Adding shortcut keys in java swing

L5

Im trying to add some shortcut keys to some of my buttons in the menu of
my Swing GUI. Apparantly its really easy, put in something like this and
it should work

JMenuItem m = new JMenuItem("Copy");
m.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('C',
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit( ).getMenuShortcutKeyMask( ), false));

When i try it on one of my menu items, like this

private JMenuItem undoMenu = new JMenuItem("Undo");
undoMenu.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('C',
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit( ).getMenuShortcutKeyMask( ), false));

i get this error

SimpleGUI.java:17: <identifier> expected

undoMenu.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke('C',Toolkit.getDefaultToo
lkit( ).getMenuShortcutKeyMask( ), false));
^
Anyone know what im doing wrong? Im importing javx.swing.*,
java.awt.event.* and java.awt.*

Thanks

seamus

Been a while since I coded swing, but afair, there was a method for all JComponents called setMnemonic() which allowed you to create shortcut keys for things.

I could be mistaken though.

DrEvil

This is something I do know and have recent experience with so I have an answer for you. You are on the right track with setAccelerator method

I find the best way is as follows -

say i want Ctrl + C for jMenuItemX:

jMenuItemX.setAccelerator( KeyStroke.getKeyStroke( KeyEvent.VK_C, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));


in your case with an Undo menu item (Ctrl + Z)

private JMenuItem undoMenu = new JMenuItem("Undo");
undoMenu.setAccelerator( KeyStroke.getKeyStroke( KeyEvent.VK_Z, ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK));


Hope that's of help to you


Links to the JAVA 1.4.2 API (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api) are as follows
KeyStroke - http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/javax/swing/KeyStroke.html
KeyEvent - http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/event/KeyEvent.html
ActionEvent - http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/event/ActionEvent.html

DrEvil

sry i forget to say about mnemonics

If you wish to set a mnemonic on a menu item you would use the following code ( The mnemonic is the underlined letters in menu items. It's different to the setAccelerator)

for the File menu you would use 'F'

jMenuX.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);



setMnemonic(int) in the JAVA API

---

setMnemonic

public void setMnemonic(int mnemonic)

Sets the keyboard mnemonic on the current model. The mnemonic is the key which when combined with the look and feel's mouseless modifier (usually Alt) will activate this button if focus is contained somewhere within this button's ancestor window.

A mnemonic must correspond to a single key on the keyboard and should be specified using one of the VK_XXX keycodes defined in java.awt.event.KeyEvent. Mnemonics are case-insensitive, therefore a key event with the corresponding keycode would cause the button to be activated whether or not the Shift modifier was pressed.

If the character defined by the mnemonic is found within the button's label string, the first occurrence of it will be underlined to indicate the mnemonic to the user.

Parameters:
mnemonic - the key code which represents the mnemonic

---

L5

Thanks for all the help, i got it working!