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Java Event
Handling
1 Introduction
An event in Java is an object that is created
when something changes within a graphical user interface. If a user clicks on a button, clicks on a combo box, or types characters into a text field, etc., then an event triggers, creating the relevant event object. This behavior is part of Java's Event Handling mechanism and is included in the Swing GUI library.
2 Event Handling Happens every time a user interacts with a user interface. For example, when a user pushes a button, or types a character. For example, let's say we have a JButton. If a user clicks on the JButton, a button click event is triggered, the event will be created, and it will be sent to the relevant event listener (in this case, the ActionListener). The relevant listener will have implemented code that determines the action to take when the event occurs.
3 How Events Work
The event source, which is an object that is
created when an event occurs. Java provides several types of these event sources, discussed in the section Types of Events below. The event listener, the object that "listens" for events and processes them when they occur.
4 Types of Events ActionEvent: Represents a graphical element is clicked, such as a button or item in a list. Related listener: ActionListener. ContainerEvent: Represents an event that occurs to the GUI's container itself, for example, if a user adds or removes an object from the interface. Related listener: ContainerListener. KeyEvent: Represents an event in which the user presses, types or releases a key. Related listener: KeyListener. WindowEvent: Represents an event relating to a window, for example, when a window is closed, activated or deactivated. Related listener: WindowListener. MouseEvent: Represents any event related to a mouse, such as when a mouse is clicked or pressed. Related listener: MouseListener. 5 Event Representation Each event is represented by an object that gives information about the event and identifies the event source. Event source which generates the event object Event listener which receives the event object and handles it Event object that describes the event In Java, every event is a subclass of EventObject.
6 Event Sources Event sources are usually components, but they can be other kind of objects too. An event source can have multiple event listeners registered on it. Examples of event sources are e.g. buttons and windows.
7 Event Listeners An event listener is an object that wants to be notified when an event has occured on a component. The common interface that all event listener interfaces must extend is EventListener.
8 Event Listeners For example, to listen for ActionEvents the class must implement the interface ActionListener, that in turn is an implementation of EventListener. An example is shown on the next slide
9 An ActionListener Object Object #source EventObject
Component AWTEvent
By the classes TextComponent implementing <<use>> ActionEvent <<create>> the interface
10 Event Adapters To highten the ease of use, most eventlistener interfaces have corresponding adapter classes that have all of the interface methods implemented. Must be subclassed.
11 Adapter Classes In the previous implementation, we implemented four empty methods. We can create a listener class that extends its corresponding adapter class. Adapter classes provide the empty implementation of all the methods in a listener interface We only need to override the method(s) whose behavior we want to influence. Three Required Parts public class MyClass implements ActionListener someComponent.addActionListener(aMyClass) public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){}
13 An Example
14 Components and Events Every component support component, focus, key, mouse and mouse-motion listeners. Fires only events for which listeners has registered an interest in.
15 Events in the Converter ActionEvent ◦ Listener must implement the interface ActionListener.
ChangeEvent (Swing) or AdjustmentEvent
◦ Listener must implement the interface ChangeListener or AdjustmentListener. ItemEvent ◦ Listener must implement the interface ItemListener.
16 ActionEvent Generated when the user presses return in the textfield. EventSource calls the method actionPerformed() in the listeners and sends the event as a parameter.
17 ChangeEvent Generated when the user changes the slider. Listeners must implement the method stateChanged(), that is invoked when the target of the listener has changed its state.
18 AdjustmentEvent Generated when the user changes the value of the scrollbar (AWT). Has several specialized methods: ◦ getAdjustable() ◦ getAdjustmentType() ◦ getValue()
19 AdjustmentEvent Listeners must implement the method adjustmentValueChanged() that is invoked when the srollbar changes its value.
20 ItemEvent Generated when the user selects another unit in the choicebox. Has some specialized methods: ◦ getItem() ◦ getItemSelectable() ◦ getStateChanged()
21 ItemEvent The event is passed to every ItemListener object which registered to receive such events using the component's addItemListener() method. When an item-selection event occurs, the listener object's itemStateChanged() method is invoked.
