o7planning

Java SWT Toggle Button Tutorial with Examples

  1. SWT Toggle Button
  2. ToggleButton Example
  3. Processing Events for Toggle Button
  4. Use different icons for different states

1. SWT Toggle Button

In SWT, the toggle is an object of Button with SWT.TOGGLE style.
Toggle button have two options "selected" and "not selected". By default, Toggle buttons are independent, and they don't depend on other Toggle buttons.
// Create a radio button

Button radio = new Button(parent, SWT.TOGGLE);
Toggles running on the different OSs are different on interface. Below is the Toggle button image when Toggle runs on Windows XP and Windows 8:
Toggle Button (Windows XP):
Toggle Button (Windows 8)
In fact, for Windows 8 you have difficulty in distinguishing between Toggle Button with "selected" state and Toggle Button with "not selected" state. The solution to solve this problem is to use the different icons for the "selected" state and "not selected".
// Create a Toggle Button

Button appleButton = new Button(parent, SWT.TOGGLE);
appleButton.setText("Apple");
You can also set the icon for toggle button by using setImage method.
InputStream input
    = RadioButtonDemo.class.getResourceAsStream("/org/o7planning/swt/icon/apple-16.png");
Image image = new Image(null, input);

toggleButton.setImage(image);

2. ToggleButton Example

In SWT, Toggle Buttons are independent of each other by default. It differs from the manner of the Radio Button, when radio buttons are put on a same Composite or Group, if you select a radio button, all radio buttons will be deselected.
ToggleButtonDemo.java
package org.o7planning.swt.togglebutton;

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Image;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.RowLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Button;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Group;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Label;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell;
import org.o7planning.swt.utils.MyImageUtils;

public class ToggleButtonDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Display display = new Display();
        Shell shell = new Shell(display);
        shell.setText("SWT Toggle Button (o7planning.org)");

        RowLayout rowLayout = new RowLayout();
        rowLayout.marginLeft = 10;
        rowLayout.marginTop = 10;
        rowLayout.spacing = 15;
        shell.setLayout(rowLayout);

        Group fruitGroup = new Group(shell, SWT.NONE);
        fruitGroup.setLayout(new RowLayout(SWT.HORIZONTAL));

        Label label = new Label(fruitGroup, SWT.NONE);
        label.setText("Fruits: ");

        // Apple
        Button appleButton = new Button(fruitGroup, SWT.TOGGLE);
        appleButton.setText("Apple");

        Image appleIcon = MyImageUtils.getImage(display, "/org/o7planning/swt/icon/apple-16.png");
        appleButton.setImage(appleIcon);

        // Grape
        Button grapeButton = new Button(fruitGroup, SWT.TOGGLE);
        grapeButton.setText("Grape");

        
        Image grapeIcon = MyImageUtils.getImage(display, "/org/o7planning/swt/icon/grape-16.png");
        grapeButton.setImage(grapeIcon);

        // Banana
        Button bananaButton = new Button(fruitGroup, SWT.TOGGLE);
        bananaButton.setText("Banana");

        Image bananaIcon = MyImageUtils.getImage(display, "/org/o7planning/swt/icon/banana-16.png");
        bananaButton.setImage(bananaIcon);

        shell.setSize(400, 250);
        shell.open();
        while (!shell.isDisposed()) {
            if (!display.readAndDispatch())
                display.sleep();
        }
        display.dispose();
    }

}
Running examples (See on Windows XP & Windows 8)

3. Processing Events for Toggle Button

The example below process event when the user selects Toggle buttons.
RadioButtonEventDemo.java
package org.o7planning.swt.togglebutton;

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.RowLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Button;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Label;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell;

public class ToggleButtonEventDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Display display = new Display();
        Shell shell = new Shell(display);
        shell.setText("SWT Toggle Button (o7planning.org)");

        RowLayout rowLayout = new RowLayout(SWT.VERTICAL);
        rowLayout.marginLeft = 10;
        rowLayout.marginTop = 10;
        rowLayout.spacing = 15;
        shell.setLayout(rowLayout);

        // Composite
        Composite composite = new Composite(shell, SWT.NONE);
        composite.setLayout(new RowLayout(SWT.HORIZONTAL));

        Label label = new Label(composite, SWT.NONE);
        label.setText("Select Fruits: ");

        // Apple
        Button toggleApple = new Button(composite, SWT.TOGGLE);
        toggleApple.setText("Apple");

        // Grape
        Button toggleGrape = new Button(composite, SWT.TOGGLE);
        toggleGrape.setText("Grape");

        // Banana
        Button toggleBanana = new Button(composite, SWT.TOGGLE);
        toggleBanana.setText("Banana");

        Label labelAnswer = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        labelAnswer.setForeground(display.getSystemColor(SWT.COLOR_BLUE));

        SelectionListener selectionListener = new SelectionAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
                Button source = (Button) e.getSource();

                if (source.getSelection()) {
                    labelAnswer.setText("You select " + source.getText());
                    labelAnswer.pack();
                } else {
                    labelAnswer.setText("You deselect " + source.getText());
                    labelAnswer.pack();
                }

            }
        };

        toggleApple.addSelectionListener(selectionListener);

        toggleGrape.addSelectionListener(selectionListener);
        toggleBanana.addSelectionListener(selectionListener);

        shell.setSize(400, 250);
        shell.open();
        while (!shell.isDisposed()) {
            if (!display.readAndDispatch())
                display.sleep();
        }
        display.dispose();
    }

}

4. Use different icons for different states

As mentioned above, for Window 8, the user sometimes has difficulty in distinguish between the state "selected" and "not selected" of Toggle Button. The solution is to use different icons for different states.
IconStateDemo.java
package org.o7planning.swt.togglebutton;

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Image;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.RowLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Button;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Label;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell;
import org.o7planning.swt.utils.MyImageUtils;

public class IconStateDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Display display = new Display();
        Shell shell = new Shell(display);
        shell.setText("SWT Toggle Button (o7planning.org)");

        RowLayout rowLayout = new RowLayout();
        rowLayout.marginLeft = 10;
        rowLayout.marginTop = 10;
        rowLayout.spacing = 15;
        shell.setLayout(rowLayout);

        Label label = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        label.setText("Fruits: ");

        Image iconSelect = MyImageUtils.getImage(display, "/org/o7planning/swt/icon/apple-select-32.png");
        Image iconDeselect = MyImageUtils.getImage(display, "/org/o7planning/swt/icon/apple-deselect-32.png");

        // Apple
        Button appleButton = new Button(shell, SWT.TOGGLE);
        appleButton.setText("Apple");

        appleButton.setImage(iconDeselect);

        appleButton.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
                Button source = (Button) e.getSource();

                if (source.getSelection()) {
                    appleButton.setImage(iconSelect);
                } else {
                    appleButton.setImage(iconDeselect);
                }

            }
        });

        shell.setSize(400, 250);
        shell.open();
        while (!shell.isDisposed()) {
            if (!display.readAndDispatch())
                display.sleep();
        }
        display.dispose();
    }

}

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