JTabbedPane

[kate damond]

Hi,
I have a JTabbed Pane with four tabs on it. The first three are quite straightforward, but the fourth one should be disabled at first, then be enabled when some event happens.
So, I initially set a property 'Enabled' fo false : this did nothing. Then I found a property called 'TabEnabled' which, when I set it to false, disables the tab. Great ! So, now, on actionperformed of som button or other, I want to set the TabEnabled property to true again. Alas, I can get at the relevant tab, and I can get at a setEnabled() method but nothing to do with TabEnabled.
So, sticking with just Enabled property and the setEnabled() method, I can't find any evidence of it doing anything ! The Tab is always available.
Any ideas ?
Kate
p.s I don't know why I've started appearing as a 'Ranch Hand' ... seems to imply that I know something - but I know nothing !

[Manfred Leonhardt]

Hi Kate,
First off, you have become a ranch hand because you have posted more than 30 posts. Congrats!
Second you should look at the JTabbedPane method setEnabledAt. The code below uses it in conjunction with the buttons above the TabbedPane.

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class TabbedPaneDemo extends JPanel 
{
  JTabbedPane tabbedPane;
  public TabbedPaneDemo() 
  {
    tabbedPane = new JTabbedPane();
    Component panel1 = makeTextPanel("Blah");
    tabbedPane.addTab("One", null, panel1, "Does nothing");
    tabbedPane.setSelectedIndex(0);
    Component panel2 = makeTextPanel("Blah blah");
    tabbedPane.addTab("Two", null, panel2, "Does twice as much nothing");
    Component panel3 = makeTextPanel("Blah blah blah");
    tabbedPane.addTab("Three", null, panel3, "Still does nothing");
    Component panel4 = makeTextPanel("Blah blah blah blah");
    tabbedPane.addTab("Four", null, panel4, "Does nothing at all");
    tabbedPane.setEnabledAt( 3, false );
    //Add the tabbed pane to this panel.
    setLayout( new BorderLayout() ); 
    Panel p5 = new Panel();
    Button b = new Button( "Enable" );
    b.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener()
      {
        public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent ae )
        {
          tabbedPane.setEnabledAt( 3, true );
        }
      });
    p5.add( b );
    b = new Button( "Disable" );
    b.addActionListener(
      new ActionListener()
      {
        public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent ae )
        {
          tabbedPane.setEnabledAt( 3, false );
        }
      });
    p5.add( b );
    add( p5, BorderLayout.NORTH );
    add(tabbedPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
  }
  protected Component makeTextPanel( String text ) 
  {
    JPanel panel = new JPanel( false );
    JLabel filler = new JLabel( text );
    filler.setHorizontalAlignment( JLabel.CENTER );
    panel.setLayout( new GridLayout( 1, 1 ) );
    panel.add( filler );
    return( panel );
  }
  public static void main( String[] args ) 
  {
    JFrame frame = new JFrame( "TabbedPaneDemo" );
    frame.addWindowListener(
      new WindowAdapter() 
      {
        public void windowClosing( WindowEvent e ) 
        {
          System.exit(0);
        }
      });
    frame.getContentPane().add( new TabbedPaneDemo(), 
                                BorderLayout.CENTER );
    frame.setSize( 400, 125 );
    frame.setVisible( true );
  }
}

Enjoy,
Manfred.