Class AccessibleRole determines the role of a component. The role of a component describes its generic function. (E.G., "push button," "table," or "list.")

The toDisplayString method allows you to obtain the localized string for a locale independent key from a predefined ResourceBundle for the keys defined in this class.

The constants in this class present a strongly typed enumeration of common object roles. A public constructor for this class has been purposely omitted and applications should use one of the constants from this class. If the constants in this class are not sufficient to describe the role of an object, a subclass should be generated from this class and it should provide constants in a similar manner.

@version
1.45 04/15/04
@author
Willie Walker
@author
Peter Korn
@author
Lynn Monsanto
Object is used to alert the user about something.
An AWT component, but nothing else is known about it.
Object that can be drawn into and is used to trap events.
A choice that can be checked or unchecked and provides a separate indicator for the current state.
A specialized dialog that lets the user choose a color.
The header for a column of data.
A list of choices the user can select from. Also optionally allows the user to enter a choice of their own.
A DATE_EDITOR is a component that allows users to edit java.util.Date and java.util.Time objects
An iconified internal frame in a DESKTOP_PANE.
A pane that supports internal frames and iconified versions of those internal frames.
A top level window with title bar and a border. A dialog is similar to a frame, but it has fewer properties and is often used as a secondary window for an application.
See Also
A pane that allows the user to navigate through and select the contents of a directory. May be used by a file chooser.
See Also
A role indicating the object acts as a formula for calculating a value. An example is a formula in a spreadsheet cell.
@since
1.5
A specialized dialog that displays the files in the directory and lets the user select a file, browse a different directory, or specify a filename. May use the directory pane to show the contents of a directory.
An object that fills up space in a user interface. It is often used in interfaces to tweak the spacing between components, but serves no other purpose.
A FONT_CHOOSER is a component that lets the user pick various attributes for fonts.
A text footer
@since
1.5
A top level window with a title bar, border, menu bar, etc. It is often used as the primary window for an application.
See Also
A pane that is guaranteed to be painted on top of all panes beneath it.
See Also
A GROUP_BOX is a simple container that contains a border around it and contains components inside it.
A text header
@since
1.5
A hypertext anchor
A small fixed size picture, typically used to decorate components.
A frame-like object that is clipped by a desktop pane. The desktop pane, internal frame, and desktop icon objects are often used to create multiple document interfaces within an application.
An object used to present an icon or short string in an interface.
A specialized pane that allows its children to be drawn in layers, providing a form of stacking order. This is usually the pane that holds the menu bar as well as the pane that contains most of the visual components in a window.
An object that presents a list of objects to the user and allows the user to select one or more of them. A list is usually contained within a scroll pane.
An object that presents an element in a list. A list is usually contained within a scroll pane.
See Also
An object usually found inside a menu bar that contains a list of actions the user can choose from. A menu can have any object as its children, but most often they are menu items, other menus, or rudimentary objects such as radio buttons, check boxes, or separators. For example, an application may have an "Edit" menu that contains menu items for "Cut" and "Paste."
An object usually drawn at the top of the primary dialog box of an application that contains a list of menus the user can choose from. For example, a menu bar might contain menus for "File," "Edit," and "Help."
An object usually contained in a menu that presents an action the user can choose. For example, the "Cut" menu item in an "Edit" menu would be an action the user can select to cut the selected area of text in a document.
A specialized pane whose primary use is inside a DIALOG
See Also
An object that is a child of a page tab list. Its sole child is the panel that is to be presented to the user when the user selects the page tab from the list of tabs in the page tab list.
An object that presents a series of panels (or page tabs), one at a time, through some mechanism provided by the object. The most common mechanism is a list of tabs at the top of the panel. The children of a page tab list are all page tabs.
See Also
A generic container that is often used to group objects.
A text paragraph
@since
1.5
A text object used for passwords, or other places where the text contents is not shown visibly to the user
A temporary window that is usually used to offer the user a list of choices, and then hides when the user selects one of those choices.
See Also
An object used to indicate how much of a task has been completed.
A role indicating the object monitors the progress of some operation.
@since
1.5
An object the user can manipulate to tell the application to do something.
A specialized check box that will cause other radio buttons in the same group to become unchecked when this one is checked.
A specialized pane that has a glass pane and a layered pane as its children.
The header for a row of data.
A ruler is an object used to measure distance
@since
1.5
An object usually used to allow a user to incrementally view a large amount of data. Usually used only by a scroll pane.
See Also
An object that allows a user to incrementally view a large amount of information. Its children can include scroll bars and a viewport.
An object usually contained in a menu to provide a visual and logical separation of the contents in a menu. For example, the "File" menu of an application might contain menu items for "Open," "Close," and "Exit," and will place a separator between "Close" and "Exit" menu items.
See Also
An object that allows the user to select from a bounded range. For example, a slider might be used to select a number between 0 and 100.
A SPIN_BOX is a simple spinner component and its main use is for simple numbers.
A specialized panel that presents two other panels at the same time. Between the two panels is a divider the user can manipulate to make one panel larger and the other panel smaller.
A STATUS_BAR is an simple component that can contain multiple labels of status information to the user.
A Swing component, but nothing else is known about it.
An object used to present information in terms of rows and columns. An example might include a spreadsheet application.
An object that presents text to the user. The text is usually editable by the user as opposed to a label.
See Also
A specialized push button that can be checked or unchecked, but does not provide a separate indicator for the current state.
A bar or palette usually composed of push buttons or toggle buttons. It is often used to provide the most frequently used functions for an application.
An object that provides information about another object. The accessibleDescription property of the tool tip is often displayed to the user in a small "help bubble" when the user causes the mouse to hover over the object associated with the tool tip.
An object used to present hierarchical information to the user. The individual nodes in the tree can be collapsed and expanded to provide selective disclosure of the tree's contents.
The object contains some Accessible information, but its role is not known.
An object usually used in a scroll pane. It represents the portion of the entire data that the user can see. As the user manipulates the scroll bars, the contents of the viewport can change.
See Also
A top level window with no title or border.
See Also
Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one.

The equals method implements an equivalence relation on non-null object references:

  • It is reflexive: for any non-null reference value x, x.equals(x) should return true.
  • It is symmetric: for any non-null reference values x and y, x.equals(y) should return true if and only if y.equals(x) returns true.
  • It is transitive: for any non-null reference values x, y, and z, if x.equals(y) returns true and y.equals(z) returns true, then x.equals(z) should return true.
  • It is consistent: for any non-null reference values x and y, multiple invocations of x.equals(y) consistently return true or consistently return false, provided no information used in equals comparisons on the objects is modified.
  • For any non-null reference value x, x.equals(null) should return false.

The equals method for class Object implements the most discriminating possible equivalence relation on objects; that is, for any non-null reference values x and y, this method returns true if and only if x and y refer to the same object (x == y has the value true).

Note that it is generally necessary to override the hashCode method whenever this method is overridden, so as to maintain the general contract for the hashCode method, which states that equal objects must have equal hash codes.

Parameters
objthe reference object with which to compare.
Return
true if this object is the same as the obj argument; false otherwise.
Returns the runtime class of an object. That Class object is the object that is locked by static synchronized methods of the represented class.
Return
The java.lang.Class object that represents the runtime class of the object. The result is of type {@code Class} where X is the erasure of the static type of the expression on which getClass is called.
Returns a hash code value for the object. This method is supported for the benefit of hashtables such as those provided by java.util.Hashtable.

The general contract of hashCode is:

  • Whenever it is invoked on the same object more than once during an execution of a Java application, the hashCode method must consistently return the same integer, provided no information used in equals comparisons on the object is modified. This integer need not remain consistent from one execution of an application to another execution of the same application.
  • If two objects are equal according to the equals(Object) method, then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce the same integer result.
  • It is not required that if two objects are unequal according to the method, then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce distinct integer results. However, the programmer should be aware that producing distinct integer results for unequal objects may improve the performance of hashtables.

As much as is reasonably practical, the hashCode method defined by class Object does return distinct integers for distinct objects. (This is typically implemented by converting the internal address of the object into an integer, but this implementation technique is not required by the JavaTM programming language.)

Return
a hash code value for this object.
Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor. If any threads are waiting on this object, one of them is chosen to be awakened. The choice is arbitrary and occurs at the discretion of the implementation. A thread waits on an object's monitor by calling one of the wait methods.

The awakened thread will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object. The awakened thread will compete in the usual manner with any other threads that might be actively competing to synchronize on this object; for example, the awakened thread enjoys no reliable privilege or disadvantage in being the next thread to lock this object.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. A thread becomes the owner of the object's monitor in one of three ways:

  • By executing a synchronized instance method of that object.
  • By executing the body of a synchronized statement that synchronizes on the object.
  • For objects of type Class, by executing a synchronized static method of that class.

Only one thread at a time can own an object's monitor.

Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor. A thread waits on an object's monitor by calling one of the wait methods.

The awakened threads will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object. The awakened threads will compete in the usual manner with any other threads that might be actively competing to synchronize on this object; for example, the awakened threads enjoy no reliable privilege or disadvantage in being the next thread to lock this object.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
Gets localized string describing the key using the default locale.
Return
a localized String describing the key for the default locale
Obtains the key as a localized string. If a localized string cannot be found for the key, the locale independent key stored in the role will be returned.
Parameters
localethe locale for which to obtain a localized string
Return
a localized String for the key.
Gets localized string describing the key using the default locale.
Return
a localized String describing the key using the default locale
Causes current thread to wait until another thread invokes the method or the method for this object. In other words, this method behaves exactly as if it simply performs the call wait(0).

The current thread must own this object's monitor. The thread releases ownership of this monitor and waits until another thread notifies threads waiting on this object's monitor to wake up either through a call to the notify method or the notifyAll method. The thread then waits until it can re-obtain ownership of the monitor and resumes execution.

As in the one argument version, interrupts and spurious wakeups are possible, and this method should always be used in a loop:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait();
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.
Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of the object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.
Causes current thread to wait until either another thread invokes the method or the method for this object, or a specified amount of time has elapsed.

The current thread must own this object's monitor.

This method causes the current thread (call it T) to place itself in the wait set for this object and then to relinquish any and all synchronization claims on this object. Thread T becomes disabled for thread scheduling purposes and lies dormant until one of four things happens:

  • Some other thread invokes the notify method for this object and thread T happens to be arbitrarily chosen as the thread to be awakened.
  • Some other thread invokes the notifyAll method for this object.
  • Some other thread interrupts thread T.
  • The specified amount of real time has elapsed, more or less. If timeout is zero, however, then real time is not taken into consideration and the thread simply waits until notified.
The thread T is then removed from the wait set for this object and re-enabled for thread scheduling. It then competes in the usual manner with other threads for the right to synchronize on the object; once it has gained control of the object, all its synchronization claims on the object are restored to the status quo ante - that is, to the situation as of the time that the wait method was invoked. Thread T then returns from the invocation of the wait method. Thus, on return from the wait method, the synchronization state of the object and of thread T is exactly as it was when the wait method was invoked.

A thread can also wake up without being notified, interrupted, or timing out, a so-called spurious wakeup. While this will rarely occur in practice, applications must guard against it by testing for the condition that should have caused the thread to be awakened, and continuing to wait if the condition is not satisfied. In other words, waits should always occur in loops, like this one:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait(timeout);
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
(For more information on this topic, see Section 3.2.3 in Doug Lea's "Concurrent Programming in Java (Second Edition)" (Addison-Wesley, 2000), or Item 50 in Joshua Bloch's "Effective Java Programming Language Guide" (Addison-Wesley, 2001).

If the current thread is interrupted by another thread while it is waiting, then an InterruptedException is thrown. This exception is not thrown until the lock status of this object has been restored as described above.

Note that the wait method, as it places the current thread into the wait set for this object, unlocks only this object; any other objects on which the current thread may be synchronized remain locked while the thread waits.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Parameters
timeoutthe maximum time to wait in milliseconds.
Throws
IllegalArgumentExceptionif the value of timeout is negative.
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of the object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.
Causes current thread to wait until another thread invokes the method or the method for this object, or some other thread interrupts the current thread, or a certain amount of real time has elapsed.

This method is similar to the wait method of one argument, but it allows finer control over the amount of time to wait for a notification before giving up. The amount of real time, measured in nanoseconds, is given by:

 1000000*timeout+nanos

In all other respects, this method does the same thing as the method of one argument. In particular, wait(0, 0) means the same thing as wait(0).

The current thread must own this object's monitor. The thread releases ownership of this monitor and waits until either of the following two conditions has occurred:

  • Another thread notifies threads waiting on this object's monitor to wake up either through a call to the notify method or the notifyAll method.
  • The timeout period, specified by timeout milliseconds plus nanos nanoseconds arguments, has elapsed.

The thread then waits until it can re-obtain ownership of the monitor and resumes execution.

As in the one argument version, interrupts and spurious wakeups are possible, and this method should always be used in a loop:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait(timeout, nanos);
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.
Parameters
timeoutthe maximum time to wait in milliseconds.
nanosadditional time, in nanoseconds range 0-999999.
Throws
IllegalArgumentExceptionif the value of timeout is negative or the value of nanos is not in the range 0-999999.
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.