The Java TM Tutorial

| Start of Tutorial > Start of Trail > Start of Lesson | Search

Trail: Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing
Lesson: Writing Event Listeners

## How to Write an Action Listener

> Action listeners are probably the easiest -- and most common -- event handlers to implement. You implement an action listener to respond to the user's indication that some implementation-dependent action should occur.

> When the user clicks a button, chooses a menu item or presses Return in a text field, an action event occurs. The result is that an `actionPerformed` message is sent to all action listeners that are registered on the relevant component.

> Here is the action event handling code from an applet named `Beeper`:

> >     public class Beeper ...  implements ActionListener {
> >         ...
> >         //where initialization occurs:
> >             button.addActionListener(this);
> >         ...
> >         public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
> >     	Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep();
> >         }
> >     }

> The `Beeper` applet is described in this trail's introduction to events, Some Simple Event-Handling Examples. You can find the entire program in `Beeper.java`. The other example described in that section, `MultiListener.java`, has two action sources and two action listeners, with one listener listening to both sources and the other listening to just one.

### The Action Event API

> The `ActionListener` interface contains a single method, and thus has no corresponding adapter class. Here is the lone `ActionListener` method:
> `void actionPerformed(ActionEvent)`
>   Called just after the user informs the listened-to component that an action should occur.
> The `actionPerformed` method has a single parameter: an `ActionEvent` object. The `ActionEvent` class defines two useful methods:
> `String getActionCommand()`
>   Returns the string associated with this action. Most objects that can fire action events support a method called `setActionCommand` that lets you set this string. If you don't set the action command explicitly, then it's generally the text displayed in the component. For objects with multiple items, and thus multiple possible actions, the action command is generally the name of the selected item.
> `int getModifiers()`
>   Returns an integer representing the modifier keys the user was pressing when the action event occurred. You can use the `ActionEvent`-defined constants `SHIFT_MASK`, `CTRL_MASK`, `META_MASK`, and `ALT_MASK` to determine which keys were pressed. For example, if the user Shift-selects a menu item, then the following expression is nonzero:

>   >     actionEvent.getModifiers() & ActionEvent.SHIFT_MASK

> Also useful is the `getSource` method, which `ActionEvent` inherits from `EventObject`.

### Examples that Use Action Listeners

> The following table lists some of the many examples that use action listeners.

> Example | Where Described | Notes
> --- | --- | ---
> `Beeper` | This section and Some Simple Event-Handling Examples | Contains one button with one action listener that beeps when you click the button.
> `MultiListener` | Some Simple Event-Handling Examples | Registers two different action listeners on one button. Also registers the same action listener on two different buttons.
> `RadioButtonDemo.java` | How to Use Radio Buttons | Registers the same action listener on five radio buttons. The listener uses the `getActionCommand` method to determine which radio button fired the event.
> `MenuDemo` | How to Use Menus | Shows how to listen for action events on menu items.
> `TextDemo` | How to Use Text Fields | An applet that registers an action listener on a text field.
> `ActionDemo` | How to Use Actions | Uses actions to bind buttons and menu items to the same function.
> `IconDemoApplet` | How to Use Icons | Loads an image in an action listener. Because loading an image can take a while, this program uses a `SwingWorker` to load the image in a background thread.
> `TableDialogEditDemo` | How to Use Tables | Registers an action listener through a factory method on the OK button of a color chooser dialog.
> `SliderDemo` | How to Use Sliders | Registers an action listener on a timer that controls an animation loop.

| Start of Tutorial > Start of Trail > Start of Lesson | Search