How to use modal dialog in this case? - javafx

Question

I have a question. I need to make a GridPane with a directory choose that will then lead me to a modal dialog showing photos. I cannot figure how to do the modal dialog that also has to be a GridPane or a HBox...so the question is , how do I get to show a Modal Dialog after selecting the Folder and pressing the "Show" Button... Thanks a lot!
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.control.TextField;
import javafx.scene.layout.GridPane;
import javafx.stage.DirectoryChooser;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class FotoView extends Application {
#Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
TextField tf = new TextField();
Button b1 = new Button("Search");
Button b2 = new Button("Show");
DirectoryChooser dc = new DirectoryChooser();
GridPane gp = new GridPane();
gp.add(tf, 0 , 0);
gp.add(b1, 1, 0);
gp.add(b2, 0, 1);
b1.setOnAction(e-> dc.showDialog(primaryStage));
primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(gp)) ;
primaryStage.show();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}
} ```

Answer 1

Below is a quick example where a first window has a button that opens up a DirectoryChooser. Once a directory has been selected a second smaller window opens up with the Modality set to APPLICATION_MODAL. In this second window you could add the image(s) that you load and add them to the GridPane.
import java.io.File;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.layout.GridPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.stage.DirectoryChooser;
import javafx.stage.Modality;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class Main extends Application {
public static void main(final String[] args) {
launch(args);
}
#Override
public void start(final Stage aStage) throws Exception {
final HBox root = new HBox();
final Button browseBtn = new Button("Click to open a Directory chooser");
root.getChildren().add(browseBtn);
browseBtn.setOnAction(e -> {
final DirectoryChooser chooser = new DirectoryChooser();
final File dir = chooser.showDialog(aStage);
openNewModalStage(aStage, dir);
});
final Scene scene = new Scene(root, 500, 500);
aStage.setScene(scene);
aStage.show();
}
private void openNewModalStage(final Stage aStage, final File aDirectory) {
final Stage stage = new Stage();
final GridPane grid = new GridPane();
final Scene scene = new Scene(grid);
grid.setStyle("-fx-background-color:black");
grid.setPrefWidth(400);
grid.setPrefHeight(400);
// get your images from 'aDirectory' and add them to your grid pane.
stage.setScene(scene);
// set the new windows Modality.
stage.initModality(Modality.APPLICATION_MODAL);
stage.show();
}
}
This way you would only need the one button and the dialog would show as soon as you've selected a directory. However, if you would still want a Search and Show button then just store the directory as a variable and add a listener on the 'show' button and move the openNewModalStage call to that one and remove the second argument.
Edit:
Also, depending on how many images and exactly what you want to display in the modal window, you might want to reconsider the GridPane and use a TilePane, or an hbox/vbox inside of a scroll pane. It's just a thought but I don't know what you will be doing with the GridPane.