Class PropertyAdapter<B>

Converts a single Java Bean property into the generic ValueModel interface. The bean property must be a single value as described by the Java Bean Specification. See below for a comparison with the more frequently used BeanAdapter and PresentationModel classes.

The constructors accept either a property name or a triple of (property name, getter name, setter name). If you just specify the property name, the adapter uses the standard Java Bean introspection to lookup the available properties and how to read and write the property value. In case of custom readers and writers you may specify a custom BeanInfo class, or as a shortcut use the constructors that accept the optional getter and setter name. If these are specified, introspection will be bypassed and a PropertyDescriptor will be created for the given property name, getter and setter name.

Optionally the PropertyAdapter can observe changes in bound properties as described in section 7.4 of the Bean specification. You can enable this feature by setting the constructor parameter observeChanges to true. If the adapter observes changes, it will fire value change events, i.e. PropertyChangeEvents for the property "value". Even if you ignore property changes, you can access the adapted property value via #getValue(). It's just that you won't be notified about changes.

The PropertyAdapter provides two access styles to the target bean that holds the adapted property: you can specify a bean directly, or you can use a bean channel to access the bean indirectly. In the latter case you specify a ValueModel that holds the bean that in turn holds the adapted property.

If the adapted bean is null the PropertyAdapter can neither read nor set a value. In this case #getValue returns null and #setValue will silently ignore the new value.

This adapter throws three PropertyChangeEvents if the bean changes: beforeBean, bean and afterBean. This is useful when sharing a bean channel and you must perform an operation before or after other listeners handle a bean change. Since you cannot rely on the order listeners will be notified, only the beforeBean and afterBean events are guaranteed to be fired before and after the bean change is fired. Note that #getBean() returns the new bean before any of these three PropertyChangeEvents is fired. Therefore listeners that handle these events must use the event's old and new value to determine the old and new bean. The order of events fired during a bean change is:

1. this adapter's bean channel fires a value change,
2. this adapter fires a beforeBean change,
3. this adapter fires the bean change,
4. this adapter fires an afterBean change.

Note: PropertyAdapters that observe changes have a PropertyChangeListener registered with the target bean. Hence, a bean has a reference to any PropertyAdapter that observes it. To avoid memory leaks it is recommended to remove this listener if the bean lives much longer than the PropertyAdapter, enabling the garbage collector to remove the adapter. To do so, you can call setBean(null) or set the bean channel's value to null. As an alternative you can use event listener lists in your beans that implement references with WeakReference.

Setting the bean to null has side-effects, for example the adapter fires a change event for the bound property bean and other properties. And the adpter's value may change. However, typically this is fine and setting the bean to null is the first choice for removing the reference from the bean to the adapter. Another way to clear the reference from the target bean is to call #release. It has no side-effects, but the adapter must not be used anymore once #release has been called.

Constraints: If property changes shall be observed, the bean class must support bound properties, i. e. it must provide the following pair of methods for registration of multicast property change event listeners:

 public void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener x);
 public void removePropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener x);
 

PropertyAdapter vs. BeanAdapter vs. PresentationModel
If you adapt multiple properties of the same bean, you better use a BeanAdapter. The BeanAdapter registers only a single PropertyChangeListener with the bean, where multiple PropertyAdapters would register multiple listeners. If you adapt bean properties for an editor, you will typically use the PresentationModel. The PresentationModel is more powerful than the BeanAdapter. It adds support for buffered models, and provides an extensible mechanism for observing the change state of the bean and related objects.

Basic Examples:

 // Direct access, ignores changes
 Address address = new Address()
 PropertyAdapter adapter = new PropertyAdapter(address, "street");
 adapter.setValue("Broadway");
 System.out.println(address.getStreet());    // Prints "Broadway"
 address.setStreet("Franz-Josef-Strasse");
 System.out.println(adapter.getValue());     // Prints "Franz-Josef-Strasse"


 //Direct access, observes changes
 PropertyAdapter adapter = new PropertyAdapter(address, "street", true);


 // Indirect access, ignores changes
 ValueHolder addressHolder = new ValueHolder(address1);
 PropertyAdapter adapter = new PropertyAdapter(addressHolder, "street");
 adapter.setValue("Broadway");               // Sets the street in address1
 System.out.println(address1.getValue());    // Prints "Broadway"
 adapter.setBean(address2);
 adapter.setValue("Robert-Koch-Strasse");    // Sets the street in address2
 System.out.println(address2.getValue());    // Prints "Robert-Koch-Strasse"


 // Indirect access, observes changes
 ValueHolder addressHolder = new ValueHolder();
 PropertyAdapter adapter = new PropertyAdapter(addressHolder, "street", true);
 addressHolder.setValue(address1);
 address1.setStreet("Broadway");
 System.out.println(adapter.getValue());     // Prints "Broadway"
 

Adapter Chain Example:
Builds an adapter chain from a domain model to the presentation layer.

 Country country = new Country();
 country.setName("Germany");
 country.setEuMember(true);

 JTextField nameField = new JTextField();
 nameField.setDocument(new DocumentAdapter(
      new PropertyAdapter(country, "name", true)));

 JCheckBox euMemberBox = new JCheckBox("Is EU Member");
 euMemberBox.setModel(new ToggleButtonAdapter(
      new PropertyAdapter(country, "euMember", true)));

 // Using factory methods
 JTextField nameField   = Factory.createTextField(country, "name");
 JCheckBox  euMemberBox = Factory.createCheckBox (country, "euMember");
 euMemberBox.setText("Is EU Member");
 

TODO: Consider adding a feature to ensure that update notifications are performed in the event dispatch thread. In case the adapted bean is changed in a thread other than the event dispatch thread, such a feature would help complying with Swing's single thread rule. The feature could be implemented by an extended PropertyChangeSupport.

TODO: I plan to improve the support for adapting beans that do not fire PropertyChangeEvents. This affects the classes PropertyAdapter, BeanAdapter, and PresentationModel. Basically the PropertyAdapter and the BeanAdapter's internal SimplePropertyAdapter's shall be able to optionally self-fire a PropertyChangeEvent in case the bean does not. There are several downsides with self-firing events compared to bound bean properties. See Issue 49 for more information about the downsides.

The observeChanges constructor parameter shall be replaced by a more fine-grained choice to not observe (former observeChanges=false), to observe bound properties (former observeChanges=true), and a new setting for self-firing PropertyChangeEvents if a value is set. The latter case may be further splitted up to specify how the self-fired PropertyChangeEvent is created:

1. oldValue=null, newValue=null
2. oldValue=null, newValue=the value set
3. oldValue=value read before the set, newValue=the value set
4. oldValue=value read before the set, newValue=value read after the set

public static final String PROPERTYNAME_AFTER_BEAN

public static final String PROPERTYNAME_BEAN

public static final String PROPERTYNAME_BEFORE_BEAN

public static final String PROPERTYNAME_CHANGED

public PropertyAdapter(B bean,
                       String propertyName)

public PropertyAdapter(B bean,
                       String propertyName,
                       String getterName,
                       String setterName)

public PropertyAdapter(B bean,
                       String propertyName,
                       String getterName,
                       String setterName,
                       boolean observeChanges)

public PropertyAdapter(B bean,
                       String propertyName,
                       boolean observeChanges)

public PropertyAdapter(ValueModel beanChannel,
                       String propertyName)

public PropertyAdapter(ValueModel beanChannel,
                       String propertyName,
                       String getterName,
                       String setterName)

public PropertyAdapter(ValueModel beanChannel,
                       String propertyName,
                       String getterName,
                       String setterName,
                       boolean observeChanges)

public PropertyAdapter(ValueModel beanChannel,
                       String propertyName,
                       boolean observeChanges)

protected @Override String paramString()

public B getBean()

public boolean getObserveChanges()

public String getPropertyName()

public Object getValue()

public boolean isChanged()

public void release()

public void resetChanged()

public void setBean(B newBean)

public void setValue(Object newValue)

public void setVetoableValue(Object newValue)
            throws PropertyVetoException