1 /*
2 * Copyright (c) 1997, 2005, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
3 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
4 *
5 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
6 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
7 * published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
8 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
9 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
10 *
11 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
12 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
13 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
14 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
15 * accompanied this code).
16 *
17 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
18 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
19 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
20 *
21 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
22 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
23 * questions.
24 */
25
26 package javax.swing;
27
28 import java.util.EventObject;
29 import javax.swing.event.*;
30
31 /**
32 * This interface defines the methods any general editor should be able
33 * to implement. <p>
34 *
35 * Having this interface enables complex components (the client of the
36 * editor) such as <code>JTree</code> and
37 * <code>JTable</code> to allow any generic editor to
38 * edit values in a table cell, or tree cell, etc. Without this generic
39 * editor interface, <code>JTable</code> would have to know about specific editors,
40 * such as <code>JTextField</code>, <code>JCheckBox</code>, <code>JComboBox</code>,
41 * etc. In addition, without this interface, clients of editors such as
42 * <code>JTable</code> would not be able
43 * to work with any editors developed in the future by the user
44 * or a 3rd party ISV. <p>
45 *
46 * To use this interface, a developer creating a new editor can have the
47 * new component implement the interface. Or the developer can
48 * choose a wrapper based approach and provide a companion object which
49 * implements the <code>CellEditor</code> interface (See
50 * <code>JCellEditor</code> for example). The wrapper approach
51 * is particularly useful if the user want to use a 3rd party ISV
52 * editor with <code>JTable</code>, but the ISV didn't implement the
53 * <code>CellEditor</code> interface. The user can simply create an object
54 * that contains an instance of the 3rd party editor object and "translate"
55 * the <code>CellEditor</code> API into the 3rd party editor's API.
56 *
57 * @see javax.swing.event.CellEditorListener
58 *
59 * @author Alan Chung
60 */
61 public interface CellEditor {
62
63 /**
64 * Returns the value contained in the editor.
65 * @return the value contained in the editor
66 */
67 public Object getCellEditorValue();
68
69 /**
70 * Asks the editor if it can start editing using <code>anEvent</code>.
71 * <code>anEvent</code> is in the invoking component coordinate system.
72 * The editor can not assume the Component returned by
73 * <code>getCellEditorComponent</code> is installed. This method
74 * is intended for the use of client to avoid the cost of setting up
75 * and installing the editor component if editing is not possible.
76 * If editing can be started this method returns true.
77 *
78 * @param anEvent the event the editor should use to consider
79 * whether to begin editing or not
80 * @return true if editing can be started
81 * @see #shouldSelectCell
82 */
83 public boolean isCellEditable(EventObject anEvent);
84
85 /**
86 * Returns true if the editing cell should be selected, false otherwise.
87 * Typically, the return value is true, because is most cases the editing
88 * cell should be selected. However, it is useful to return false to
89 * keep the selection from changing for some types of edits.
90 * eg. A table that contains a column of check boxes, the user might
91 * want to be able to change those checkboxes without altering the
92 * selection. (See Netscape Communicator for just such an example)
93 * Of course, it is up to the client of the editor to use the return
94 * value, but it doesn't need to if it doesn't want to.
95 *
96 * @param anEvent the event the editor should use to start
97 * editing
98 * @return true if the editor would like the editing cell to be selected;
99 * otherwise returns false
100 * @see #isCellEditable
101 */
102 public boolean shouldSelectCell(EventObject anEvent);
103
104 /**
105 * Tells the editor to stop editing and accept any partially edited
106 * value as the value of the editor. The editor returns false if
107 * editing was not stopped; this is useful for editors that validate
108 * and can not accept invalid entries.
109 *
110 * @return true if editing was stopped; false otherwise
111 */
112 public boolean stopCellEditing();
113
114 /**
115 * Tells the editor to cancel editing and not accept any partially
116 * edited value.
117 */
118 public void cancelCellEditing();
119
120 /**
121 * Adds a listener to the list that's notified when the editor
122 * stops, or cancels editing.
123 *
124 * @param l the CellEditorListener
125 */
126 public void addCellEditorListener(CellEditorListener l);
127
128 /**
129 * Removes a listener from the list that's notified
130 *
131 * @param l the CellEditorListener
132 */
133 public void removeCellEditorListener(CellEditorListener l);
134 }