HeaderBar & Alert/Dialog/DialogPane

[Cormac Redmond]

I should add, it's the same problem for other standard controls
like ChoiceDialog and TextInputDialog. It's not (easily/feasibly) possible
to customise the header bar / window buttons for these dialogs either.

On Mon, 20 Oct 2025 at 23:04, Cormac Redmond <credmond at certak.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I touched on this before, but I still think there are gaps that should be
> addressed with using HeaderBars and Alerts/Dialogs/DialogPanes.
>
> There's a bunch of logic in Alert/Dialog/DialogPane regarding headerText
> vs. headerNode precedence, graphic node placement, etc., which all depends
> on what is set and when, etc.
>
> To incorporate HeaderBar into Dialogs, the advice before was to "get" the
> existing header node, if it's there, and set it as the center of a new
> BorderPane and stick the HeaderBar as top, and set that BorderPane as the
> DialogPane's header, in order to use HeaderBar. But that only partially
> solves some problems, some of the time.
>
> If you use a HeaderBar for the purpose I do: to control the color (get rid
> of the ugly white bg) & to to save some precious space (i.e., get a menu
> system on the left + window icons on the right) *and* want a consistent
> look and feel across your application regarding popups, you must sacrifice
> all of this "standard" functionality of standard Alerts/Dialogs; *or*
> don't use HeaderBar for dialogs -- which looks unpolished and lacking.
>
> Look at this example (which only touches the surface):
>
> public class HeaderBarSupport extends Application {
>
>     private boolean INSTALL_HEADER_BAR = true;
>
>     @Override
>     public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
>         showErrorDialogHeaderText("title", "will see this", "content",
> !INSTALL_HEADER_BAR); // No HeaderBar, all is fine
>         showErrorDialogHeaderText("will not see this title", "will not see
> this header text", "content", INSTALL_HEADER_BAR); // Won't see title,
> headerText, or big red X
>     }
>
>     private void showErrorDialogHeaderText(String title, String
> headerText, String content, boolean installHeaderBar) {
>         Alert alert = new Alert(Alert.AlertType.ERROR, content); // Expect
> error
>         alert.setTitle(title);
>         alert.setHeaderText(headerText);
>         alert.setContentText(content);
>
>         if (installHeaderBar) {
>             installHeaderBar(alert);
>         }
>
>         alert.showAndWait();
>     }
>
>     private void installHeaderBar(final Dialog dialog) {
>         Node existingHeader = dialog.getDialogPane().getHeader(); // null
> in these examples
>         BorderPane borderPane = new BorderPane();
>         // Note: could set a label with title in the HeaderBar if desired,
> but that's about as much as you can salvage
>         borderPane.setTop(new HeaderBar());
>         borderPane.setCenter(existingHeader);
>         dialog.getDialogPane().setHeader(borderPane);
>         dialog.initStyle(StageStyle.EXTENDED);
>     }
>
>     public static void main(String[] args) {
>         launch(args);
>     }
> }
>
>
>
>
>
> Kind Regards,
> Cormac
>
>
>
>
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