Dialogs in JavaFX

[Jonathan Giles]

Jeff, could you please post your comments in Jira so that we don't lose 
them?

Thanks!

-- Jonathan

On 21/06/2014 3:59 a.m., Jeff Martin wrote:
> I agree that the four showXXX() methods are a slight complexity, but I think they are simpler than the alternative. They quickly communicate the implied "Type" of the DialogBox and response:
>
> 	// Type Message: No response
> 	DialogBox dbox = new DialogBox("FYI"); dbox.setMessage("Just saying...");
> 	dbox.showMessageDialog(focusedNode);
>
> 	// Type Confirm: Boolean response
> 	DialogBox dbox = new DialogBox("Sanity Check"); dbox.setMessage("Really???");
> 	boolean response = dbox.showConfirmDialog(focusedNode);
>
> 	// Type Option: Integer response
> 	DialogBox dbox = new DialogBox("Which One"); dbox.setMessage("Select One"); dbox.setOptions(myOptions);
> 	int response = dbox.showOptionDialog(focusedNode, defaultOption);
>
> 	// Type Input: String response
> 	DialogBox dbox = new DialogBox("Tell Me"); dbox.setMessage("Tell me what you want:");
> 	String response = xbox.showOptionDialog(focusedNode, default);
>
> The only alternative I see would be to explicitly set a DialogBox type and return a DialogBoxResponse, which could embody any of the above. That seems cumbersome to me. I also think it would be over-engineering to try to support any kind of response (say like a Color or a Font). In these cases, I think it's better to have your ColorChooserPane or FontChooserPane act as content:
>
> 	// Type ColorChooser: Boolean response plus Color
> 	DialogBox dbox = new DialogBox("Please Pick a Color"); dbox.setContent(myColorChooserPane);
> 	if(dbox.showConfirmPanel(focusedNode))
> 		setColor(myColorChooserPane.getSelectedColor());
>
> In fact, your ColorChooserPane could have a showColorDialog() method that would just be the above code.
>
> Jeff Martin
>
> On Jun 20, 2014, at 10:15 AM, Stephen F Northover <steve.x.northover at oracle.com> wrote:
>
>> This essentially matches my current thinking, however, I would have DialogBox as an abstract superclass of Alert.  Further, I would not have many different types of show() methods.
>>
>> Want to take the discussion further in the JIRA?  That way, is will track everyone's thinking on the various issues.  The downside is that JIRA does not provide threaded conversations and it can be hard to follow.
>>
>> Steve
>>
>> On 2014-06-20, 9:41 AM, Jeff Martin wrote:
>>> That is a great post. I think the big problem with dialogs in Swing was the permutations problem. There were four basic types of dialogs (Message, Confirm, Option, Input) with six different parameters (Title, Message, Icon, Content, MessageType, Options) - so JOptionPane ended up with a sea of static methods that were confusing to navigate.
>>>
>>> I don't think you could go wrong with a simple DialogBox class like this (I love simple):
>>>
>>> 	// Constructor
>>> 	public DialogBox(String aTitle);
>>>
>>> 	// Options
>>> 	public String getTitle();
>>> 	public void setTitle(String aTitle);
>>> 	public String getMessage();
>>> 	public void setMessage(String aMessage);
>>> 	public MessageType getMessageType();
>>> 	public void setMessageType(MessageType aMessageType);
>>> 	public Node getContent();
>>> 	public void setContent(Node aNode);
>>> 	public Node getGraphic();
>>> 	public void setGraphic(Node aNode);
>>> 	public String[] getOptions();
>>> 	public void setOptions(String ... theOptions);
>>>
>>> 	// Convenience methods to set Message + MessageType
>>> 	public void setErrorMessage(String aMessage);
>>> 	public void setWarningMessage(String aMessage);
>>> 	public void setQuestionMessage(String aMessage);
>>>
>>> 	// Show methods
>>> 	public void showMessageDialog(T aComp);
>>> 	public boolean showConfirmDialog(T aComp);
>>> 	public int showOptionDialog(T aComp, String aDefault);
>>> 	public String showInputDialog(T aComp, String aDefault);
>>>
>>> 	// Programatic dismissal
>>> 	public void confirm();
>>> 	public void cancel();
>>>
>>> Then most common invocations would look something like this:
>>>
>>> 	// Get user confirmation
>>> 	DialogBox dbox = new DialogBox("Sanity Check");
>>> 	dbox.setWarningMessage("Are you sure you want to do this? It could kill you.");
>>> 	if(!dbox.showConfirmationDialog(focusedNode)) return;
>>>
>>> Using instance methods instead of static methods gives opportunity to subclass and override various methods. And notice the Content attribute - for the standard case when no Content is provided, it is built programmatically based on the parameters (essentially just the message and either an Option combo, an input textfield or nothing).
>>>
>>> I've been using this in my JavaFX app for a while and it is working great and makes porting from Swing easy. I even built it on a convenient FormBuilder class that makes building a simple stack of form controls easy, and can also be used for advanced DialogBoxes.
>>>
>>> Jeff Martin
>>> 214.513.1636
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jun 20, 2014, at 7:05 AM, Stephen F Northover <steve.x.northover at oracle.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Great post Jonathan.  The summary is that whatever direction we take, we'll have a plan for the future.  So if we run out of time and provide only a very scaled back API, we'll have prototyped how it can evolve to handle more complex cases.
>>>>
>>>> Steve
>>>>
>>>> On 2014-06-20, 12:37 AM, Jonathan Giles wrote:
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> Dialogs are something everyone wants, and also something most people seem to have an opinion on! JavaFX 8u40 will have dialogs, but what form they take (API-wise) is not yet defined. I've posted a relatively long discussion on this over at FX Experience [1] and your feedback is highly welcome. As I note in the blog post, the Jira issue for this feature is RT-12643. If you have any thoughts, please do post them there (rather than spam the many good people subscribed to openjfx-dev).
>>>>>
>>>>> [1] http://fxexperience.com/2014/06/bringing-dialogs-to-javafx/
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>