public interface Element extends Displayable
Element interface defines the protocol used by the
IDE to communicate with data objects in order to display the objects
in the UI. For example, objects that need to be shown in an
ExplorerWindow will need
to implement the Element interface.| Modifier and Type | Method and Description |
|---|---|
Attributes |
getAttributes()
This method returns an
Attributes object that encodes the
attributes of the Element. |
java.util.Iterator<Element> |
getChildren()
This method is part of the
Element interface to
provide a convenient way of getting an Iterator over any
contained child Elements without having to test the
object's type with the instanceof operator or having
to downcast to a more specific type. |
java.lang.Object |
getData()
Returns the data object associated with this
Element. |
boolean |
mayHaveChildren()
This method is part of the
Element interface to
provide a convenient way of determining whether an object may
have children without having to test the object's type with the
instanceof operator or having to downcast to a
more specific type. |
getIcon, getLongLabel, getShortLabel, getToolTipText, toStringboolean mayHaveChildren()
Element interface to
provide a convenient way of determining whether an object may
have children without having to test the object's type with the
instanceof operator or having to downcast to a
more specific type.
An implementation of Element that represents a leaf
in a tree structure should return false from this
method. An implementation of Element that could
represent a non-leaf in a tree structure should return
true from this method, even if it does not currently
contain any children.
true if this Element may contain
child Elements.java.util.Iterator<Element> getChildren()
Element interface to
provide a convenient way of getting an Iterator over any
contained child Elements without having to test the
object's type with the instanceof operator or having
to downcast to a more specific type.
An implementation of Element that represents a leaf
in a tree structure should return null from this
method. An implementation of Element that could
represent a non-leaf in a tree structure should return either an
Iterator over the child Elements or
null if there are no children.
Iterator over any child Elements
contained by this Element. If there are no children,
null is returned.Attributes getAttributes()
Attributes object that encodes the
attributes of the Element. Changing the attribute
settings on the return object changes the element attributes.
Subclasses should use their super class attributes object to
define their own attributes. This allows subclasses to
inherit their super class attributes. If a subclass does not
wish to inherit attributes, they should first call
getAttributes().clear() and define new attributes.java.lang.Object getData()
Element.
Implementations will often simply return this, since
the Element is often its own data object.
If the implementation returns an object other than this,
be sure to set ElementAttributes.DECORATES_DATA_ELEMENT.Element
instance.