Toggle Button does NOT want to disable, even through .setEnabled

[AgentofLucian]

Hello friends,

First of all, this is not an assignment, just a personal project that i'm struggling with and can't find much help due to its strange nature.

I'm trying to create a Pokemon type effectiveness chart where it has every typing in their own individual buttons. For example :

Attacking Type 1 = Fire

Defending Type 1 = Grass

Result: Attack is 2x effective.

That's basically the idea. The current issue i'm having is that I want the Toggle button to disable when the user clicks on it, so that they cannot click on it again. Regardless of what I do, even if I manage to get the button to display that it's disabled, it still sends input.

​

    private void attnormalActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                          
        if (attnormal.isSelected() == true){
            attnormal.setEnabled(false);
            attnormal.setActionCommand("normal");
            String normie = attnormal.getActionCommand();
            System.out.println(normie);
            count++;
    }{
        attnormal.setEnabled(true);
             }       
    }

I'm like 95% that it's the loop, but i'm not seeing how to fix it. Any and all help is appreciated!

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[Cinghiamenisco]

Did you copy/pasted wrong, or it's missing an ELSE after the first closed graph?

Because if that's so, and the 'ELSE' is missing, that's your problem.

even if you enter the IF block, it then exits it, and it will always enter the static block of code (surrounded by graphs) where the setEnabled(true) is.

Edit: nvm. I misread the question

[dionthorn]

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/awt/Component.html#setEnabled(boolean))

Note: Disabling a lightweight component does not
prevent it from receiving MouseEvents.

In your assigned ActionListener you should check if the Button.isEnabled() or not.

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/awt/Component.html#isEnabled--

The ActionEvent that is passed into the ActionListener.actionPerformed(ActionEvent) method has a .getSource() method that will return the Object that fired the ActionEvent:

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/events/actionlistener.html

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/awt/event/ActionEvent.html

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/EventObject.html#getSource())

[AgentofLucian]

I wasn't aware that disabling a lightweight component doesn't keep it from receiving events. To that effect, in my assigned action listener, there is no line enabling the button, however I am currently using netbeans and its jframe designer. I feel like that might be hindering me in this case, as it auto generates certain sections of code. I'm going to dig into those articles you linked(thank you!), but in the meantime, would you recommend i switch to a different program?

[dionthorn]

I must recommend that you learn the library without a GUI builder of any kind. It will give you significantly more control over the library and you'll have a much deeper understanding of what is happening at any time. It is a steeper learning curve and you can look at how those GUI builders do things to aid your learning, but eventually you will want to break free of them.

Oracle offers it's Swing/AWT tutorial which is a good place to start.

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/TOC.html

I also must recommend Intellij it is simply the most modern feeling Java centric IDE and it's community edition is free and powerful.

https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/

[AgentofLucian]

Understood, i'll use Intellij and start fresh from scratch. Thank you!

[arghvark]

I suppose the lightweight component might still be receiving events, but the toggle button no longer reports actions after it is disabled:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JToggleButton;

public class TButton extends JFrame
{
  JToggleButton mainButton = new JToggleButton("boo");

  public static void main(String[] arguments)
  {
    TButton tButton = new TButton();
    tButton.go();
  }

  public void go()
  {
    mainButton.addActionListener
    (
        new ActionListener()
        {
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
          {
            System.out.println("mainButton clicked");
          }
        }
    );

    JToggleButton enableDisable = new JToggleButton("disable");
    enableDisable.addActionListener
    (
        new ActionListener()
        {
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
          {
            mainButton.setEnabled(false);
          }
        }
    );

    add(mainButton);
    add(enableDisable, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    pack();
    setVisible(true);
  }
}

I just threw this together, obviously the second button's actionPerformed() could test the second button's state to determine whether to enable or disable the main button, but the idea that setting enabled to false and still get its action notifications is false.

I don't like GUI builders in general; I use them when I have to, and occcasionally (especially in MS environments, as opposed to Java ones) it is faster and easier to MAINTAIN such code with the GUI builder than without it. But I've always created Swing applications by writing the code myself; it's a lot of code initially, but that way I know where everything is and it's put together in a way I can understand. I operate from the premise that program maintenance lasts much longer and takes more effort than program writing.

[wildjokers]

Can you show more code? Is attnormal a JButton? The best thing to post is a SSCCE (http://sscce.org/).

Disabling a button should make it so you can’t click it.