Java awt question (JScrollPane and JTextArea)

[Kralizec]

Before I begin, let me say that my problem is not regarding how to put a JTextArea in a JScrollPane. I've already done that and it works fine.
My problem is that now that I've put my text area in the scroll pane, I can no longer access/modify the text in the text area. getText() always returns an empty string, the document returned by getDocument() is also empty, and I cannot modify the text using setText().
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[mike_g]

Maybe you could post the code?

I did a very quick mockup in netbeans which works for me:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class Window extends JFrame {
public Window(){
this.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT _ON_CLOSE);
JPanel content = new JPanel();
final JTextArea ta = new JTextArea();
ta.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200, 40));
JScrollPane sp = new JScrollPane(ta);
JButton btn = new JButton("Hit me!");
btn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println(ta.getText());
}
});
content.add(sp);
content.add(btn);
this.add(content);
this.setVisible(true);
this.pack();
}
}

[Kralizec]

Thank you for your reply.

Here is a code segment containing the relevant code:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

//class definition, etc. here

private static JTextArea commBox;

//other code (initializing other instance variables)

commBox = new JTextArea(5, 15);
JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(commBox);
commBox.setLineWrap(true);
commBox.setWrapStyleWord(true);

//Other code

//The relevant action listener
JButton submit = new JButton("Submit Entry");
submit.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
submit.addActionListener(
new ActionListener()
{
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
try {
if(SQL.add(con, getDate(), getMaintenance(), getComments()) == 1)
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(frame, "Entry successfully added.");
} catch (SQLException sqle)
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(frame, "Uh-oh, entry unsuccessful.");
}
}
});

//other code

//The helper method
public String getComments()
{
System.out.println(commBox.getText());
return commBox.getText();
}


I've also attached the whole .java file as .txt in case having the entire code body would be helpful.

[pbrockway2]

From the code that you attached:


commBox = new JTextArea(5, 15);
JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(commBox);
commBox.setLineWrap(true);
commBox.setWrapStyleWord(true);
commLabel.setLabelFor(commBox);
commBox = new JTextArea(5, 15);

As you can see you put commBox into scroll but then you set the value of the (static) commBox to something else. It's the text area in the scroll pane that gets added ultimately to the frame, but it's the other one that you later look at to getText().

Constructing a SSCCE (http://sscce.org/) is always good. (rather than picking out from the code what you imagine might be important, or posting the whole thing.) I say this not to be picky, but because in this instance it would have revealed the problem (basically just a typo - some code remaining from what you had before you decided to use the scroll pane.)

[Kralizec]

How about that...I completely missed that line. Thank you very much. I'll look into the SSCCE for the next time I post code.

[pbrockway2]

How about that...I completely missed that line. Thank you very much. I'll look into the SSCCE for the next time I post code.

You're welcome. The internet means you always have another pair of eyes!