Autoscrolling in a JTextField

[Matt De]

I am making a chat like client. I want it to auto scroll down to keep up with the text. Right now the text is added but the scroll bar doesn't move. I was looking at some scrollable stuff in the API, but I am still new to java and it is hard for me to find the right methods and stuff for what I want to do. I have programming experience, but am still a little confused on find what I need to accomplish certain tasks in java. Thanks for any help given. I have scrollbars in place already I just need any info on how to make the JTextField scroll along as new text extends past the bottom of my JTextField.

[Ilja Preuss]

Moving to Swing/AWT...

[Steve Morrow]

setCaretPosition();

Example:

import javax.swing.*;
 
class TextAreaDemo implements Runnable {
    
    private JTextArea display;
    private static int count = 0;
    private static final String NEWLINE = System.getProperty("line.separator");
    
    public TextAreaDemo() {
        init();
    }
    
    private void init() {
        display = new JTextArea(5, 30);
        display.setEditable(true);        
        
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("TextAreaDemo");
        
        frame.getContentPane().add(new JScrollPane(display,
            JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED,
            JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER
        ));
        
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }
    
    public void run() { 
        while (true) {
            SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
                public void run() {
                    count++;
                    display.append(count + ": All work and no play makes Jack " +
                                   "a dull boy." + NEWLINE);
                    display.setCaretPosition(display.getText().length());
                }
            });
            try { Thread.sleep(1000); } catch (InterruptedException e) { /* ... */ }
        }
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Thread t = new Thread(new TextAreaDemo());
        t.start();
    }
    
}

[ July 29, 2005: Message edited by: Steve Morrow ]

[Matt De]

Thanks got it to work. I saw something on setCaretPosition but didn't understand it completely. Thanks