Message area

The MessageArea method allows to show messages and prompts for a GUI application.

Message area creation

The message area is created through one of the methods initializating the application GUI. For example:

• The AbstractMDIApplication.preparePanels(int, MDIMenuFactory) with a default MessageArea, a Toolbar, and a Status bar
• The AbstractMDIApplication.preparePanels(int, boolean, boolean, MDIMenuFactory) with a default MessageArea in the application
• The AbstractMDIApplication.preparePanels(SwingMessageArea, boolean, boolean, MDIMenuFactory) with a custom MessageArea

Getting the Message area

The AbstractMDIApplication.getMessageArea() method allows to get the message area. It also is the AbstractMDIApplication.getMessageArea() message of the application.

Message area default implementation overview

The Message area default implementation allows to:

• Append a line of text (see Appending a text line for more information)
• Append an hyperlink (see managing links and links selection for more information)

The background of the area allows several user actions by right clicking on the area:

• "Print": Saving the content of the area in an html file
• "Clear": Clearing the content of the area

Message area default implementation actions

The default implementation shows a Popup menu when right clicking in the area:

This menu has two actions:

• "Print": Saving the content of the area in an html file
• "Clear": Clearing the content of the area

The methods which implement these features are:

• Clear the area: MessageArea.clear()
• Print the content of the area in an html file: MessageArea.print(File)

Both these methods can be overriden.

Copying the selected text in the system clipboard

The MessageArea.manageClipboard(boolean) method allows to add an additional action to copy the content of the selected text to the system clipboard. In that case, the menu has one additional action if some text has been selected:

• "Copy": Copying the content of the selected text to the system clipboard

Note that this manageClipboard(true) method must be called to be able to show this additional action. For example:

      public BasicTutorialMDI() {
        super("BasicTutorialMDI");

        this.initConfiguration();
        SimpleMenuFactory() mfactory = new SimpleMenuFactory();
        super.preparePanels(4, true, false, mfactory);
        this.getMessageArea().manageClipBoard(true);
      }

Appending a text line

The Message area default implementation has the following features:

• Appending a line of text: MessageLogger.append(String)
• Appending a line of text, with a specified color: MessageLogger.append(String, String)
• Appending a line of text, with a specified color, a font size, and a style: MessageLogger.append(String, String, int, int)
• Appending a line of text, with a link: MessageArea.appendLink(String, String)
• Appending a line of text, with a link, and an associated Object: MessageArea.appendLink(String, String, Object)
• Appending a line of text, with a link, and a specified color: MessageArea.appendLink(String, String, String)
• Appending a line of text, with a link, a specified color, and an associated Object: MessageArea.appendLink(String, String, String, Object)

Setting the color and style of the line of text

The MessageLogger.append(String, String, int, int) allows to set the color of the text, the font size, and the text style:

• The first argument is the text
• The second argument is the color (expressed as an html color name)
• The third argument is the font size (expressed as an html font size). The value MessageLogger.DEFAULT_FONT_SIZE specifies the default size
• The last argument is the style. The value MessageLogger.DEFAULT_STYLE specifies the default style

The style is elaborated by ANDing the following values:

• The MessageLogger.BOLD value is for bold text
• The MessageLogger.ITALIC value is for italic text
• The MessageLogger.UNDERLINE value is for underlined text
• The MessageLogger.CROSSED value is for crossed text (line-through)

For example:

      area.append("the red crossed text in bold", "red", MessageLogger.DEFAULT_FONT_SIZE, MessageLogger.BOLD & MessageLogger.CROSSED);

Styling the area for Swing

The SwingMessageArea has a SwingMessageArea.setStyleSheet(StyleSheet) method which allows to customize the style of the HTMLEditorKit used in the area. Note that the styles you will define will be added on top of the default style of the HTMLEditorKit implementation.

Managing links and links selection

It is possible to register a MessageAreaHandler to be notified of selecting an hyperlink in the area:

• The MessageArea.setHandler(MessageAreaHandler) sets only one handler for the message area^[1]
  The method only allows for one handler and is deprecated. It is preferable to use the MessageArea.addHandler(MessageAreaHandler) method instead
• The MessageArea.addHandler(MessageAreaHandler) adds one handler for the message area

Allowing right click

By default only hyperlinks selection by left clicking on the hyperlink are allowed. It is however also possible to allows righ-clicking on these hyperlinks, but do allow that, you need to configure the area in the GUI application, but using the SwingMessageArea.setHandleRightClick(boolean) method. For example:

      public class MyApplication extends AbstractMDIApplication {
         public MyApplication() {
         super("My Application");

         // create the menus with the Application menu factory
         mfactory = new SimpleMenuFactory();
         super.preparePanels(4, true, true, mfactory);
         // set the size of the Application window
         this.setSize(500, 500);

         this.message.setHandleRightClick(true);
      }

Examples

Being notified from a basic hyperlink

In the following application, we add a basic link to the area:

      MessageArea area = this.getMessageArea();
      area.addHandler(MyAreaLinkHandler());
      area.appendLink("My link", "link1");

You can perform in the handler:

      public void handleLinkSelection(String linkID) {
        System.out.println("The link ID: " + linkID));
      }

Being notified from an hyperlink with an associated Object

In the following application, we add a link with an associated Object to the area:

      File file =...
      MessageArea area = this.getMessageArea();
      area.addHandler(MyAreaLinkHandler());
      area.appendLink("My link", "link1", file);

You can perform in the handler:

      public void handleLinkSelection(String linkID, Object o) {
      - if (o instanceof File) {
          File file = (File)o;
          System.out.println("The file path: " + file.getPath()));
      }