How to add button in JavaFX table view

Question

I have searched at Google and Stackoverflow for this and I just don\'t get the given examples. Can someone please explain it to me.

I want to add a button to the la

Answer 1

To be able to render the column, TableColumn needs cellValueFactory. But the "action" column does not exist in underlying data model. In this case, I just give some dummy value to cellValueFactory and move on:

public class JustDoIt extends Application {

    private final TableView<Person> table = new TableView<>();
    private final ObservableList<Person> data
            = FXCollections.observableArrayList(
                    new Person("Jacob", "Smith"),
                    new Person("Isabella", "Johnson"),
                    new Person("Ethan", "Williams"),
                    new Person("Emma", "Jones"),
                    new Person("Michael", "Brown")
            );

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) {
        stage.setWidth(450);
        stage.setHeight(500);

        TableColumn firstNameCol = new TableColumn("First Name");
        firstNameCol.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("firstName"));

        TableColumn lastNameCol = new TableColumn("Last Name");
        lastNameCol.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("lastName"));

        TableColumn actionCol = new TableColumn("Action");
        actionCol.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("DUMMY"));

        Callback<TableColumn<Person, String>, TableCell<Person, String>> cellFactory
                = //
                new Callback<TableColumn<Person, String>, TableCell<Person, String>>() {
            @Override
            public TableCell call(final TableColumn<Person, String> param) {
                final TableCell<Person, String> cell = new TableCell<Person, String>() {

                    final Button btn = new Button("Just Do It");

                    @Override
                    public void updateItem(String item, boolean empty) {
                        super.updateItem(item, empty);
                        if (empty) {
                            setGraphic(null);
                            setText(null);
                        } else {
                            btn.setOnAction(event -> {
                                Person person = getTableView().getItems().get(getIndex());
                                System.out.println(person.getFirstName()
                                        + "   " + person.getLastName());
                            });
                            setGraphic(btn);
                            setText(null);
                        }
                    }
                };
                return cell;
            }
        };

        actionCol.setCellFactory(cellFactory);

        table.setItems(data);
        table.getColumns().addAll(firstNameCol, lastNameCol, actionCol);

        Scene scene = new Scene(new Group());

        ((Group) scene.getRoot()).getChildren().addAll(table);

        stage.setScene(scene);
        stage.show();
    }

    public static class Person {

        private final SimpleStringProperty firstName;
        private final SimpleStringProperty lastName;

        private Person(String fName, String lName) {
            this.firstName = new SimpleStringProperty(fName);
            this.lastName = new SimpleStringProperty(lName);
        }

        public String getFirstName() {
            return firstName.get();
        }

        public void setFirstName(String fName) {
            firstName.set(fName);
        }

        public String getLastName() {
            return lastName.get();
        }

        public void setLastName(String fName) {
            lastName.set(fName);
        }

    }
}

Answer 2

Here is my example using awesome Java 8 Functionality and extending TableCell class.

Let me give a quick explanation of what I am doing: I created a ActionButtonTableCell class that extends TableCell. And then you can use java 8 lamda functions to create an Action for the button.

import java.util.function.Function;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.control.TableCell;
import javafx.scene.control.TableColumn;
import javafx.util.Callback;

public class ActionButtonTableCell<S> extends TableCell<S, Button> {

    private final Button actionButton;

    public ActionButtonTableCell(String label, Function< S, S> function) {
        this.getStyleClass().add("action-button-table-cell");

        this.actionButton = new Button(label);
        this.actionButton.setOnAction((ActionEvent e) -> {
            function.apply(getCurrentItem());
        });
        this.actionButton.setMaxWidth(Double.MAX_VALUE);
    }

    public S getCurrentItem() {
        return (S) getTableView().getItems().get(getIndex());
    }

    public static <S> Callback<TableColumn<S, Button>, TableCell<S, Button>> forTableColumn(String label, Function< S, S> function) {
        return param -> new ActionButtonTableCell<>(label, function);
    }

    @Override
    public void updateItem(Button item, boolean empty) {
        super.updateItem(item, empty);

        if (empty) {
            setGraphic(null);
        } else {                
            setGraphic(actionButton);
        }
    }
}

The implementation is then as simple as this, This is a sample button to remove the item from the table:

column.setCellFactory(ActionButtonTableCell.<Person>forTableColumn("Remove", (Person p) -> {
    table.getItems().remove(p);
    return p;
}));