working with TextPanel

[Ben.BigHair]

Hello,

I have two questions...

First:
I can't wrap my head around the different behaviors I see between
TextWindow and TextPanel.  I can realize a TextWindow with rows of
tab-delimited columns, but I can't do the same thing with TextPanel. I
have pasted simple examples of each in the space below.

Of course, I may be barking up the wrong tree to start with. The
functionality I really want is to allow the user to select a row
(associated with an image) and then have the image loaded and displayed.
I have been thinking that I really need to have a plugin class that
inherits from TextPanel so that I can override the "actionPerformed"
method, etc. to handle user events. I haven't found any examples that
inherit from TextPanel or TextWindow - just plugins that create them
(like those shown below).

Second:
So that leads me to wonder if plugins that implement the PlugIn
interface don't also inherit from objects (other than Object).  Instead
I wonder if I am supposed to implement other interfaces such as
MouseListener.

Well, you can see that I'm lost!  (And that I can't wait for the English
version of Digital Image Processing in Java by Wilhelm Burger, Mark
Burge  to be published!)

Thanks for any help,
Ben

/*
        PanelTest2_ uses TextPanel
  */

import ij.*;
import ij.process.*;
import ij.gui.*;
import ij.plugin.PlugIn;
import ij.text.*;

public class PanelTest2_ implements PlugIn {
       
        //run for ImageJ
        public void run(String arg)
        {
                TextPanel tp = new TextPanel("Panel Test");

                tp.setColumnHeadings("ID\tName\tValue");
                tp.appendLine("0\tRed\t0.1");
                tp.appendLine("1\tGreen\t2.04");
                tp.appendLine("3\tYellow\t1.1");
                tp.setVisible(true);
         }//end of run
       
}


/*
        PanelTest3_  uses TextWindow
  */

import ij.*;
import ij.process.*;
import ij.gui.*;
import ij.plugin.PlugIn;
import ij.text.*;

public class PanelTest3_ implements PlugIn {
       
        //run for ImageJ
        public void run(String arg)
        {
                String title = "Panel Test";
                String headerNames = "ID\tName\tValue";
                String data = "0\tRed\t0.1" + "\n" +
                        "1\tGreen\t2.04"+ "\n" +
                        "3\tYellow\t1.1"+ "\n";
               
                TextWindow tw = new TextWindow(title, headerNames, data, 200, 200);
         }//end of run
       
       
       
}

[Wayne Rasband]

> I have two questions...
>
> First:
> I can't wrap my head around the different behaviors I see between
> TextWindow and TextPanel.  I can realize a TextWindow with rows of
> tab-delimited columns, but I can't do the same thing with TextPanel. I
> have pasted simple examples of each in the space below.
>
> Of course, I may be barking up the wrong tree to start with. The
> functionality I really want is to allow the user to select a row
> (associated with an image) and then have the image loaded and
> displayed.

This is built into ImageJ 1.37i and later. Double click on a file path
in a TextWindow (e.g., the "Log" window) and that file is opened. This
is very handy with macros that generate file lists, such as the
ListFilesRecursively macro at

       http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/macros/ListFilesRecursively.txt

I also plan to add a File>Open Selected Files menu command that will
allow users to open multiple files.

>  I have been thinking that I really need to have a plugin class that
> inherits from TextPanel so that I can override the "actionPerformed"
> method, etc. to handle user events. I haven't found any examples that
> inherit from TextPanel or TextWindow - just plugins that create them
> (like those shown below).
>
> Second:
> So that leads me to wonder if plugins that implement the PlugIn
> interface don't also inherit from objects (other than Object).  
> Instead I wonder if I am supposed to implement other interfaces such
> as MouseListener.

Plugins can implement more than one interface. For examples, look at
the Mouse_Listener, Key_Listener and Image_Listener example plugins.

     http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/plugins/mouse-listener.html
     http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/plugins/key-listener.html
     http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/plugins/image-listener.html

-wayne