TableModelEvent question: fires AFTER user has navigated away from cell, not what I need

[J Westland]

Hello -

Another day in Java land. I am working on a little Swing/SQL application to hone my skills. It is for keeping data and pictures of chickens (I keep chickens)

It loads the data from the MySQL into a table using DefaultTableModel (will implement my own model later, on the ToDo list)

Now users can also show a picture of the chicken as filepaths are very annoying to type, I want to use a JFileChooser so users can select the picture, then save path into DB.

So I "bound" a TableModelListener to the table, once a TMEvent fires I ask it to check for the row/column if these match the picture cell (selection of course set to single_selection) it starts the JFileChooser. However, this only starts AFTER a users has navigated away or hit "enter" in the table text cell that holds picture data. I want it to start right away, "on click".

Is there a simple way to do what I want, or will it be Swings and roundabouts? If there's a class/interface or combination thereof, just say which ones to use and I will try to figure out the rest myself.

Thanks for reading

See code below.

 public class MyTableModelListener implements TableModelListener {

	/**
	 * Constructors
	 */

	MyTableModelListener(View view) {
		this.view = view;
	}

	/**
	 * Instance Variables
	 */

	private View view = null;
	JFileChooser myJFC = null;

	HashMap<Object, Object> dataToWrite = new HashMap<Object, Object>();

	/**
	 * Methods
	 */

	public void tableChanged(TableModelEvent e) {

		int row = e.getFirstRow();
		int column = e.getColumn();
		if (row == 22 && column == 1) {
			startJFileChooser();
			System.out.println("picture cell selected");
			
		}
		TableModel model = (TableModel) e.getSource();

		if (column >= 1) {
			Object dataLabel = model.getValueAt(row, column - 1);
			// data writing bit
			Object data = model.getValueAt(row, column); // column-1 should be
			// name
			System.out.println(dataLabel + " " + data.toString() + "row number"
					+ row);
			dataToWrite.put(dataLabel, data);
		}
	}

	private void startJFileChooser() {

		myJFC = new MyJFileChooser(view, "jpg", "gif");
		int returnVal = myJFC.showOpenDialog(view);
		if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
			System.out.println("You chose to open this file: "
					+ myJFC.getSelectedFile().getName());

		}
	}
}   

[Rob Camick]

If you are saying that the user can select any image from anywhere on the file system, then using a JFileChooser may be the best approach. However instead of using a TableModelListener you will need to use a "custom editor" to display the file chooser. Read the JTable API and follow the link to the Swing tutorial where you will find an example that display a JColorChooser as the editor. You should be able to customize the code for the file chooser.

If you are limiting the user to select an image from a given directory, it may be easier to use a combo box as the editor and to preload all the images into the combo box. Then the user can just select the image from the combo box.

[J Westland]

Ah makes sense, don't use the table but use the component that displays the image to "listen" and open the JFileChooser.

That will work, thank you