Handling tabs

A GUIApplication has an API allowing to:

• Add a tab
• Select a tab
• Close a tab, all tabs except one, or all tabs
• Add a close button in tabs
• Specify that a tab has been modified

Adding a tab

You can add a tab through one of these methods:

• The TabbedApplication.addTab(JComponent, SwingFileProperties) adds a tab using a FileProperties instance
• The TabbedApplication.addTab(SwingFileProperties) does the same thing but uses the FileProperties.getComponent() method to get the component to put in the tab
• The TabbedApplication.addTab(JComponent, Icon, SwingFileProperties, String) does the same thing but adds an optional icon to the tab and sets its tooltip
• The TabbedApplication.addTab(Icon, SwingFileProperties, String) does the same thing but uses the FileProperties.getComponent() method to get the component to put in the tab
• The TabbedApplication.addTab(JComponent, Object, String) is a simpler method which will create a FileProperties with the name of the tab and an associated object
• The TabbedApplication.addTab(JComponent, Icon, Object, String, String) does the same thing but adds an optional icon to the tab and sets its tooltip

Close a tab

You can close the selected tab by one of the following methods:

• The TabbedApplication.closeCurrentTab() method will close the currently selected tab. The application will check for the result of the TabbedApplication.acceptRemoveTab(String) method before closing
• The TabbedApplication.closeCurrentTab(boolean) method will close the currently selected tab. The application will check for the result of the TabbedApplication.acceptRemoveTab(String) method before closing, only if the argument is false

Note that the user will always be able to close a tab by clicking on the cross on the tab, depending on the closable tabs behavior.

Examples

The most simple way to add a tab is (for example in the Basic tutorial:

      public void run() throws Exception {
        JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser("Open Image");
        chooser.setDialogTitle("Open Image");
        chooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_ONLY);
        if (chooser.showOpenDialog(app.getApplicationWindow()) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
          File file = chooser.getSelectedFile();
          BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(file); // the object associated with the tab
          if (image == null) throw new Exception("Bad File type");

          JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane(new ImagePanel(image)); // the content of the panel to show in the tab
          String tabName = file.getName(); // the name of the tab
          app.addTab(pane, image, tabName);
        }
      }

A more elaborate way to do the same thing using a FileProperties instance would be:

   public void run() throws Exception {
     JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser("Open Image");
     chooser.setDialogTitle("Open Image");
     chooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_ONLY);
     if (chooser.showOpenDialog(app.getApplicationWindow()) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
       File file = chooser.getSelectedFile();
       BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(file); // the object associated with the tab
       if (image == null) throw new Exception("Bad File type");

       JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane(new ImagePanel(image)); // the content of the panel to show in the tab
       String tabName = file.getName(); // the name of the tab
          SwingFileProperties properties = new SwingFileProperties(tabName, comp, image);
          app.addTab(properties);
     }
   }

We can also want to add a tooltip on the tab, for example here to show the path of the file (here we choose not to have an Icon on the tab):

   public void run() throws Exception {
     JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser("Open Image");
     chooser.setDialogTitle("Open Image");
     chooser.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.FILES_ONLY);
     if (chooser.showOpenDialog(app.getApplicationWindow()) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
       File file = chooser.getSelectedFile();
       BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(file); // the object associated with the tab
       if (image == null) throw new Exception("Bad File type");

       JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane(new ImagePanel(image)); // the content of the panel to show in the tab
       String tabName = file.getName(); // the name of the tab
       String path = file.getAbsolutePath();
          SwingFileProperties properties = new SwingFileProperties(tabName, comp, image);
          app.addTab(null, properties, path);
     }
   }

Closable tabs

The AbstractMDIApplication.hasClosableTab(boolean) allows to specify that the tabs must have a close button (there is no close button by default):

For example the following application has closable tabs:

  public class MyApplication extends AbstractMDIApplication {      
    public MyApplication() {
      super("My Application");
      this.hasClosableTab(true);
    }      
  }

Showing modified tabs

The GUIApplication has an API to specify that a tab has been modified. The TabbedApplication.setModified(String, boolean) and TabbedApplication.setCurrentTabModified(boolean) allow to define that a tab content has been modified:

• Setting the boolean as true will show the tab as modified (with a trailing "*" character
• Setting the boolean as false will show the tab in the default unmodified state