With this example we shall show you how to work with MouseListener and MouseMotionListener interfaces in order to handle and monitor mouse events an especially mouse drags. This is a very nice feature to use if your application has many graphical object that the user needs to move around the screen very frequently. It’s is very user friendly to let the user drag the object to perform these kinds of actions.
Basically all you have to do in order to handle mouse drags and mouse moves is:
- Create a class that implements
MouseListenerandMouseMotionListenerinterfaces. - Override
mouseClickedto handle mouse clicks,mouseEntered,mouseExitedmethods to check whether your mouse has entered or exited a certain area,mousePressedto monitor the mouse button clicks,mouseReleasedto check when the user releases a mouse button. - Override
mouseDraggedmethod in order to handle mouse drags. Userepaint()method to repaint the object in its new position.
Let’s take a look at the code snippets that follow:
package com.javacodegeeks.snippets.desktop;
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.event.MouseInputAdapter;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
/*
* When the user drags within the image, this program
* displays a rectangle and a string indicating the bounds of the rectangle.
*/
public class DragD {
JLabel label;
static String starFile = "C:/Users/nikos7/Desktop/pic.jpg";
private void createUi(Container cnt, ImageIcon backgr) {
cnt.setLayout(new BoxLayout(cnt, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
SelectRectangle area = new SelectRectangle(backgr, this);
cnt.add(area);
label = new JLabel("");
label.setLabelFor(area);
cnt.add(label);
area.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
label.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
}
public void updateLabel(Rectangle rect) {
int w = rect.width;
int h = rect.height;
if (w == 0) {
w = 1;
}
if (h == 0) {
h = 1;
}
label.setText("Rectangle extends from (" + rect.x + ", " + rect.y
+ ") to (" + (rect.x + w - 1) + ", "
+ (rect.y + h - 1) + ").");
}
protected static ImageIcon createBachground(String path) {
return new ImageIcon(path);
}
private static void createGUI() {
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
JFrame frame = new JFrame("DragDemo");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
DragD controller = new DragD();
controller.createUi(frame.getContentPane(), createBachground(starFile));
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
createGUI();
}
});
}
private class SelectRectangle extends JLabel {
Rectangle curRect = null;
Rectangle rectDraw = null;
Rectangle prevRectDrawn = new Rectangle();
DragD drag;
public SelectRectangle(ImageIcon icon, DragD ctlr) {
//In order to dispay the image
super(icon);
this.drag = ctlr;
setOpaque(true);
setMinimumSize(new Dimension(4,4));
MListener mylistn = new MListener();
addMouseListener(mylistn);
addMouseMotionListener(mylistn);
}
private class MListener extends MouseInputAdapter {
@Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent event) {
int x = event.getX();int y = event.getY();
curRect = new Rectangle(x, y, 0, 0);
updateDrawableRect(getWidth(), getHeight());
repaint();
}
@Override
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
updateSize(e);
}
@Override
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
updateSize(e);
}
void updateSize(MouseEvent e) {
int x = e.getX();
int y = e.getY();
curRect.setSize(x - curRect.x, y - curRect.y);
updateDrawableRect(getWidth(), getHeight());
Rectangle totalRepaint = rectDraw.union(prevRectDrawn);
repaint(totalRepaint.x, totalRepaint.y, totalRepaint.width,
totalRepaint.height);
}
}
@Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics grapgic) {
// setup the backgroud
super.paintComponent(grapgic);
if (curRect != null) {
grapgic.setXORMode(Color.white);
grapgic.drawRect(rectDraw.x, rectDraw.y, rectDraw.width - 1,
rectDraw.height - 1);
drag.updateLabel(rectDraw);
}
}
private void updateDrawableRect(int compW, int compH) {
int x = curRect.x;
int y = curRect.y;
int w = curRect.width;
int h = curRect.height;
if (w < 0) {
w = 0 - w;
x = x - w + 1;
if (x < 0) {
w += x;
x = 0;
}
}
if (h < 0) {
h = 0 - h;
y = y - h + 1;
if (y < 0) {
h += y;
y = 0;
}
}
if ((x + w) > compW) {
w = compW - x;
}
if ((y + h) > compH) {
h = compH - y;
}
if (rectDraw != null) {
prevRectDrawn.setBounds(rectDraw.x, rectDraw.y,
rectDraw.width, rectDraw.height);
rectDraw.setBounds(x, y, w, h);
} else {
rectDraw = new Rectangle(x, y, w, h);
}
}
}
}
This was an example on how to work with drag and selection operations in Java.
