Get lost on how to embed a ComboBox in a Form

[linwei]

I really get lost on how to use comboBox as FormModel in a form. The following is what I want to do, and I believe it's a common task in everyday programing:

I have a class, name it MyClass:

public class MyClass{
public static int final TYPE1=1;
public static int final TYPE1=2;
public static int final TYPE1=3;

private int type;

// other fields....
}

In a Form, I want to display the "type" as a combobox to let the user to choose one. After inspecting several classes on PropertyEditor, PropertyEditorRegistry, ComboBoxAdaptor, ValueModel, FormModel, Form, AbstractForm, DefaultFormModel, I am still lost on how can I get start on implement it.

[Keith Donald]

It's easy :-)

 JComboBox typeSelector = getFormModel().createBoundComboBox(
                "type", new Object[] { TYPE1, TYPE2, TYPE3 });

This binds the property "type" on the form model's backing form object to the combo box, with a selectable list populated from TYPE1, TYPE2, and TYPE3.

getFormModel() returns an instance of SwingForModel: which is the factory for creating bound form model controls.

[linwei]

Keith,

Thanks a lot, that's beautiful and really help!

Actually, I've reinvented the wheels yesterday: :shock:

I programmed using low level classes such as BeanPropertyAccessStrategy, PropertyAdaptor, PropertyEditorSupport, PropertyEditor, ComboBoxModelAdapter, and with a lot of code I got the same result as yours. I even wanted to post my code in this forum to show off my fruit, but I changed my idea now to avoid misleading others

Thanks again springrichclient and your guys excellent work.

linwei
S.J.V. Consultant Ltd.

[linwei]

hi, keith

I followed your code and everything goes fluently, excepting how to display the combobox in the Form. I first tried the following code:

protected JComponent createFormControl() {
        FormLayout layout = new FormLayout("left:pref, 5dlu, pref:grow");
        BeanFormBuilder formBuilder = new JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder(getFormModel(), layout);
        
        final JComboBox typeSelector = formModel.createBoundComboBox( 
                "parserId", parserList.toArray());
        
        formBuilder.add("parserId");

        return formBuilder.getForm();
}

("parserId" is the property name to be displayed as combobox, "parserList" is the choices list ).

The above code displays "parserId" as textfield, rahter than a combobox. Then I have to register the "typeSelector" as property editor for parserId. The final working code is:

protected JComponent createFormControl() {
        FormLayout layout = new FormLayout("left:pref, 5dlu, pref:grow");
        BeanFormBuilder formBuilder = new JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder(getFormModel(), layout);
        
        final JComboBox typeSelector = formModel.createBoundComboBox( 
                "parserId", parserList.toArray());
        
        formModel.registerCustomEditor("parserId", new PropertyEditorSupport(){

			public boolean isPaintable() {
				return true;
			}
			public Component getCustomEditor() {
				return typeSelector;
			}

			public boolean supportsCustomEditor() {
				return true;
			}
        });
        formBuilder.add("parserId");

        return formBuilder.getForm();
}

This displays the parserId as combobox properly. Keith, just wondering whether I go the right way this time? :roll:

[oliverhutchison]

linwei,

It looks to me like you've hit a limitation of JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder which is not as mature as the other 2 form builders that ship with Spring Rich.

If you were to use TableFormBuilder your code would be as follows:

protected JComponent createFormControl() { 
    TableFormBuilder formBuilder = new TableFormBuilder(formModel);
   
    final JComboBox typeSelector = formModel.createBoundComboBox(
            "parserId", null);
   
    formBuilder.add("parserId", typeSelector);

    return formBuilder.getForm();
}

I use TableFormBuilder exclusively so I haven't hit this problem before -
we'll need to improve JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder so that it offers more options for binding custom controls. There should certainly be no need to use a property editor for something so simple.

HTH

Ollie

[linwei]

Ollie,

In fact, there is no compelling reason for me to use "JGoodiesFormBuilder" ( just followed the richclientpetclinic demo ). I changed my code to use "TableFormBuilder", it works great!

Hmm, finally, I reduced my LOC from 100 to 10 :twisted:

[Keith Donald]

:oops:

JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder is a weak illustration as is, and should be removed from the sample, replaced with the more extensive TableLayoutBuilder or GridBagLayoutBuilder.

Ollie: if you get a free tick, would you consider doing this? That'd be great! If we feel it is appropriate, we could also obsolete JGoodiesFormBuilder for now (until/if we see the need to build a better builder on top of FormLayout.) But at very least we should get it out of the sample as a best practice, it's really only usable in simple situations...

Keith

[oliverhutchison]

Keith,

I'm happy to switch everthing over to TableFormBuilder I'll probably do it when I get home tonight or tomorow.

As far as obsoleting JGoodiesFormBuilder goes I'd be happy to see the back of it. I find it a real pain trying to work out the colspecs to pass into the FormLayout in fact that's why I wrote TableFormBuilder.

What builders are people using?

Ollie

[linwei]

one suggestion:

I think for a new user like me could possibly run into to same issue as me on how to use a cumstom component as bean property editor. Would it be help if the petclinic sample can also show how to use SwingFormModel.createXXXX, together with TableFormBuilder.add(property, JComponent ).

I am really considering maybe I can make some simple contribution to this project. As my daily work is highly depend on Springframework and Springrc now, I might could help in some way to find/fix bugs, or improve/implement some aspects. Could and how can I make contribution, springrc team?

[Keith Donald]

Sure, we happily accept contributions. Submitting patches via JIRA is one way to do it---specifically, let's discuss an enhancement you need, and if we a agree it's a good general fit for the framework, we can identify where it should go and you can submit a patch, which we'll work to integrate. People are already doing this now: I still have official docking integration on my plate! :-)