Change appearance of lines in a JTextArea

I have a JTextArea that will send its contents over a socket one line at a time. As the lines are sent, I want them to change appearance, perhaps by going from black font to gray, or changing background/foreground color.

Is there a common "GUI pattern" for this?

I will be looping through the JTextArea, so right after sending the line off into the ether, I should be able to tweak its representation. I'm thinking something like this (pseudocode - "outgoing" is the name of the JTextArea):

Code:

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                                for (int i = 0, i < outgoing.size, ++) {
                                        writer.println(outgoing[i].getText());
                                        outgoing[i].background = Color.black;
                                        outgoing[i].foreground = Color.white;
                                        sleep(10);
                                }

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Does this makes sense/is it the way to do it/is it possible to do it similar to this?

JTextAreas are pretty plain. Everything is displayed the same.
For individual character by character formatting, see the JTextPane class for example.

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Originally Posted by Norm

JTextAreas are pretty plain. Everything is displayed the same.
For individual character by character formatting, see the JTextPane class for example.

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OK, I'll czech that out.

Is it possible, though, to change the JTextArea at all to give certain lines at least a slightly different look?

This pseudocode is closer, but I still don't know how to refer to a particular line/row in the JTextArea

Code:

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for (int i = 0; i < outgoing.getLineCount(); i++) {
  writer.println(outgoing.getLine(i));
  outgoing[i].setBackground = Color.black;
  outgoing[i].setForeground = Color.white;
  Thread.sleep(100);
}

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Quote:

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give certain lines at least a slightly different look

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Make some lines all capital letters, otherwise
JTextAreas are pretty plain. Everything is displayed the same.

Quote:

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how to refer to a particular line/row in the JTextArea

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Read the API doc to see what methods are available.

A JList might be a better solution. You can use a custom renderer.

See: How to Use Lists (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Using Swing Components)

Otherwise you would need to use a JTextPane which does support different fonts and colors:

See: Text Component Features (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Using Swing Components)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Norm

Make some lines all capital letters, otherwise
[I]JTextAreas are pretty plain. Everything is displayed the same.

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That's an idea; it doesn't have to be fancy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Norm

Read the API doc to see what methods are available.

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I looked through all of the possible values in the editor and none looked all that likely.

Another simple idea: put a line of **********s before and after the line

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Norm

Another simple idea: put a line of **********s before and after the line

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Okay, once I figure out how to access a specific line...

Lines end with the newline character. You either keep track as you add them, or count them starting at the beginning.

Use a Highlighter. See the example here: How to Use Text Fields (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Using Swing Components)

db

Thanks db. Learning new things every day.

The "Example: Getting and setting all lines sequentially" section here: Java: JTextArea seems to be purt near what the non-doctor ordered:

Code:

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    String text = inputArea.getText();
    int totalLines = inputArea.getLineCount();
    for (int i=0; i < totalLines; i++) {
        int start = inputArea.getLineStartOffset(i);
        int end  = inputArea.getLineEndOffset(i);
        String line = text.substring(start, end);
       
        outputArea.append(line + "\n");
    }

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