Refresh TableView (in fxml A controller) on button event in fxml B controller

[Giedrius Stasiulis]

Hi,

I'm trying to make a table, which would refresh and display all new values whenever a new value is added to it. More specifically, I need to have the TableView(in fxml A controller) refresh on certain button event in fxml B controller. So far, when the button is clicked, the object is successfully created and stored in an array list. But the table does not display this new value right after. Only after I restart the app I can see that the new value has been added to the table. Been looking for a way to somehow work this out, but with no luck. It's probably worth to mention that I've created the GUI panels in SceneBuilder and then added the fxml files to the java project.

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks

Here is the main controller(fxml A) code:

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.ResourceBundle;
import com.sun.javafx.scene.control.skin.TableViewSkinBase;
import javafx.collections.FXCollections;
import javafx.collections.ObservableList;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader;
import javafx.fxml.Initializable;
import javafx.scene.Parent;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.control.cell.PropertyValueFactory;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class GUIMainController
{
	private MemberList memberList = new MemberList();
	private String filename = "MemberList.txt";
	private MemberFile memberFile = new MemberFile(filename);
		
	@FXML private GUIAddMemberPanelController guiAddMemberPanelController;
	
	@FXML private TableView<Member> tableMembers;
	
        @FXML private TableColumn<Member, String> tcMemberName;
        @FXML private TableColumn<Member, String> tcMemberEmail;	
	
	
	public void initialize() throws FileNotFoundException, ParseException
	{
		tcMemberName.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<Member, String>("name"));
	        tcMemberEmail.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<Member, String>("email"));

	        tableMembers.setItems(getList());	    
	}

	
	public ObservableList<Member> getList() throws FileNotFoundException, ParseException
	{
	    ObservableList<Member> members = FXCollections.observableArrayList();

	    MemberList memberList = memberFile.readMemberTextFile();

	    for (int i = 0; i < memberList.size(); i++)
	    {
	        members.add(new Member(memberList.getMember(i).getName(), memberList.getMember(i).getEmail()));
	    }       

	    return members;     
	}	
	
	
	public void setText(String text)
	{
		tfShowMemberName.setText(text);
	}
	
	public void showMemberTable() throws ParseException, FileNotFoundException
	{				
	    tcMemberName.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<Member, String>("name"));
	    tcMemberEmail.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<Member, String>("email"));

	    tableMembers.setItems(getList());
	    tableMembers.setEditable(true);
	}   	


	public void openAddMemberPanel(ActionEvent event) {
		try {
			FXMLLoader loader = new FXMLLoader();
			loader.setLocation(getClass().getResource("FXML/viaGUIaddNewMemberPanel.fxml"));
			loader.setController(new GUIAddMemberPanelController());
			Parent root = loader.load();
			Stage stage = new Stage();
			Scene scene = new Scene(root);

			stage.setTitle("Add new lecturer");
			stage.setScene(scene);
			stage.show();
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
}

And here is the secondary controller (fxml B) code:

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.util.ArrayList;

import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

import javafx.collections.FXCollections;
import javafx.collections.ObservableList;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader;
import javafx.scene.Parent;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.control.cell.PropertyValueFactory;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class GUIAddMemberPanelController 
{
	private Member member;
	private String filename = "MemberList.txt";
	private MemberList memberList = new MemberList();
	private MemberFile memberFile = new MemberFile(filename);	

	@FXML private TextField tfEnterMemberName,tfEnterMemberEmail;
	
	@FXML private Button btnAddMember,btnClearAddMemberTextFields,btnCancelAddMemberPanel;
	
	
    public void addMember(ActionEvent event) throws ParseException, CloneNotSupportedException, IOException 
    {
    	String memberName = tfEnterMemberName.getText();
    	String memberEmail = tfEnterMemberEmail.getText();
		member = new Member(memberName,memberEmail);
		memberList.addMemberToList(member);
		memberFile.writeMemberTextFile(memberList);
				
		FXMLLoader loader = new FXMLLoader();
		
		loader.setLocation(getClass().getResource("FXML/viaGUI.fxml"));
		GUIMainController guiMainController = new GUIMainController();
		loader.setController(guiMainController);		
		Parent root = loader.load();
		
		guiMainController.showMemberTable();
		
		cancelAddMemberPanel(event);	
    }      


	public void clearAddMemberTextFields(ActionEvent event) 
	{
		tfEnterMemberName.setText("");
		tfEnterMemberEmail.setText("");		
	}

	public void cancelAddMemberPanel(ActionEvent event) throws FileNotFoundException, ParseException
	{
		Stage stage = (Stage) btnCancelAddMemberPanel.getScene().getWindow();
	    stage.close();	    
	}
}

Member constructor:

public Member(String name, String email) {
		this.name = name;
		this.email = email;
	}

Main program:

public class MainClass extends Application 
{
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		launch(args);
	}	
	
	public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
		FXMLLoader loader = new FXMLLoader();
		loader.setController(new GUIMainController());

		loader.setLocation(getClass().getResource("FXML/viaGUI.fxml"));
		Parent root = loader.load();

		Scene scene = new Scene(root);

		stage.setTitle("MySystem");

		stage.setScene(scene);
		stage.show();		
	}
}

[Knute Snortum]

I may be getting old, but I don't see where you are adding a new member to tableViewB.

Regardless, try this right after you add the member:

tableViewB.refresh();

This requires at least Java 8u60.

Java Docs wrote:Calling refresh() forces the TableView control to recreate and repopulate the cells necessary to populate the visual bounds of the control. In other words, this forces the TableView to update what it is showing to the user. This is useful in cases where the underlying data source has changed in a way that is not observed by the TableView itself.Since:JavaFX 8u60