[java] Component Images

Say, you had a panel (or component in my case) that the user could drag a selection rectangle on. The class responsible for the selection rectangle responds to the mouseDrag event, and for each mouseDrag event I update the rectangle. To make this look good I can't leave the previous rectangle on the component. I originally wanted the ability to grab a picture of the component in its original state, and paste it on and then draw the new rectangle (in response to the mouseDrag event like I said above). But what I then realized I could do (and at this moment appears to be my only option) was use the component's repaint(x,y,width,height) to restore the component to its original appearance and then paint the new rectangle. But then I realized that you had to account for when the delta x was negative and the delta y was positive, and all the combinations that arise from that. That solution is reallyl not an elegant one, so, in short, I'm searching for a better solution.

Here's a pic of what's going on (don't know about the use of pics here yet, but from what I've seen this one is innocent enough )



JoeG


Edited by - joeG on 2/22/00 10:36:26 AM

You shouldn''t need to copy the background at all, if you do the selection rectangle correctly. (Assuming I understand what you''re trying to do)

A good way to do the drawing of the rectangle is to use the built-in DrawDragRect() function. It automatically erases the previous drawn rectangle before drawing a new one. You do have to keep track of the last position, but this should be easy to do. YOu also have to check for which quadrant your selection is in; you get some weird effects if you don''t. Its simple to use.. just play around with it and see if its what you want. The default behavior draws a selection rectangle seen throughout the windows interface.

Also, if you draw the lines yourself, you might want to look at using XOR operations in drawing. that way, you just draw over the last rectangle you drew with XOR, and it magically disappears. You''ll have to research this method though, haven''t done it that way in years.

good luck, and hope this was some help.



*oof*

Argh. I just realized you''re using Java (my fault for following the discussion link in the index page and not checking to see where it is)... I''m not sure how well the previous reccomendations work there... but you might want to see if Java provides similar functionality somewhere.

sorry if I confused ya.


*oof*

I forgot about XOR, I''ll try to see if I can find it.

Thanks,
JoeG

I tried it out. It won''t help, but looks cool. Any more ideas?

JoeG

This shouldn''t be too difficult. You''ll just have to store the previous rectangle (propably at the end of the mouseDragged() method) and draw it away using this XOR method. Something like this:

int beginX;
int beginY;
int endX;
int endY;
boolean fIsSelectingArea = false;

public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent event)
{
  if ((beginX != endX) && (beginY != endY))
  {
    paintSelectionRect(beginX, beginY, endX, endY);
  }

  endX = event.getX();
  endY = event.getY();

  // Paint the selection
  paintSelectionRect(beginX, beginY, endX, endY);
}

public void paintSelectionRect
(int left, int top, int right, int bottom)
{
  // Order the coordinates
  if (right < left)
  {
    int temp = left;
    left     = right;
    right    = temp;
  }

  if (bottom < top)
  {
    int temp = top;
    top      = bottom;
    bottom   = temp;
  }

  Graphics g = getGraphics();
  g.setColor(Color.green);
  g.setXORMode(Color.red);
  g.drawRect(left, top, right-left, bottom-top);
  g.setPaintMode();
}

And that''s it. I''ve used this code in one bitmap editor I made and it worked beautifully.

I see what you''re saying, you can''t just keep painting rectangles because there would be a ton of rectangles. Here''s something i thought of immediatley but have never implemented myself. Glass panes. Here''s a line from the tutorial "The glass pane is useful when you want to be able to catch events or paint over an area that already contains one or more components." Just catch the mouse drag events, clear out the glass pane, then paint over it. And you can set it''s visibility to false when you''re done using it. Basically glass panes are just components that are layered on top of everything.

Jim, Have any idea on how to do that in JDK 1.1?

Javanerd, that''s what I eventually want to end up with, a selection rectangle over an image (but not for editing though ), but I don''t see any code to undo the last rectangle drawn, so I''m thinking that there wouldn''t be any change between what you see in the pic above.

very doable under 1.1. Just make a class

MyGlassPane extends Component { 

....

paint (Graphics g) {
g.setColor(Color.OPAQUE);
g.drawRect(dimensions, of , entire, MyGlassPane);
g.setColor(Color.black);
g.drawRect(dimensions, sent, from ,dragEvent);
}
} 

Now, you might have to do something fancy with the event listeners, like onmousedown, set the glasspane's visibility to true, then give the glass pane a listener for mouse drags. See I don't know if the mouse drags will still get passed to the underlying component on wich the mouse was originally clicked or not. Just include printlns in your event listener to print out the event's source.

Edited by - Jim_Ross on 2/23/00 1:36:32 PM

quote:

---

Original post by joeG

Jim, Have any idea on how to do that in JDK 1.1?

Javanerd, that''s what I eventually want to end up with, a selection rectangle over an image (but not for editing though ), but I don''t see any code to undo the last rectangle drawn, so I''m thinking that there wouldn''t be any change between what you see in the pic above.

---

Ah, but there you are wrong my friend...

The XOR painting mode takes care of the painting AND the removing. The idea is that if you paint a rectangle first time using XOR mode it''ll alter the colors so that the rectangle is allways visible no matter what the background color is. Then when you paint the rectangle the second time using XOR mode it''ll erase whatever was painted the last time (assuming of course that you draw the exact same rectangle).

Try it!

But, when will the rectangle ever be drawn twice over itself? As you can see in the above pic, there are rectangles all over. Trying XOR, I would get the same lines, but with weird colors. Do you have tha old app(let) with you still. I'd like to see the source to see what your talking about.

Thanks though

JoeG

And one thing more, these rectangles are not solid rectangles

Edited by - joeG on 2/25/00 8:25:54 AM

quote:

---

Original post by javanerd

[quote] Original post by joeG

Jim, Have any idea on how to do that in JDK 1.1?

Javanerd, that's what I eventually want to end up with, a selection rectangle over an image (but not for editing though ), but I don't see any code to undo the last rectangle drawn, so I'm thinking that there wouldn't be any change between what you see in the pic above.


Ah, but there you are wrong my friend...

The XOR painting mode takes care of the painting AND the removing. The idea is that if you paint a rectangle first time using XOR mode it'll alter the colors so that the rectangle is allways visible no matter what the background color is. Then when you paint the rectangle the second time using XOR mode it'll erase whatever was painted the last time (assuming of course that you draw the exact same rectangle).

Try it!

---

Will that work even with the color black? I guess i don't fully understand the internals of a XOR color mode (model?)


Edited by - Jim_Ross on 2/25/00 1:00:23 PM

I imagine Java, if working in palette mode, would ''dereference'' both color''s indices and then peform the bitwise XOR. False (XOR) Anything = ThatAnything. Translation: 000 000 000 (XOR) 111 000 000 (red for example) = 111 000 000. I think it looks pretty cool. But it doesn''t solve my problem either