Dialog helper

The MDIDialogHelper and its default implementation DefaultMDIDialogHelper allows to open dialogs in a GUI application. Note that many of the methods provided by the MDIDialogHelper interface can be accessed directly through the GUIApplication itself.

Opening a dialog

Main Article: MDIDialog

The most simple way of opening a dialog is through the GUIApplication.showDialog(MDIDialog dialog) method. The MDIDialog interface has only one method to open the dialog:

Note that the MDIDialog instance must be a subclass of JComponent.

You can also use the GUIApplication.showDialog(MDIDialogBuilder builder) method. The MDIDialogBuilder interface handles the effective creation of the dialog itself.

The MDIDialogType enumeration allows to specify how the dialog is opened:

Unique dialog the dialog class. When opened through MDIDialogHelper.showDialog(MDIDialog dialog, MDIDialogType openType) or MDIDialogHelper.showDialog(MDIDialogBuilder builder, MDIDialogType openType), only one dialog of the same class can be opened at the same time.

Note that in this case:

It will be by default impossible to open any instance of the JComponent sub-class used for the dialog (which must implement the {@link org.mdi.bootstrap.MDIDialog} interface)
If the JComponent used for the dialog has the MDIDialogID component property, it will be impossible to open any instance of the JComponent sub-class used for the dialog with the same MDIDialogID component property

By default opening dialogs by MDIDialog.showDialog(Component parent) will show a dialog with the UNLIMITED option. However it is possible to change the default option by MDIDialogHelper.setDefaultDialogOpenType(MDIDialogType openType).