Again, why not use a JOptionPane? Many people misunderstand these useful constructs, thinking that they can only be used for the most simple gui's when nothing could be further from the truth. The key in using these for maximal power is to understand that the second parameter in most JOptionPane methods is Object
, and that this Object can be a very complex and even a large JPanel that holds other components including other JPanels, JTables, JComboBoxes, etc... I've used this to present complex modal input dialogs to the user, much like what you're trying to do. Then when the JOptionPane has been dealt with and program flow returns to your program, you query the properties of the complex GUI that was displayed in the JOptionPane and extract its information. Again, please check out my link here, to see exactly what I mean.
For instance, for your situation, if you wanted a JPanel that held 3 JTextFields to get your b-number, first Name, and last name information, simply create a JPanel that holds the JTextFields and their corresponding JLabels:
import java.awt.GridBagConstraints;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import java.awt.Insets;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
class PlayerEditorPanel extends JPanel {
enum FieldTitle {
B_NUMBER("B Number"), FIRST_NAME("First Name"), LAST_NAME("Last Name");
private String title;
private FieldTitle(String title) {
this.title = title;
}
public String getTitle() {
return title;
}
};
private static final Insets WEST_INSETS = new Insets(5, 0, 5, 5);
private static final Insets EAST_INSETS = new Insets(5, 5, 5, 0);
private Map<FieldTitle, JTextField> fieldMap = new HashMap<FieldTitle, JTextField>();
public PlayerEditorPanel() {
setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Player Editor"),
BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5)));
GridBagConstraints gbc;
for (int i = 0; i < FieldTitle.values().length; i++) {
FieldTitle fieldTitle = FieldTitle.values()[i];
gbc = createGbc(0, i);
add(new JLabel(fieldTitle.getTitle() + ":", JLabel.LEFT), gbc);
gbc = createGbc(1, i);
JTextField textField = new JTextField(10);
add(textField, gbc);
fieldMap.put(fieldTitle, textField);
}
}
private GridBagConstraints createGbc(int x, int y) {
GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
gbc.gridx = x;
gbc.gridy = y;
gbc.gridwidth = 1;
gbc.gridheight = 1;
gbc.anchor = (x == 0) ? GridBagConstraints.WEST : GridBagConstraints.EAST;
gbc.fill = (x == 0) ? GridBagConstraints.BOTH
: GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
gbc.insets = (x == 0) ? WEST_INSETS : EAST_INSETS;
gbc.weightx = (x == 0) ? 0.1 : 1.0;
gbc.weighty = 1.0;
return gbc;
}
public String getFieldText(FieldTitle fieldTitle) {
return fieldMap.get(fieldTitle).getText();
}
}
Then show it in a JOptionPane like so:
PlayerEditorPanel playerEditorPanel = new PlayerEditorPanel();
int result = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog(null, playerEditorPanel,
"Edit Player JOptionPane", JOptionPane.OK_CANCEL_OPTION,
JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE);
and then extract the necessary information from the JPanel:
if (result == JOptionPane.OK_OPTION) {
for (PlayerEditorPanel.FieldTitle fieldTitle : PlayerEditorPanel.FieldTitle
.values()) {
textArea.append(String.format("%10s: %s%n",
fieldTitle.getTitle(),
playerEditorPanel.getFieldText(fieldTitle)));
}
}
The main class could look like:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.swing.*;
@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class ComplexOptionPane extends JPanel {
private PlayerEditorPanel playerEditorPanel = new PlayerEditorPanel();
private JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(12, 30);
public ComplexOptionPane() {
textArea.setEditable(false);
textArea.setFocusable(false);
textArea.setFont(new Font(Font.MONOSPACED, Font.PLAIN, 16));
JPanel bottomPanel = new JPanel();
bottomPanel.add(new JButton(new AbstractAction("Get Player Information") {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
int result = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog(null, playerEditorPanel,
"Edit Player JOptionPane", JOptionPane.OK_CANCEL_OPTION,
JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE);
if (result == JOptionPane.OK_OPTION) {
for (PlayerEditorPanel.FieldTitle fieldTitle : PlayerEditorPanel.FieldTitle
.values()) {
textArea.append(String.format("%10s: %s%n",
fieldTitle.getTitle(),
playerEditorPanel.getFieldText(fieldTitle)));
}
}
}
}));
setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
setLayout(new BorderLayout(5, 5));
add(new JScrollPane(textArea), BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(bottomPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
}
private static void createAndShowGui() {
ComplexOptionPane mainPanel = new ComplexOptionPane();
JFrame frame = new JFrame("ComplexOptionPane");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowGui();
}
});
}
}