Action Listener

[Antigoni Splash]

What are the ways to listen to events when creating a java gui? Can i have a generic action listener for all events and don't add to every button an action listener? Also what is the different between implementing an action listener and not?!

Thanks in advance,
a newbie in java and java ranch!

[Rob Spoor]

Moving to Swing.

[Michael Dunn]

an AWTEventListener where you specify the 'EVENT_MASK' should do it

[Fred Hamilton]

I am not familiar with Michael Dunn's suggestion, but I can offer this...

I usually just have my main GUI class extend JPanel and implement action listener, or mouseListener. By extending JPanel you can easily add your GUI to either a JFrame or a JApplet.

Any component that is added to the JPanel can have an action listener on it. for example, the contructor for my JPanel class might call a buildGUI method which includes the following code for a JButton.

JButton jb1 = new JButton("Action1");
jb1.addActionListener(this);

Then my GUI will have a single actionPerformed method, which will use if...then blocks for each possible action command. e,g,

public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e ) {

    String cmd = e.getActionCommand();
    if( cmd.equals("Action1") {
        .
        .
        .
    etc.

}

p.s. sorry, please ignore, I didn't read the question carefully, my suggestion is what you have said you don't want to do.