Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 6

java.beans
Class PropertyEditorSupport

java.lang.Object
  extended by java.beans.PropertyEditorSupport
All Implemented Interfaces:
PropertyEditor

public class PropertyEditorSupport
extends Object
implements PropertyEditor

This is a support class to help build property editors.

It can be used either as a base class or as a delagatee.


Constructor Summary
PropertyEditorSupport()
          Constructs a PropertyEditorSupport object.
PropertyEditorSupport(Object source)
          Constructs a PropertyEditorSupport object.
 
Method Summary
 void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)
          Register a listener for the PropertyChange event.
 void firePropertyChange()
          Report that we have been modified to any interested listeners.
 String getAsText()
          Gets the property value as a string suitable for presentation to a human to edit.
 Component getCustomEditor()
          A PropertyEditor may chose to make available a full custom Component that edits its property value.
 String getJavaInitializationString()
          This method is intended for use when generating Java code to set the value of the property.
 Object getSource()
          Returns the bean that is used as the source of events.
 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 tag values.
 Object getValue()
          Gets the value of the property.
 boolean isPaintable()
          Determines whether the class will honor the paintValue method.
 void paintValue(Graphics gfx, Rectangle box)
          Paint a representation of the value into a given area of screen real estate.
 void removePropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)
          Remove a listener for the PropertyChange event.
 void setAsText(String text)
          Sets the property value by parsing a given String.
 void setSource(Object source)
          Sets the source bean.
 void setValue(Object value)
          Set (or change) the object that is to be edited.
 boolean supportsCustomEditor()
          Determines whether the propertyEditor can provide a custom editor.
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
 

Constructor Detail

PropertyEditorSupport

public PropertyEditorSupport()
Constructs a PropertyEditorSupport object.

Since:
1.5

PropertyEditorSupport

public PropertyEditorSupport(Object source)
Constructs a PropertyEditorSupport object.

Parameters:
source - the source used for event firing
Since:
1.5
Method Detail

getSource

public Object getSource()
Returns the bean that is used as the source of events. If the source has not been explicitly set then this instance of PropertyEditorSupport is returned.

Returns:
the source object or this instance
Since:
1.5

setSource

public void setSource(Object source)
Sets the source bean.

The source bean is used as the source of events for the property changes. This source should be used for information purposes only and should not be modified by the PropertyEditor.

Parameters:
source - source object to be used for events
Since:
1.5

setValue

public void setValue(Object value)
Set (or change) the object that is to be edited.

Specified by:
setValue in interface PropertyEditor
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

public Object getValue()
Gets the value of the property.

Specified by:
getValue in interface PropertyEditor
Returns:
The value of the property.

isPaintable

public boolean isPaintable()
Determines whether the class will honor the paintValue method.

Specified by:
isPaintable in interface PropertyEditor
Returns:
True if the class will honor the paintValue method.

paintValue

public 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.

Specified by:
paintValue in interface PropertyEditor
Parameters:
gfx - Graphics object to paint into.
box - Rectangle within graphics object into which we should paint.

getJavaInitializationString

public String getJavaInitializationString()
This method is intended for use when generating Java code to set the value of the property. It should return a fragment of Java code that can be used to initialize a variable with the current property value.

Example results are "2", "new Color(127,127,34)", "Color.orange", etc.

Specified by:
getJavaInitializationString in interface PropertyEditor
Returns:
A fragment of Java code representing an initializer for the current value.

getAsText

public String getAsText()
Gets the property value as a string suitable for presentation to a human to edit.

Specified by:
getAsText in interface PropertyEditor
Returns:
The property value as a string suitable for presentation to a human to edit.

Returns "null" is the value can't be expressed as a string.

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


setAsText

public void setAsText(String text)
               throws IllegalArgumentException
Sets 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.

Specified by:
setAsText in interface PropertyEditor
Parameters:
text - The string to be parsed.
Throws:
IllegalArgumentException

getTags

public 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 tag values. 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.

Specified by:
getTags in interface PropertyEditor
Returns:
The tag values for this property. May be null if this property cannot be represented as a tagged value.

getCustomEditor

public Component getCustomEditor()
A PropertyEditor may chose 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 ...

Specified by:
getCustomEditor in interface PropertyEditor
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

public boolean supportsCustomEditor()
Determines whether the propertyEditor can provide a custom editor.

Specified by:
supportsCustomEditor in interface PropertyEditor
Returns:
True if the propertyEditor can provide a custom editor.

addPropertyChangeListener

public void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)
Register a listener for the PropertyChange event. The class will fire a PropertyChange value whenever the value is updated.

Specified by:
addPropertyChangeListener in interface PropertyEditor
Parameters:
listener - An object to be invoked when a PropertyChange event is fired.

removePropertyChangeListener

public void removePropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)
Remove a listener for the PropertyChange event.

Specified by:
removePropertyChangeListener in interface PropertyEditor
Parameters:
listener - The PropertyChange listener to be removed.

firePropertyChange

public void firePropertyChange()
Report that we have been modified to any interested listeners.


Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 6

Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright © 1993, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.