Passing an Enum to a method as a parameter in Java?

Question

I am trying to call a docx4j method "setAlgn" in the interface CTTextParagraphProperties, which, per the docx4j jar I am using and the compiler takes an Enum type as a parameter. I am passing the actual argument STTextAlignType.CTR which I believe should resolve to the value 'ctr' (citation: http://grepcode.com/file/repo1.maven.org/maven2/org.docx4j/docx4j/3.0.1/org/docx4j/dml/STTextAlignType.java?av=f, I am running this same code).

Here is my code:

import java.lang.Enum;

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import org.apache.poi.poifs.filesystem.POIFSFileSystem;

import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFCell;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFCellStyle;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFClientAnchor;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFChildAnchor;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFDataFormat;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFDrawing;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFFont;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFFormulaEvaluator;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFPrintSetup;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFRichTextString;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFRow;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFSheet;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFSimpleShape;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFShapeGroup;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFTextBox;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;

import org.docx4j.dml.*;


        public static XSSFTextBox createTextBox(XSSFSheet sh, String message, int row1, int col1, int row2, int col2, boolean is_bold, boolean is_italics, boolean is_underline, boolean centered, int fontSize){

        //Various apache-poi stuff
        XSSFWorkbook wb = sh.getWorkbook();
        XSSFDrawing drawing = sh.createDrawingPatriarch();
        XSSFClientAnchor clientanchor = new XSSFClientAnchor(0,0,0,0,(short)col1,row1,(short)col2,row2);
        XSSFChildAnchor childanchor = new XSSFChildAnchor(0,0,0,0);
        XSSFShapeGroup group = drawing.createGroup(clientanchor);
        XSSFTextBox textbox = group.createTextbox(childanchor);
        XSSFRichTextString richMessage = new XSSFRichTextString(message);
        XSSFFont textFont = wb.createFont();
        textFont.setFontHeightInPoints((short)fontSize);
        textFont.setFontName("Verdana");
        if(is_bold){
            textFont.setBoldweight(XSSFFont.BOLDWEIGHT_BOLD);
        }
        textFont.setItalic(is_italics);
        if(is_underline){
            textFont.setUnderline(XSSFFont.U_SINGLE);
        }
        if(centered){
        //Here is the code in question. 
        textbox.getCTShape().getTxBody().getPArray(0).getPPr().setAlgn(STTextAlignType.CTR);
        }
        richMessage.applyFont(textFont);
        textbox.setText(richMessage);
        return textbox;
    }

My compiler returns the following error message:

com\tem\POIStuff.java:1105: error: method setAlgn in interface CTTextParagraphProperties cannot be applied to given types;
                    textbox.getCTShape().getTxBody().getPArray(0).getPPr().setAlgn(STTextAlignType.CTR);

Ultimately, my question is how can I get the "setAlgn" method to accept 'STTextAlignType.CTR' as an Enum and not as object type 'STTextAlignType'? Thank you in advance very much for your help!

Can you link to the relevant documentation? I suspect we can help you without knowing the details of the libraries involved, but we can do so quicker if we can see the types involved. — Jon Skeet, Jun 17 '14 at 16:40
There seems to be something weird going on. `CTTextParagraphProperties` is not an interface, it's a regular class. Are you sure you have right dependencies on your classpath? — geoand, Jun 17 '14 at 16:52
@JonSkeet Yes, definitely. Actually though, I hate to say this, could you let me know what documentation you mean? The javadoc or equivalent for the docx4j library, and the apache poi library I am using? Sorry, still kind of a novice :/ — Tyler Wood, Jun 17 '14 at 17:09
@geoand I do not believe I would have any overwrites in my classpath, I will research into that though. The jar files I have there include jcifs-1.3.17.jar, poi-ooxml-3.9.jar, ooxml-schemas-1.1.jar, and xbean.jar, just in case anything conflicting pops out at anyone from those pieces of info. Thank you for your post! — Tyler Wood, Jun 17 '14 at 17:14
I am trying to mimic the implementation seen in the attached page in post two, by Yegor Kozlov. http://apache-poi.1045710.n5.nabble.com/How-to-align-text-in-the-shape-td5711188.html — Tyler Wood, Jun 17 '14 at 17:17
@JonSkeet The best docx4j documentation I can find is the following page. http://www.docx4java.org/docx4j/plutext-docx4j_on_a_page-v300.pdf. Here is a group of code examples from the Docx4j website. Sorry I cannot be more thorough. — Tyler Wood, Jun 17 '14 at 17:25

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 19 '14 at 08:47

The problem is actually on the first line of your code snippet! Your issue is with

import java.lang.Enum;

CTTextParagraphProperties.setAlgn does take a class of type Enum, but it's not that kind of Enum. It has to be a org.openxmlformats.schemas.drawingml.x2006.main.STTextAlignType.Enum

I'd suggest you switch your imports to be:

import org.openxmlformats.schemas.drawingml.x2006.main.STTextAlignType;
import org.openxmlformats.schemas.drawingml.x2006.main.STTextAlignType.Enum;

You can then set the alignment with things like STTextAlignType.L and it'll work fine

Extreme thanks and gratitude for your advice here, I was able to defeat this compile error and move forward in my project. Marked as answered! Much appreciated! — Tyler Wood, Jun 24 '14 at 22:48

Passing an Enum to a method as a parameter in Java?

1 Answers1