When Click on Hyperlinks in JavaFX ,a relevant URL should open in browser

Question

I am developing an application in which I have some links added to the Listview and these links will keep on adding at runtime on some condition.So what I can\'t find is a w

Answer 1

Old question, old answer which is working fine - but has a slight smell: it's adding views (Hyperlinks) as data to the ListView.

The cleaner alternative is to add URLs as data and implement a custom cell that uses Hyperlinks to show (and allow interaction with) the URLs.

A quick code example:

final ListView<URL> listView = new ListView<>();

@Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws MalformedURLException {

    ObservableList<URL> urls = FXCollections.observableArrayList(
          new URL("http://blog.professional-webworkx.de"),
          new URL("http://www.stackoverflow.com")
            );

    listView.getItems().addAll(urls);
    listView.setCellFactory(c -> {
        ListCell<URL> cell = new ListCell<>() {
            private Hyperlink hyperlink;

            {
                hyperlink = new Hyperlink();
                hyperlink.setOnAction(e -> {
                    if (getItem() != null) {
                        getHostServices().showDocument(getItem().toString());
                    }
                });
                setContentDisplay(ContentDisplay.GRAPHIC_ONLY);
            }

            @Override
            protected void updateItem(URL item, boolean empty) {
                super.updateItem(item, empty);
                if (item != null && !empty) {
                    hyperlink.setText(item.toString());
                    setGraphic(hyperlink);
                } else {
                    setGraphic(null);
                }
            }

        };
        return cell;
    });
   // ... 
}

Answer 2

I put a Tooltip to the hyperlink and read the url from there, and seems to work. i.e.:

Hyperlink hl = new Hyperlink(sometext);
hl.setTooltip(new Tooltip(theurlhere);
hl.setOnAction((ActionEvent event) -> {
    Hyperlink h = (Hyperlink) event.getTarget();
    String s = h.getTooltip().getText();
    getHostServices.showDocument(s);
    event.consume();
});

Answer 3

I made a very small example Application for you,

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.control.Hyperlink;
import javafx.scene.control.ListView;
import javafx.scene.control.TextField;
import javafx.scene.layout.AnchorPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class ListList extends Application {

    final ListView listView = new ListView();
    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) {

        List<Hyperlink> links = new ArrayList<>();

        AnchorPane pane = new AnchorPane();
        VBox vBox = new VBox();
        final Hyperlink link = new Hyperlink("http://blog.professional-webworkx.de");
        Hyperlink link2= new Hyperlink("http://www.stackoverflow.com");

        links.add(link);
        links.add(link2);

        for(final Hyperlink hyperlink : links) {
            hyperlink.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {

                @Override
                public void handle(ActionEvent t) {
                    getHostServices().showDocument(hyperlink.getText());
                }
            });
        }

        listView.getItems().addAll(links);
        HBox hBox = new HBox();
        final TextField urlField = new TextField();
        Button b = new Button("Add Links");
        hBox.getChildren().addAll(b, urlField);

        b.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {

            @Override
            public void handle(ActionEvent t) {
                addLink(urlField.getText().trim());
                urlField.clear();
            }
        });
        vBox.getChildren().add(hBox);
        vBox.getChildren().add(listView);
        pane.getChildren().add(vBox);
        Scene scene = new Scene(pane, 800, 600);
        primaryStage.setTitle("Hello World!");
        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.show();
    }

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }

    private void addLink(final String url) {
        final Hyperlink link = new Hyperlink(url);
        link.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {

            @Override
            public void handle(ActionEvent t) {
                getHostServices().showDocument(link.getText());
                //openBrowser(link.getText());
            }

        });
        listView.getItems().add(link);
    }

    private void openBrowser(final String url) {
        getHostServices().showDocument(url);
    }
}

If you enter a new URL in the TextField and click on the Button, the new Link will be added to your LinkList and will be displayed on the ListView. Everytime you add a new Link, the .setOnAction() Method is set with the right URL to open.

Maybe you can use this as starting point for further developing your app.

Patrick