Name: skT88420 Date: 06/21/99


(I consider this a design bug. Arguably it is an RFE. The
problem is that a useful feature is implemented in such a way
that it cannot be used in all of the required situations.)

Swing provides the ability to structure applications around
"Actions" that encapsulate all user-selectable functionality.
This is useful, and also helps with building user interfaces.
One nice feature is that actions can be added directly to
toolbars and menus, with buttons or menu items created
automatically and tied to the action. The biggest benefit of
this is that, in circumstances in which the action isn't allowed
or doesn't make sense for some reason, the application can
disable the action itself, and all of the associated menu items
and toolbar buttons will follow suit. The application doesn't
have to keep track of all of the various ways that the action
can be invoked.

Our application makes use of this, but instead of just menu
items and toolbar buttons, we also have a few ordinary JButtons
sitting on panels that invoke our actions. When we disable the
actions, the corresponding menu items and/or toolbar buttons
disable, but the JButtons don't. It turns out that this
functionality is implemented by the JToolbar, JMenu, and
JPopupMenu classes themselves, rather than by the buttons and
menu items.

It would be more consistent, and more useful, if JButtons could
also respond to changes in the enabled property of actions and
change their own state accordingly.
(Review ID: 57499)
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