de.schlichtherle.swing
Class AbstractComboBoxBrowser

java.lang.Object
  de.schlichtherle.swing.AbstractComboBoxBrowser

All Implemented Interfaces:

Serializable

Direct Known Subclasses:

FileComboBoxBrowser

public abstract class AbstractComboBoxBrowser
extends Object
implements Serializable

An observer for a JComboBox which provides auto completion for the editable text in the drop down list in order to provide quick browsing capabilities for the user. Subclasses need to implement the update(java.lang.String) method in order to update the combo box model with the actual auto completion data.

This class is designed to be minimal intrusive: It works with any subclass of JComboBox and doesn't require a special ComboBoxModel, although its specific behaviour will only show if the JComboBox is editable and uses an instance of a MutableComboBoxModel (which, apart from the editable property being set to true, is the default for a plain JComboBox).

Since:

TrueZIP 6.2

Version:

TrueZIP 6.7

Author:

Christian Schlichtherle

See Also:

Serialized Form

Constructor Summary

AbstractComboBoxBrowser()
Creates a new combo box auto completion browser.

AbstractComboBoxBrowser(JComboBox comboBox)
Creates a new combo box auto completion browser.

Method Summary

JComboBox	getComboBox() Returns the combo box which this object is auto completing.
void	setComboBox(JComboBox comboBox) Sets the combo box which this object is auto completing and updates the drop down list with the auto completion for the currently selected item.
protected abstract boolean	update(String initials) Subclasses are expected to update the auto completion elements in the model of this combo box based on the specified initials.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

AbstractComboBoxBrowser

public AbstractComboBoxBrowser()

Creates a new combo box auto completion browser. setComboBox(javax.swing.JComboBox) must be called in order to use this object.

AbstractComboBoxBrowser

public AbstractComboBoxBrowser(JComboBox comboBox)

Creates a new combo box auto completion browser. Note that this constructor does not call update(java.lang.String) and hence the drop down list of the combo box is left unchanged.

Parameters:

comboBox - The combo box to enable browsing for auto completions. May be null.

Method Detail

getComboBox

public JComboBox getComboBox()

Returns the combo box which this object is auto completing. The default is null.

setComboBox

public void setComboBox(JComboBox comboBox)

Sets the combo box which this object is auto completing and updates the drop down list with the auto completion for the currently selected item.

Parameters:

comboBox - The combo box to enable browsing for auto completions. May be null.

update

protected abstract boolean update(String initials)

Subclasses are expected to update the auto completion elements in the model of this combo box based on the specified initials. They should not do any other work within this method. In particular, they should not update the visual appearance of this component.

getComboBox() is guaranteed to return non-null if this method is called from this abstract base class.

Parameters:

initials - The text to auto complete. May be null.

Returns:

Whether or not the combo box should pop up to show the updated contents of its model.