Dimension object includes the width and height attributes in one object. The component is resized by a call to the setBounds() method. The LayoutManager of the Container that contains the component may make it impossible to change a component's size.

Calling this method with a new size for the component generates a ComponentEvent with the ID COMPONENT_RESIZED.

resize()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public Rectangle getBounds ()
public Rectangle bounds ()

The getBounds() method returns the bounding rectangle of the object. The fields of the Rectangle that you get back contain the component's position and dimensions.

bounds()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public void setBounds (int x, int y, int width, int height)
public void reshape (int x, int y, int width, int height)

The setBounds() method moves and resizes the component to the bounding rectangle with coordinates of (x, y) (top left corner) and width x height. If the size and shape have not changed, no reshaping is done. If the component is resized, it is invalidated, along with its parent container. The LayoutManager of the Container that contains the component may make it impossible to change the component's size or position. Calling setBounds() invalidates the container, which results in a call to the LayoutManager to rearrange the container's contents. In turn, the LayoutManager calls setBounds() to give the component its new size and position, which will probably be the same size and position it had originally. In short, if a layout manager is in effect, it will probably undo your attempts to change the component's size and position.

Calling this method with a new size for the component generates a ComponentEvent with the ID COMPONENT_RESIZED. Calling this method with a new position generates a ComponentEvent with the ID COMPONENT_MOVED.

reshape()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public void setBounds (Rectangle r)

This setBounds() method calls the previous method with parameters of r.x, r.y, r.width, and r.height.

Calling this method with a new size for the component generates a ComponentEvent with the ID COMPONENT_RESIZED. Calling this method with a new position generates a ComponentEvent with the ID COMPONENT_MOVED.

public Dimension getPreferredSize ()
public Dimension preferredSize ()

The getPreferredSize() method returns the Dimension (width and height) for the preferred size of the component. Each component's peer knows its preferred size. Lightweight objects return getSize().

preferredSize()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public Dimension getMinimumSize ()
public Dimension minimumSize ()

The getMinimumSize() method returns the Dimension (width and height) for the minimum size of the component. Each component's peer knows its minimum size. Lightweight objects return getSize(). It is possible that the methods getMinimumSize() and getPreferredSize() will return the same dimensions.

minimumSize()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public Dimension getMaximumSize ()

The getMaximumSize() method returns the Dimension (width and height) for the maximum size of the component. This may be used by a layout manager to prevent a component from growing beyond a predetermined size. None of the java.awt layout managers call this method. By default, the value returned is Short.MAX_VALUE for both dimensions.

public float getAlignmentX ()

The getAlignmentX() method returns the alignment of the component along the x axis. The alignment could be used by a layout manager to position this component relative to others. The return value is between 0.0 and 1.0. Values nearer 0 indicate that the component should be placed closer to the left edge of the area available. Values nearer 1 indicate that the component should be placed closer to the right. The value 0.5 means the component should be centered. The default setting is Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT.

public float getAlignmentY ()

The getAlignmentY() method returns the alignment of the component along the y axis. The alignment could be used by a layout manager to position this component relative to others. The return value is between 0.0 and 1.0. Values nearer 0 indicate that the component should be placed closer to the top of the area available. Values nearer 1 indicate that the component should be placed closer to the bottom. The value 0.5 means the component should be centered. The default setting is Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT.

public void doLayout ()
public void layout ()

The doLayout() method of Component does absolutely nothing. It is called when the Component is validated (through the validate() method). The Container class overrides this method.

layout()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public boolean contains (int x, int y)
public boolean inside (int x, int y)

The contains() method checks if the x and y coordinates are within the bounding box of the component. If the Component is not rectangular, the method acts as if there is a rectangle around the Component. contains() returns true if the x and y coordinates are within the component, false otherwise.

inside()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public boolean contains (Point p)

This contains() method calls the previous method with parameters of p.x and p.y.

public Component getComponentAt (int x, int y)
public Component locate (int x, int y)

The getComponentAt() method uses contains() to see if the x and y coordinates are within the component. If they are, this method returns the Component. If they aren't, it returns null. getComponentAt() is overridden by Container to provide enhanced functionality.

locate()is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public Component getComponentAt (Point p)

This getComponentAt() method calls the previous method with parameters of p.x and p.y.

The only methods in this section that you call directly are the versions of repaint(). The paint() and update() methods are called by the system when the display area requires refreshing, such as when a user resizes a window. When your program changes the display you should call repaint() to trigger a call to update() and paint(). Otherwise, the system is responsible for updating the display.

public void paint (Graphics g)

The paint() method is offered so the system can display whatever you want in a Component. In the base Component class, this method does absolutely nothing. Ordinarily, it would be overridden in an applet to do something other than the default, which is display a box in the current background color. g is the graphics context of the component being drawn on.

public void update (Graphics g)

The update() method is automatically called when you ask to repaint the Component. If the component is not lightweight, the default implementation of update() clears graphics context g by drawing a filled rectangle in the background color, resetting the color to the current foreground color, and calling paint(). If you do not override update() when you do animation, you will see some flickering because Component clears the screen. Animation is discussed in Chapter 2, Simple Graphics.

public void paintAll (Graphics g)

The paintAll() method validates the component and paints its peer if it is visible. g represents the graphics context of the component. This method is called when the paintComponents() method of Container is called.

public void repaint ()

The repaint() method requests the scheduler to redraw the component as soon as possible. This will result in update() getting called soon thereafter. There is not a one-to-one correlation between repaint() and update() calls. It is possible that multiple repaint() calls can result in a single update().

public void repaint (long tm)

This version of repaint() allows for a delay of tm milliseconds. It says, please update this component within tm milliseconds, which may happen immediately.

public void repaint (int x, int y, int width, int height)

This version of repaint() allows you to select the region of the Component you desire to be updated. (x, y) are the coordinates of the upper left corner of the bounding box of the component with dimensions of widthxheight. This is similar to creating a clipping area and results in a quicker repaint.

public void repaint (long tm, int x, int y, int width, int height)

This final version of repaint() is what the other three repaint() methods call. tm is the maximum delay in milliseconds before update should be called. (x, y) are the coordinates of the upper left corner of the clipping area of the component with dimensions of width x height.

public void print (Graphics g)

The default implementation of the print() method calls paint().

In Java 1.0, there was no way to print; in Java 1.1, if the graphics parameter implements PrintGraphics, anything drawn on g will be printed. Printing is covered in Chapter 17, Printing.

public void printAll (Graphics g)

The printAll() method validates the component and paints its peer if it is visible. g represents the graphics context of the component. This method is called when the printComponents() method of Container is called or when you call it with a PrintGraphics parameter.

The default implementation of printAll() is identical to paintAll(). As with paintAll(), g represents the graphics context of the component; if g implements PrintGraphics, it can be printed.

Background information about using images is discussed in Chapter 2, Simple Graphics and Chapter 12, Image Processing. The imageUpdate() method of Component is the sole method of the ImageObserver interface. Since images are loaded in a separate thread, this method is called whenever additional information about the image becomes available.

public boolean imageUpdate (Image image, int infoflags, int x, int y, int width, int height)

imageUpdate() is the java.awt.image.ImageObserver method implemented by Component. It is an asynchronous update interface for receiving notifications about Image information as image is loaded and is automatically called when additional information becomes available. This method is necessary because image loading is done in a separate thread from the getImage() call. Ordinarily, x and y would be the coordinates of the upper left corner of the image loaded so far, usually (0, 0). However, the method imageUpdate() of the component ignores these parameters. width and height are the image's dimensions, so far, in the loading process.

The infoflags parameter is a bit-mask of information available to you about image. Please see the text about ImageObserver in Chapter 12, Image Processing for a complete description of the different flags that can be set. When overriding this method, you can wait for some condition to be true by checking a flag in your program and then taking the desired action. To check for a particular flag, perform an AND (&) of infoflags and the constant. For example, to check if the FRAMEBITS flag is set:

if ((infoflags & ImageObserver.FRAMEBITS) == ImageObserver.FRAMEBITS)
    System.out.println ("The Flag is set");

The return value from a call to imageUpdate() is true if image has changed and false otherwise.

Two system properties let the user control the behavior of updates:

• awt.image.incrementaldraw allows the user to control whether or not partial images are displayed. Initially, the value of incrementaldraw is unset and defaults to true, which means that partial images are drawn. If incrementaldraw is set to false, the image will be drawn only when it is complete or when the screen is resized or refreshed.

• awt.image.redrawrate allows the user to change the delay between successive repaints. If not set, the default redraw rate is 100 milliseconds.

public Image createImage (int width, int height)

The createImage() method creates an empty Image of size width x height. The returned Image is an in-memory image that can be drawn on for double buffering to manipulate an image in the background. If an image of size width x height cannot be created, the call returns null. In order for createImage() to succeed, the peer of the Component must exist; if the component is lightweight, the peer of the component's container must exist.

public Image createImage (ImageProducer producer)

This createImage() method allows you to take an existing image and modify it in some way to produce a new Image. This can be done through ImageFilter and FilteredImageSource or a MemoryImageSource, which accepts an array of pixel information. You can learn more about these classes and this method in Chapter 12, Image Processing.

public boolean prepareImage (Image image, ImageObserver observer)

The prepareImage() method forces image to start loading, asynchronously, in another thread. observer is the Component that image will be rendered on and is notified (via imageUpdate()) as image is being loaded. In the case of an Applet, this would be passed as the ImageObserver. If image has already been fully loaded, prepareImage() returns true. Otherwise, false is returned. Since image is loaded asynchronously, prepareImage() returns immediately. Ordinarily, prepareImage() would be called by the system when image is first needed to be displayed (in drawImage() within paint()). As more information about the image gets loaded, imageUpdate() is called periodically.

If you do not want to go through the trouble of creating a MediaTracker instance to start the loading of the image objects, you can call prepareImage() to trigger the start of image loading prior to a call to drawImage().

If image has already started loading when this is called or if this is an in-memory image, there is no effect.

public boolean prepareImage (Image image, int width, int height, ImageObserver observer)

This version of prepareImage() is identical to the previous one, with the addition of a scaling factor of widthxheight. As with other width and height parameters, the units for these parameters are pixels. Also, if width and height are -1, no scaling factor is assumed. This method is called by one of the internal MediaTracker methods.

public int checkImage (Image image, ImageObserver observer)

The checkImage() method returns the status of the construction of a screen representation of image, being watched by observer. If image has not started loading yet, this will not start it. The return value is the ImageObserver flags ORed together for the data that is now available. The available ImageObserver flags are: WIDTH, HEIGHT, PROPERTIES, SOMEBITS, FRAMEBITS, ALLBITS, ERROR, and ABORT. See Chapter 12, Image Processing for a complete description of ImageObserver.

public int checkImage (Image image, int width, int height, ImageObserver observer)

This version of checkImage() is identical to the previous one, with the addition of a scaling factor of widthxheight. If you are using the drawImage() version with width and height parameters, you should use this version of checkImage() with the same width and height.

public ComponentPeer getPeer ()

The getPeer() method returns a reference to the component's peer as a ComponentPeer object. For example, if you issue this method from a Button object, getPeer() returns an instance of the ComponentPeer subclass ButtonPeer.

This method is flagged as deprecated in comments but not with @deprecated. There is no replacement method for Java 1.1.

public void addNotify ()

The addNotify() method is overridden by each individual component type. When addNotify() is called, the peer of the component gets created, and the Component is invalidated. The addNotify() method is called by the system when it needs to create the peer. The peer needs to be created when a Component is first shown, or when a new Component is added to a Container and the Container is already being shown (in which case it already has a peer, but a new one must be created to take account of the new Component). If you override this method for a specific Component, call super.addNotify() first, then do what you need for the Component. You will then have information available about the newly created peer.

Certain tasks cannot succeed unless the peer has been created. An incomplete list includes finding the size of a component, laying out a container (because it needs the component's size), and creating an Image object. Peers are discussed in more depth in Chapter 15, Toolkit and Peers.

public synchronized void removeNotify ()

The removeNotify() method destroys the peer of the component and removes it from the screen. The state information about the Component is retained by the specific subtype. The removeNotify() method is called by the system when it determines the peer is no longer needed. Such times would be when the Component is removed from a Container, when its container changes, or when the Component is disposed. If you override this method for a specific Component, issue the particular commands for you need for this Component, then call super.removeNotify() last.

These methods determine whether the component is ready to be displayed and can be seen by the user. The first requirement is that it be valid--that is, whether the system knows its size, and (in the case of a container) whether the layout manager is aware of all its parts and has placed them as requested. A component becomes invalid if the size has changed since it was last displayed. If the component is a container, it becomes invalid when one of the components contained within it becomes invalid.

Next, the component must be visible--a possibly confusing term, because components can be considered "visible" without being seen by the user. Frames (because they have their own top-level windows) are not visible until you request that they be shown, but other components are visible as soon as you create them.

Finally, to be seen, a component must be showing. You show a component by adding it to its container. For something to be showing, it must be visible and be in a container that is visible and showing.

A subsidiary aspect of state is the enabled quality, which determines whether a component can accept input.

public boolean isValid ()

The isValid() method tells you whether or not the component needs to be laid out.

public void validate ()

The validate() method sets the component's valid state to true. Ordinarily, this is done for you when the Component is laid out by its Container. Since objects are invalid when they are first drawn on the screen, you should call validate() to tell the system you are finished adding objects so that it can validate the screen and components. One reason you can override validate() is to find out when the container that the component exists in has been resized. The only requirement when overriding is that the original validate() be called. With Java 1.1, instead of overriding, you can listen for resize events.

public void invalidate ()

The invalidate() method sets the component's valid state to false and propagates the invalidation to its parent. Ordinarily, this is done for you, or should be, whenever anything that affects the layout is changed.

public boolean isVisible ()

The isVisible() methods tells you if the component is currently visible. Most components are initially visible, except for top-level objects like frames. Any component that is visible will be shown on the screen when the screen is painted.

public boolean isShowing ()

The isShowing() method tells you if the component is currently shown on the screen. It is possible for isVisible() to return true and isShowing() to return false if the screen has not been painted yet.

Table 5.1 compares possible return values from isVisible() and isShowing(). The first two entries are for objects that have their own Window. These will always return the same values for isVisible() and isShowing(). The next three are for Component objects that exist within a Window, Panel, or Applet. The visible setting is always initially true. However, the showing setting is not true until the object is actually drawn. The last case shows another possibility. If the component exists within an invisible Container, the component will be visible but will not be shown.

public void show ()

The show() method displays a component by making it visible and showing its peer. The parent Container becomes invalid because the set of children to display has changed. You would call show() directly to display a Frame or Dialog.

In Java 1.1, you should use setVisible() instead.

public void hide ()

The hide() method hides a component by making it invisible and hiding its peer. The parent Container becomes invalid because the set of children to display has changed. If you call hide() for a Component that does not subclass Window, the component's Container reserves space for the hidden object.

In Java 1.1, you should use setVisible() instead.

public void setVisible(boolean condition)
public void show (boolean condition)

The setVisible() method calls either show() or hide() based on the value of condition. If condition is true, show() is called. When condition is false, hide() is called.

show() is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public boolean isEnabled ()

The isEnabled() method checks to see if the component is currently enabled. An enabled Component can be selected and trigger events. A disabled Component usually has a slightly lighter font and doesn't permit the user to select or interact with it. Initially, every Component is enabled.

public synchronized void enable ()

The enable() method allows the user to interact with the component. Components are enabled by default but can be disabled by a call to disabled() or setEnabled(false).

In Java 1.1, you should use setEnabled() instead.

public synchronized void disable ()

The disable() method disables the component so that it is unresponsive to user interactions.

In Java 1.1, you should use setEnabled() instead.

public void setEnabled (boolean condition)
public void enable (boolean condition)

The setEnabled() method calls either enable() or disable() based on the value of condition. If condition is true, enable() is called. When condition is false, disable() is called. Enabling and disabling lets you create components that can be operated only under certain conditions--for example, a Button that can be pressed only after the user has typed into a TextArea.

enable() is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

Although there was some support for managing input focus in version 1.0, 1.1 improved on this greatly by including support for Tab and Shift+Tab to move input focus to the next or previous component, and by being more consistent across different platforms. This support is provided by the package-private class FocusManager.

public boolean isFocusTraversable()

The isFocusTraversable() method is the support method that tells you whether or not a component is capable of receiving the input focus. Every component asks its peer whether or not it is traversable. If there is no peer, this method returns false.

If you are creating a component by subclassing Component or Canvas and you want it to be traversable, you should override this method; a Canvas is not traversable by default.

public void requestFocus ()

The requestFocus() method allows you to request that a component get the input focus. If it can't (isFocusTraversable() returns false), it won't.

public void transferFocus ()
public void nextFocus ()

The transferFocus() method moves the focus from the current component to the next one.

nextFocus() is the Java 1.0 name for this method.

public final Object getTreeLock ()

The getTreeLock() method retrieves the synchronization lock for all AWT components. Instead of using synchronized methods in Java 1.1, previously synchronized methods lock the tree within a synchronized (component.getTreeLock()) {} code block. This results in a more efficient locking mechanism to improve performance.

public String getName ()

The getName() method retrieves the current name of the component. The component's name is useful for object serialization. Components are given a name by default; you can change the name by calling setName().

public void setName (String name)

The setName() method changes the name of the component to name.

public Container getParent ()

The getParent() method returns the component's Container. The container for anything added to an applet is the applet itself, since it subclasses Panel. The container for the applet is the browser. In the case of Netscape Navigator versions 2.0 and 3.0, the return value would be a specific instance of the netscape.applet.EmbeddedAppletFrame class. If the applet is running within the appletviewer, the return value would be an instance of sun.applet.AppletViewerPanel.

public synchronized void add(PopupMenu popup)

The add() method introduced in Java 1.1 provides the ability to associate a PopupMenu with a Component. The pop-up menu can be used to provide context-sensitive menus for specific components. (On some platforms for some components, pop-up menus exist already and cannot be overridden.) Interaction with the menu is discussed in Chapter 10, Would You Like to Choose from the Menu?

Multiple pop-up menus can be associated with a component. To display the appropriate pop-up menu, call the pop-up menu's show()method.

public synchronized void remove(MenuComponent popup)

The remove() method is the MenuContainer interface method to disassociate the popup from the component. (PopupMenu is a subclass of MenuComponent.) If popup is not associated with the Component, nothing happens.

protected String paramString ()

The paramString() method is a protected method that helps build a String listing the different parameters of the Component. When the toString() method is called for a specific Component, paramString() is called for the lowest level and works its way up the inheritance hierarchy to build a complete parameter string to display. At the Component level, potentially seven (  Java1.0) or eight (1.1) items are added. The first five items added are the component's name (if non-null and using Java 1.1), x and y coordinates (as returned by getLocation()), along with its width and height (as returned by getSize()). If the component is not valid, "invalid" is added next. If the component is not visible, "hidden" is added next. Finally, if the component is not enabled, "disabled" is added.

public String toString ()

The toString() method returns a String representation of the object's values. At the Component level, the class's name is placed before the results of paramString(). This method is called automatically by the system if you try to print an object using System.out.println().

public void list ()

The list() method prints the contents of the Component (as returned by toString()) to System.out. If c is a type of Component, the two statements System.out.println(c) and c.list() are equivalent. This method is more useful at the Container level, because it prints all the components within the container.

public void list (PrintWriter out)
public void list (PrintStream out)

This version of list() prints the contents of the Component (as returned by toString()) to a different PrintStream, out.

public void list (PrintWriter out, int indentation)
public void list (PrintStream out, int indentation)

These versions of list() are called by the other two. They print the component's contents (as returned by toString()) with the given indentation. This allows you to prepare nicely formatted lists of a container's contents for debugging; you could use the indentation to reflect how deeply the component is nested within the container.

Component Events

Chapter 4, Events covers event handling in detail. This section summarizes what Component does for the different event-related methods.

With the Java 1.0 event model, many methods return true to indicate that the program has handled the event and false to indicate that the event was not handled (or only partially handled); when false is returned, the system passes the event up to the parent container. Thus, it is good form to return true only when you have fully handled the event, and no further processing is necessary.

With the Java 1.1 event model, you register a listener for a specific event type. When that type of event happens, the listener is notified. Unlike the 1.0 model, you do not need to override any methods of Component to handle the event. Controllers

The Java 1.0 event model controllers are deliverEvent(), postEvent(), and handleEvent(). With 1.1, the controller is a method named dispatchEvent().

public void deliverEvent (Event e)

The deliverEvent() method delivers the 1.0 Event e to the Component in which an event occurred. Internally, this method calls postEvent(). The deliverEvent() method is an important enhancement to postEvent() for Container objects since they have to determine which component in the Container gets the event.

public boolean postEvent (Event e)

The postEvent() method tells the Component to deal with 1.0 Event e. It calls handleEvent(), which returns true if some other object handled e and false if no one handles it. If handleEvent() returns false, postEvent() posts the Event to the component's parent. You can use postEvent() to hand any events you generate yourself to some other component for processing. (Creating your own events is a useful technique that few developers take advantage of.) You can also use postEvent() to reflect an event from one component into another.

public boolean handleEvent (Event e)

The handleEvent() method determines the type of event e and passes it along to an appropriate method to deal with it. For example, when a mouse motion event is delivered to postEvent(), it is passed off to handleEvent(), which calls mouseMove(). As shown in the following listing, handleEvent() can be implemented as one big switch statement. Since not all event types have default event handlers, you may need to override this method. If you do, remember to call the overridden method to ensure that the default behavior still takes place. To do so, call super.handleEvent(event) for any event your method does not deal with.

public boolean handleEvent(Event event) {
    switch (event.id) {
      case Event.MOUSE_ENTER:
        return mouseEnter (event, event.x, event.y);
      case Event.MOUSE_EXIT:
        return mouseExit (event, event.x, event.y);
      case Event.MOUSE_MOVE:
        return mouseMove (event, event.x, event.y);
      case Event.MOUSE_DOWN:
        return mouseDown (event, event.x, event.y);
      case Event.MOUSE_DRAG:
        return mouseDrag (event, event.x, event.y);
      case Event.MOUSE_UP:
        return mouseUp (event, event.x, event.y);
      case Event.KEY_PRESS:
      case Event.KEY_ACTION:
        return keyDown (event, event.key);
      case Event.KEY_RELEASE:
      case Event.KEY_ACTION_RELEASE:
        return keyUp (event, event.key);
      case Event.ACTION_EVENT:
        return action (event, event.arg);
      case Event.GOT_FOCUS:
        return gotFocus (event, event.arg);
      case Event.LOST_FOCUS:
        return lostFocus (event, event.arg);
    }
    return false;
}

public final void dispatchEvent(AWTEvent e)

The dispatchEvent() method allows you to post new AWT events to this component's listeners. dispatchEvent() tells the Component to deal with the AWTEvent e by calling its processEvent() method. This method is similar to Java 1.0's postEvent() method. Events delivered in this way bypass the system's event queue. It's not clear why you would want to bypass the event queue, except possibly to deliver some kind of high priority event.

public boolean action (Event e, Object o)

The action() method is called when the user performs some action in the Component. e is the 1.0 Event instance for the specific event, while the content of o varies depending upon the specific Component. The particular action that triggers a call to action() depends on the Component. For example, with a TextField, action() is called when the user presses the carriage return. This method should not be called directly; to deliver any event you generate, call postEvent(), and let it decide how the event should propagate.

The default implementation of the action() method does nothing and returns false. When you override this method, return true only if you fully handle the event. Your method should always have a default case that returns false or calls super.action(e, o) to ensure that the event propagates to the component's container or component's superclass, respectively.

public boolean keyDown (Event e, int key)

The keyDown() method is called whenever the user presses a key. e is the 1.0 Event instance for the specific event, while key is the integer representation of the character pressed. The identifier for the event (e.id) could be either Event.KEY_PRESS for a regular key or Event.KEY_ACTION for an action-oriented key (e.g., arrow or function key). The default keyDown() method does nothing and returns false. If you are doing input validation, return true if the character is invalid; this keeps the event from propagating to a higher component. If you wish to alter the input (i.e., convert to uppercase), return false, but change e.key to the new character.

public boolean keyUp (Event e, int key)

The keyUp() method is called whenever the user releases a key. e is the Event instance for the specific event, while key is the integer representation of the character pressed. The identifier for the event (e.id) could be either Event.KEY_RELEASE for a regular key or Event.KEY_ACTION_RELEASE for an action-oriented key (e.g., arrow or function key). keyUp() may be used to determine how long key has been pressed. The default keyUp() method does nothing and returns false.

Early releases of Java (1.0.2 and earlier) propagated only mouse events from Canvas and Container objects. However, Netscape Navigator seems to have jumped the gun and corrected the situation with their 3.0 release, which is based on Java release 1.0.2.1. Until other Java releases catch up, use these events with care. For more information on platform dependencies, see Appendix C, Platform-Specific Event Handling.