Common property for JButtons

Question

I am new to swing core functionalities. I have experience in web designing. There is id for uniqueness and class for commonality.

<div class="x" id="div1"></div>
<div class="x" id="div2"></div>

If i want to set property for all the divs, i ll use class x.

.x
{
} or via javascript or jquery

If i want to access single div, i ll make use of id. Because it is unique.

In the same way is there anything in java swing buttons?Assume i have 2D array of jbuttons.

Tried so far

I found putClientProperty and getClientproperty. It sets and returns id.

btnName.putClientproperty('id',value);

My first question:
Is it correct way to set Unique id's? Is there any other ways?

JButton[][] btns = new JButton[5][5];
for(int i=0; i<5; i++)
{
 for(int j=0;j<5;j++)
 {
   btns[i][j] = new JButton("Button"+i+j);
 }
}

The above code will create 25 buttons with names.

My Second Question: I am unaware of it.How to set classes so that i can enable or disable them with single line code? I meant All the 25 buttons has a common class let it be tiles

JButton.find('tiles').setEnabled(false);

Is there anything similarly in java? I know the way to iterate and do it. But i want to reduce the number of lines, function calls. That's why i posted this question. Please let me know

Answer 1

In your code example...

JButton[][] btns = new JButton[5][5];
for(int i=0; i<5; i++)
{
    for(int j=0;j<5;j++)
    {
        btns[i][j] = new JButton("Button"+i+j);
    }
}

You say...

The above code will create 25 buttons with names.

This isn't entirely true, it creates 25 buttons with the text of Button"+i+j, this might sound like a nit-pick, but it's important, as the buttons don't have names and so far, the only thing differentiating them is the text which is displayed on the screen.

Multiple buttons might have the same text, so this isn't really setting up uniqueness, other than their individual (memory) reference.

"Unique id's" is also ambiguous. Each button you have created is unique, but it might share similar properties, such as name, text and actionCommand, so the only thing making it unique is it's location in memory.

If that's what you mean, then yes, this would be start...

My Second Question: I am unaware of it.How to set classes so that i can enable or disable them with single line code? I meant All the 25 buttons has a common class let it be tiles

From an API point of view, no. You would need to iterate the buttons and manage each one individually. However, having said that, you could take advantage of the Action API.

An Action is typically a self-contained unit of work, which makes it easy to apply to multiple buttons, menu items and key bindings...but in your case, we're only interested in manipulating it's enabled state, for example, starting with...

public class GroupAction extends AbstractAction {
    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
    }
}

You could then do something like...

GroupAction groupAction = new GroupAction();
JButton[][] btns = new JButton[5][5];
for(int i=0; i<5; i++)
{
    for(int j=0;j<5;j++)
    {
        btns[i][j] = new JButton(groupAction);
        // This is important as the button will want
        // to use the Action properties to configure itself
        btns[i][j].setText("Button"+i+j);
    }
}

Then you could use something like...

groupAction.setEnabled(false);

to disable all the buttons with the SAME instance of the GroupAction

Take a look at How to Use Actions for more details

Answer 2

You can always make a map of Object -> Integer or String with your id. Ex.:

Map<JButton, Integer> buttonToIdMap = new TreeMap<JButton, Integer>();

And put into the map your IDs:

buttonToIdMap.put(button, 123);

When you need ID to a button:

int id = buttonToIdMap.get(button);