Text in JEditorPane with links to actions

[HawkLane]

My boss wants us to have like a help document in a Swing application.
This means that if the user clicks on a special term (underlined), the
"help text" (explanation of the term) is shown, whether in a pop-up window
or something else. Is the best way to do this using a HyperlinkListener or
something else?

 

[markspace]

My boss wants us to have like a help document in a Swing application.
This means that if the user clicks on a special term (underlined), the
"help text" (explanation of the term) is shown, whether in a pop-up
window or something else. Is the best way to do this using a
HyperlinkListener or something else?

I see JavaFx links are being added to the Java tutorial, by Oracle. I
think you'd be remiss to not think about JavaFX. Here's the link from
the tutorial:

<http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/ui_controls/editor.htm>

However my personal experience is "I dunno." In general you do use
HyperlinkListener to implement links with a JEditorPane. Whether that's
a good idea for "help text" is beyond my ken.

You should probably also have a look at JavaHelp if you stick to Swing.
However I've seen some people claim it's too complicated for what it
does. Rolling your own help in Java seems a popular option.

<http://javahelp.java.net/>

 

[Roedy Green]

My boss wants us to have like a help document in a Swing application.
This means that if the user clicks on a special term (underlined), the
"help text" (explanation of the term) is shown, whether in a pop-up window
or something else. Is the best way to do this using a HyperlinkListener or
something else?

Fill it full of stylised, perfect, simplified HTML. Then you can get
notified when someone clicks on something.

 

[HawkLane]

Thank you for your help very nice. This works, but we want the use to be
able to switch from editable to non-editable (system will find what words
should be underlined).

When I go to the editable state, the text that I type after the linked
word is also with href formatting, i.e. blue and underlined, how can I
make it plain again instead?