Button activating when area outside of button is clicked (Java/Blackberry App)

Question

I have been working on an application for blackberry, which orginally had two buttons (btn1 and btn2) on the screen. Now I've added a third and i am experiencing some difficulties (btn3).

Originally btn1 and btn2 were side by side, and clicking outside the button, but below it would activate the button ... a design flaw but could be overlooked.

However, I need to add a button below btn1 and when i did that two weird things occured: First is that, even if i click btn3 which is BELOW btn1, focus shifts to btn1 and btn1 is called. And clicking btn2 shifts focus to btn3 and it is activated.

I'm not entirely sure why this is happening but i'm playing around with the code pasted below. Any little help is appreciated.

    btn1 = new CustomButtonField("", Bitmap.getBitmapResource("button-disabled_1a.png"), Bitmap.getBitmapResource("button-normal_2.png"));      
    btn2 = new CustomButtonField("", Bitmap.getBitmapResource("button-disabled_3.png"), Bitmap.getBitmapResource("button-normal_4.png"));
    btn3 = new CustomButtonField("", Bitmap.getBitmapResource("button-disabled5.png"), Bitmap.getBitmapResource("button-normal_6.png"));

    Background bg = BackgroundFactory.createBitmapBackground(Bitmap.getBitmapResource("background.png"));

    HorizontalFieldManager vfm = new HorizontalFieldManager(){
        public int getPreferredHeight() {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub
            return Display.getHeight();
        }

        public int getPreferredWidth() {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub
            return Display.getWidth();
        }

        protected void sublayout(int maxWidth, int maxHeight) {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub
            int count = getFieldCount();
            for(int i = 0 ; i < count ; i++ ){
                Field f = getField(i);

             if(f == btn1 ){
                 setPositionChild(f, (getPreferredWidth() >> 1) - f.getPreferredWidth(), getPreferredHeight()>>1);
                    layoutChild(f, getPreferredWidth(), getPreferredHeight());
                }else if (f == btn2 ){
                    setPositionChild(f, (getPreferredWidth() >> 1) +30, getPreferredHeight()>>1);
                    layoutChild(f, getPreferredWidth(), getPreferredHeight());
                }else if (f == lblName ){
                    setPositionChild(f, 30, getPreferredHeight()>>1 - btnLicense.getPreferredHeight());
                    layoutChild(f, ( getPreferredWidth() * 3 ) >> 2, getPreferredHeight());
                }else if (f == btn3 ){

                    setPositionChild(f, (getPreferredWidth() >> 1) - f.getPreferredWidth() -0 ,  getPreferredHeight()- getPreferredHeight()+280);
                    layoutChild(f, getPreferredWidth(), getPreferredHeight());
                }

            }
            setExtent(getPreferredWidth(),getPreferredHeight());
        }

        public void subpaint(Graphics graphics){
            int count = getFieldCount();
            for(int i = 0 ; i < count ; i++ ){
                net.rim.device.api.ui.Field f = getField(i);
                paintChild(graphics,f);
            }
        }

    };

Custom Button Field

package com.app.ui.component;

import net.rim.device.api.system.Bitmap;
import net.rim.device.api.ui.Color;
import net.rim.device.api.ui.Field;
import net.rim.device.api.ui.Font;
import net.rim.device.api.ui.Graphics;

public class CustomButtonField extends Field {

    /** To set background image for button field */
    private Bitmap bkImage;

    /** To set Focus image for button field */
    private Bitmap bkFocusImage;

    /** int value for Field Width */
    private int fieldWidth;

    /** int value for Field Height */
    private int fieldHeight;

    /** Text to write on Button */
    private String text;

    /** Text Color on Button */
    private int textColor = Color.WHITE;

    /** Default Font for Button */
    private Font defaultFont = Font.getDefault();

    /**
     * Constructor with
     * @param text
     * @param image
     * @param focusImage
     */
    public CustomButtonField (String text, Bitmap image, Bitmap focusImage) {   
        this(text, image, focusImage, 0);
    }

    /**
     * Constructor with
     * @param text
     * @param image
     * @param focusImage
     * @param style
     */
    public CustomButtonField(String text, Bitmap image, Bitmap focusImage, long style) {
        super(Field.FOCUSABLE | style);
        this.text = text;
        bkImage = image;
        this.bkFocusImage = focusImage;
        fieldHeight = bkImage.getHeight();
        fieldWidth = bkImage.getWidth();
    }

    /**
     * To get the exact width needed by the field borderWidth - used to show the
     * width of focused rectangle around the button
     */
    public int getPreferredWidth() {
        return fieldWidth;
    }

    /**
     * To get the exact width needed by the field borderHeight - used to show
     * the height of focused rectangle around the button
     */
    public int getPreferredHeight() {
        return fieldHeight;
    }

    protected void layout(int width, int height) {
        setExtent(getPreferredWidth(), getPreferredHeight());
    }

    /**
     * To set the background according to focused state of the field
     */
    protected void drawFocus(Graphics graphics, boolean flag) {
        graphics.setFont(defaultFont);
        if (bkFocusImage != null) {
            graphics.drawBitmap((getPreferredWidth() - bkFocusImage.getWidth()) / 2,(getPreferredHeight() - bkFocusImage.getHeight()) / 2,
                    bkFocusImage.getWidth(), bkFocusImage.getHeight(),bkFocusImage, 0, 0);
        }
        graphics.setColor(Color.WHITE);
        int textWidth = defaultFont.getAdvance(text);
        graphics.drawText(text, (fieldWidth - textWidth) / 2,(fieldHeight - defaultFont.getHeight()) / 2);
    }

    protected void paint(Graphics graphics) {
        graphics.setFont(defaultFont);
        if (bkImage != null) {
            graphics.drawBitmap((getPreferredWidth() - bkImage.getWidth()) / 2,(getPreferredHeight() - bkImage.getHeight()) / 2,
                    bkImage.getWidth(), bkImage.getHeight(), bkImage, 0, 0);
        } 
        graphics.setColor(textColor);
        int color = (isEnabled())?Color.BLACK:Color.DARKGRAY;
        graphics.setColor(color);

        int textWidth = defaultFont.getAdvance(text);
        graphics.drawText(text, (fieldWidth - textWidth) / 2,(fieldHeight - defaultFont.getHeight()) / 2);
    }

    protected boolean navigationClick(int status, int time) {
        fieldChangeNotify(0);
        return true;
    }
}

please show the code where you create your buttons and other fields. — Nate, Jan 19 '13 at 21:58
but, we still don't know what `CustomButtonField` is. that's not a standard BlackBerry class. so, we would need to see the constructor for that class, as well as what it inherits from. — Nate, Jan 20 '13 at 02:38

Nate · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-20T11:21:45.940

This is a pretty easy problem to have when you're first implementing custom BlackBerry buttons and fields. First of all, the problem here is that your CustomButtonField class, which is a button field written from scratch, is not properly determining which touch events (or navigation events) are within its extent (inside the field's area).

One way to fix this is to modify your navigationClick() method, and implement the touchEvent() method:

   protected boolean touchEvent( TouchEvent message )    {
      int x = message.getX( 1 );        
      int y = message.getY( 1 );        
      if( x < 0 || y < 0 || x > getExtent().width || y > getExtent().height ) {
         // Outside the field            
         return false;       
      }        

      switch( message.getEvent() ) {                  
      case TouchEvent.UNCLICK:                
         fieldChangeNotify(0);               
         return true;        
      }        
      return super.touchEvent( message );    
   }

   protected boolean navigationClick(int status, int time) {
      if (status != 0) {        // you did not have this check
         fieldChangeNotify(0);
      }
      return true;
   }

Another option, that I would actually recommend, is to replace your entire CustomButtonField class with one of the samples from BlackBerry's Advanced UI library

You can use the BitmapButtonField, and the BaseButtonField that it extends, to achieve the same functionality, with proper touch / click handling.

While you're there, take a look at some of the other UI classes in that library, as you'll probably find them quite useful.

I tried the 1st options but not much has changed...Everythig works fine when i use the touches on the keyboard. But the touches on the screen still the same. Doesnt work right. — kemnet, Jan 20 '13 at 20:05
@kemnet, did you put the code above in your `CustomButtonField` class? if it doesn't work, you've done something wrong. i will also say, again, that you should completely replace your `CustomButtonField` code with the blackberry advancedUI `BitmapButtonField` class. — Nate, Jan 20 '13 at 21:33

Button activating when area outside of button is clicked (Java/Blackberry App)

1 Answers1