How would I use a button in kotlin using Swing?

Support
1

I need to use Kotlin for a simple GUI and Tornadofx says they don’t support my version of JAVA. So I am just using Swing because it doesn’t need to look nice, just something better than console. I stumbled into an issue. I was doing fine converting the other things from JAVA to Kotlin, but then I came into an event. I had barely learned any JAVA, so I was clueless as how to use a button in Swing even in JAVA. How would I make an event for when the button is clicked in Kotlin?

2

Here is an example in Java and the same example in Kotlin:

Java:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;

public class SwingJ {

    private JFrame mainFrame;
    private JLabel headerLabel;
    private JLabel statusLabel;
    private JPanel controlPanel;

    public SwingJ() {
        prepareGUI();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingJ swingControlDemo = new SwingJ();
        swingControlDemo.showEventDemo();
    }

    private void prepareGUI() {
        mainFrame = new JFrame("Java SWING Examples");
        mainFrame.setSize(400, 400);
        mainFrame.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, 1));

        headerLabel = new JLabel("", JLabel.CENTER);
        statusLabel = new JLabel("", JLabel.CENTER);
        statusLabel.setSize(350, 100);

        mainFrame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent windowEvent) {
                System.exit(0);
            }
        });
        controlPanel = new JPanel();
        controlPanel.setLayout(new FlowLayout());

        mainFrame.add(headerLabel);
        mainFrame.add(controlPanel);
        mainFrame.add(statusLabel);
        mainFrame.setVisible(true);
    }

    private void showEventDemo() {
        headerLabel.setText("Control in action: Button");

        JButton okButton = new JButton("OK");
        JButton submitButton = new JButton("Submit");
        JButton cancelButton = new JButton("Cancel");

        okButton.setActionCommand("OK");
        submitButton.setActionCommand("Submit");
        cancelButton.setActionCommand("Cancel");

        okButton.addActionListener(new ButtonClickListener());
        submitButton.addActionListener(new ButtonClickListener());
        cancelButton.addActionListener(new ButtonClickListener());

        controlPanel.add(okButton);
        controlPanel.add(submitButton);
        controlPanel.add(cancelButton);

        mainFrame.setVisible(true);
    }

    private class ButtonClickListener implements ActionListener {

        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            String command = e.getActionCommand();

            if (command.equals("OK")) {
                statusLabel.setText("Ok Button clicked.");
            } else if (command.equals("Submit")) {
                statusLabel.setText("Submit Button clicked.");
            } else {
                statusLabel.setText("Cancel Button clicked.");
            }
        }
    }
}

Kotlin:

import java.awt.FlowLayout
import java.awt.GridLayout
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent
import java.awt.event.ActionListener
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent
import javax.swing.JButton
import javax.swing.JFrame
import javax.swing.JLabel
import javax.swing.JPanel

class SwingK {

    private lateinit var mainFrame: JFrame
    private lateinit var headerLabel: JLabel
    private lateinit var statusLabel: JLabel
    private lateinit var controlPanel: JPanel

    init {
        prepareGUI()
    }

    private fun prepareGUI() {
        headerLabel = JLabel("", JLabel.CENTER)
        statusLabel = JLabel("", JLabel.CENTER).apply { setSize(350, 100) }

        controlPanel = JPanel().apply { layout = FlowLayout() }

        mainFrame = JFrame("Java SWING Examples").apply {
            setSize(400, 400)
            layout = GridLayout(3, 1)
            addWindowListener(object : WindowAdapter() {
                override fun windowClosing(windowEvent: WindowEvent?) {
                    System.exit(0)
                }
            })
            add(headerLabel)
            add(controlPanel)
            add(statusLabel)
            isVisible = true
        }
    }

    internal fun showEventDemo() {
        headerLabel.text = "Control in action: Button"

        val okButton = JButton("OK").apply {
            actionCommand = "OK"
            addActionListener(ButtonClickListener())
        }
        val submitButton = JButton("Submit").apply {
            actionCommand = "Submit"
            addActionListener(ButtonClickListener())
        }
        val cancelButton = JButton("Cancel").apply {
            actionCommand = "Cancel"
            addActionListener(ButtonClickListener())
        }

        controlPanel.add(okButton)
        controlPanel.add(submitButton)
        controlPanel.add(cancelButton)

        mainFrame.isVisible = true
    }

    private inner class ButtonClickListener : ActionListener {
        override fun actionPerformed(e: ActionEvent) {
            statusLabel.text = when (e.actionCommand) {
                "OK" -> "Ok Button clicked."
                "Submit" -> "Submit Button clicked."
                else -> "Cancel Button clicked."
            }
        }
    }
}

fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    val swingControlDemo = SwingK()
    swingControlDemo.showEventDemo()
}

Note: The Java example was extracted from TutorialsPoint, and the Kotlin example was translated by me from the Java one

1 Like
3

Ok, thank you. I have been wondering and thought of using the JAVA converter that Kotlin provides. But your answer helped me a lot more.