JavaTM 2 Platform
Standard Ed. 5.0

java.beans
Class PropertyEditorManager

java.lang.Object
  extended by java.beans.PropertyEditorManager

public class PropertyEditorManager
extends Object

The PropertyEditorManager can be used to locate a property editor for any given type name. This property editor must support the java.beans.PropertyEditor interface for editing a given object.

The PropertyEditorManager uses three techniques for locating an editor for a given type. First, it provides a registerEditor method to allow an editor to be specifically registered for a given type. Second it tries to locate a suitable class by adding "Editor" to the full qualified classname of the given type (e.g. "foo.bah.FozEditor"). Finally it takes the simple classname (without the package name) adds "Editor" to it and looks in a search-path of packages for a matching class.

So for an input class foo.bah.Fred, the PropertyEditorManager would first look in its tables to see if an editor had been registered for foo.bah.Fred and if so use that. Then it will look for a foo.bah.FredEditor class. Then it will look for (say) standardEditorsPackage.FredEditor class.

Default PropertyEditors will be provided for the Java primitive types "boolean", "byte", "short", "int", "long", "float", and "double"; and for the classes java.lang.String. java.awt.Color, and java.awt.Font.


Constructor Summary
PropertyEditorManager()
           
 
Method Summary
static PropertyEditor findEditor(Class<?> targetType)
          Locate a value editor for a given target type.
static String[] getEditorSearchPath()
          Gets the package names that will be searched for property editors.
static void registerEditor(Class<?> targetType, Class<?> editorClass)
          Register an editor class to be used to edit values of a given target class.
static void setEditorSearchPath(String[] path)
          Change the list of package names that will be used for finding property editors.
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
 

Constructor Detail

PropertyEditorManager

public PropertyEditorManager()
Method Detail

registerEditor

public static void registerEditor(Class<?> targetType,
                                  Class<?> editorClass)
Register an editor class to be used to edit values of a given target class.

First, if there is a security manager, its checkPropertiesAccess method is called. This could result in a SecurityException.

Parameters:
targetType - the Class object of the type to be edited
editorClass - the Class object of the editor class. If this is null, then any existing definition will be removed.
Throws:
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and its checkPropertiesAccess method doesn't allow setting of system properties.
See Also:
SecurityManager.checkPropertiesAccess()

findEditor

public static PropertyEditor findEditor(Class<?> targetType)
Locate a value editor for a given target type.

Parameters:
targetType - The Class object for the type to be edited
Returns:
An editor object for the given target class. The result is null if no suitable editor can be found.

getEditorSearchPath

public static String[] getEditorSearchPath()
Gets the package names that will be searched for property editors.

Returns:
The array of package names that will be searched in order to find property editors.

The default value for this array is implementation-dependent, e.g. Sun implementation initially sets to {"sun.beans.editors"}.


setEditorSearchPath

public static void setEditorSearchPath(String[] path)
Change the list of package names that will be used for finding property editors.

First, if there is a security manager, its checkPropertiesAccess method is called. This could result in a SecurityException.

Parameters:
path - Array of package names.
Throws:
SecurityException - if a security manager exists and its checkPropertiesAccess method doesn't allow setting of system properties.
See Also:
SecurityManager.checkPropertiesAccess()

JavaTM 2 Platform
Standard Ed. 5.0

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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Also see the documentation redistribution policy.