How to use the ListSelectionDialogBinder

This tutorial is based on the Simple Sample.

We will add new property "favorite fruit" to the Contact class.

First we create a new Fruit class:

public class Fruit {
    private String name;
    public Fruit(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }
}

Then we add the favoriteFruit property:

public class Contact {
    ...
    private Fruit favoriteFruit;
    ...
    public Fruit getFavoriteFruit() {
        return favoriteFruit;
    }
    public void setFavoriteFruit(Fruit fruit) {
        this.favoriteFruit = fruit;
    }
}

In the richclient-application-context.xml we have to define the ListSelectionDialogBinder for properties of the type Fruit:

<bean id="binderSelectionStrategy" class="org.springframework.richclient.form.binding.swing.SwingBinderSelectionStrategy">
    <property name="bindersForPropertyTypes">
        <map>
            <entry>
                <key><value type="java.lang.Class">org.springframework.richclient.samples.simple.domain.Fruit</value></key>
                <bean class="org.springframework.richclient.selection.binding.ListSelectionDialogBinder"/>
            </entry>
        </map>
    </property>
</bean>

The only thing that's left is the ContactForm.

For the ListSelectionDialogBinder it's necessary to build a context to feed to the binding.

A context is nothing more than a Map.

    Map fruitContext = new HashMap();

Here we build the list of fruits the user can choose from, but in real life this will probably come from the database ...

    List fruits = new ArrayList();
    fruits.add(new Fruit("apple"));
    fruits.add(new Fruit("banana"));
    fruits.add(new Fruit("kiwi"));
    fruits.add(new Fruit("orange"));
    fruits.add(new Fruit("pear"));

We use the fruit in the selectable items:

    fruitContext.put(ListSelectionDialogBinder.SELECTABLE_ITEMS_KEY, fruits);

The following code will use the name of the fruit as label, and will show "<no>" for null values:

    fruitContext.put(ListSelectionDialogBinder.LABEL_PROVIDER_KEY, new LabelProvider() {
        public String getLabel(Object item) {
            Fruit bean = (Fruit) item;
            return bean == null ? "" : bean.getName();
        }
    });

If you want filtering, add the following entries. This will allow the user to filter the dialog on the name property of the fruit.

    fruitContext.put(ListSelectionDialogBinder.FILTERED_KEY, Boolean.TRUE);
    fruitContext.put(ListSelectionDialogBinder.FILTER_PROPERTIES_KEY,
                                             new String[] { "name" });

And finally we add the binding to the form:

    formBuilder.addSeparator("Fun stuff");
    formBuilder.row();
    formBuilder.add(getBindingFactory().createBinding("favoriteFruit", fruitContext),
                                             "colSpan=1");

And this is the result:

Nothing selected:


And when we click on the select button:


And select "orange" we get this: