How to draw a rectangle on a java applet using mouse drag event and make it stay

Question

I have my program that can draw rectangles. I have two problems I can\'t solve. After I draw the rectangle it won\'t stay. The only code I have that clears the canvas in und

Answer 1

You need to store your drawn items in some data structure and ensure that each item in the structure is painted to the canvas on repaint.

Also, you need to add repaint to each of your mouse events.

Like this: (this assumes you want to keep ALL rect's) - you can go with a single rect by eliminating the arraylist and replacing with a single rect instance.

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.event.MouseListener;
import java.awt.event.MouseMotionListener;
import java.util.ArrayList;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.SwingConstants;

public class MouseTracker4July extends JFrame implements MouseListener, MouseMotionListener {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private final JLabel mousePosition;
    int x1, x2, y1, y2;
    int w, h;
    private final JLabel recStart;
    private final JLabel recStop;
    private final JLabel cords; // set up GUI and register mouse event handlers
    private final ArrayList< Rectangle > rectangles = new ArrayList< Rectangle >();
    private boolean isNewRect = true;

    public MouseTracker4July() {
        super( "Rectangle Drawer" );

        this.mousePosition = new JLabel();
        this.mousePosition.setHorizontalAlignment( SwingConstants.CENTER );
        getContentPane().add( this.mousePosition, BorderLayout.CENTER );

        JLabel text1 = new JLabel();
        text1.setText( "At the center the mouse pointer's coordinates will be displayed." );
        getContentPane().add( text1, BorderLayout.SOUTH );

        this.recStart = new JLabel();
        getContentPane().add( this.recStart, BorderLayout.WEST );

        this.recStop = new JLabel();
        getContentPane().add( this.recStop, BorderLayout.EAST );

        this.cords = new JLabel();
        getContentPane().add( this.cords, BorderLayout.NORTH );

        addMouseListener( this ); // listens for own mouse and
        addMouseMotionListener( this ); // mouse-motion events

        setSize( 800, 600 );
        setVisible( true );

    }

// MouseListener event handlers // handle event when mouse released immediately after press 
    public void mouseClicked( final MouseEvent event ) {
        this.mousePosition.setText( "Clicked at [" + event.getX() + ", " + event.getY() + "]" );

        repaint();
    }

// handle event when mouse pressed 
    public void mousePressed( final MouseEvent event ) {

        this.mousePosition.setText( "Pressed at [" + ( this.x1 = event.getX() ) + ", " + ( this.y1 = event.getY() ) + "]" );

        this.recStart.setText( "Start:  [" + this.x1 + ", " + this.y1 + "]" );

        repaint();
    }

// handle event when mouse released after dragging 
    public void mouseReleased( final MouseEvent event ) {
        this.mousePosition.setText( "Released at [" + ( this.x2 = event.getX() ) + ", " + ( this.y2 = event.getY() ) + "]" );

        this.recStop.setText( "End:  [" + this.x2 + ", " + this.y2 + "]" );

        Rectangle rectangle = getRectangleFromPoints();

        this.rectangles.add( rectangle );

        this.w = this.h = this.x1 = this.y1 = this.x2 = this.y2 = 0;
        this.isNewRect = true;

        repaint();
    }

    private Rectangle getRectangleFromPoints() {
        int width = this.x1 - this.x2;
        int height = this.y1 - this.y2;
        Rectangle rectangle = new Rectangle( width < 0 ? this.x1
            : this.x2, height < 0 ? this.y1
            : this.y2, Math.abs( width ), Math.abs( height ) );

        return rectangle;
    }

// handle event when mouse enters area 
    public void mouseEntered( final MouseEvent event ) {
        this.mousePosition.setText( "Mouse entered at [" + event.getX() + ", " + event.getY() + "]" );
        repaint();
    }

// handle event when mouse exits area 
    public void mouseExited( final MouseEvent event ) {
        this.mousePosition.setText( "Mouse outside window" );
        repaint();
    }

// MouseMotionListener event handlers // handle event when user drags mouse with button pressed 
    public void mouseDragged( final MouseEvent event ) {
        this.mousePosition.setText( "Dragged at [" + ( this.x2 = event.getX() ) + ", " + ( this.y2 = event.getY() ) + "]" ); // call repaint which calls paint repaint();

        this.isNewRect = false;

        repaint();
    }

// handle event when user moves mouse 
    public void mouseMoved( final MouseEvent event ) {
        this.mousePosition.setText( "Moved at [" + event.getX() + ", " + event.getY() + "]" );
        repaint();
    }

    @Override
    public void paint( final Graphics g ) {
        super.paint( g ); // clear the frame surface 
        g.drawString( "Start Rec Here", this.x1, this.y1 );
        g.drawString( "End Rec Here", this.x2, this.y2 );

        Rectangle newRectangle = getRectangleFromPoints();
        if ( !this.isNewRect ) {
            g.drawRect( newRectangle.x, newRectangle.y, newRectangle.width, newRectangle.height );
        }

        for( Rectangle rectangle : this.rectangles ) {
            g.drawRect( rectangle.x, rectangle.y, rectangle.width, rectangle.height );
        }

        this.cords.setText( "w = " + this.w + ", h = " + this.h );

    }

    public static void main( final String args[] ) {
        MouseTracker4July application = new MouseTracker4July();
        application.setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
    }

} // end class MouseTracker