How to Individually Reference Each Thumb of a RangeSlider (ControlsFX)

Question

I'm trying to bind a label to be displayed above the lower and upper thumbs of RangeSlider.

The label's position should always remain above their respective thumb, no matter where the user slides it. Like so:

My approach is to attach listeners to each thumb so that I can set the label's to have appropriate X/Y coordinates every time a user slides. But when I run the following code I can't seem to get a reference to the individuals thumbs, via css selectors.

I followed this post, but this only uses one thumb and is therefore easy to reference. How do you properly use CSS selectors in my context, or what is a better approach if mine is flawed?

Controller

public class SliderDemoController implements Initializable {
    @FXML
    private RangeSlider range;
    @Override
    public void initialize(URL location, ResourceBundle resources) {
        Pane thumb = (Pane) range.lookup(".range-slider .low-thumb");
        System.out.println(thumb); // <-- Prints null
    }
}

Main

public class SliderDemoMain extends Application {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }

    @Override
    public void start(Stage initStage) throws IOException {
        FXMLLoader loader = new FXMLLoader(Drag.class.getClassLoader().getResource("sliderdemo.fxml"));
        Parent root = loader.load();
        Scene scene = new Scene(root);
        Stage primaryStage = new Stage();
        primaryStage.setTitle("Slider Demo");
        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.show();
    }
}

styleMain.css

.range-slider .range-bar {
    -fx-background-color: grey;
}

.range-slider .low-thumb {
     //....
}
.range-slider .high-thumb {
    //....
}

Top Line of sliderdemo.fxml

<HBox fx:id="menuBar" maxHeight="-Infinity" minHeight="-Infinity" prefHeight="79.0" stylesheets="@styleMain.css" xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/8.0.111" xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1" fx:controller="com.propertydrop.SliderDemoController">

James_D · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-06T02:29:54.307

For CSS lookups to work, you need CSS to have been applied, a layout pass to have been made, and the node to be part of a scene. (Note this in the post you referenced, the code in the answer carefully performs these steps before performing the lookup.)

This is difficult to achieve in a controller, because the initialize() method is typically invoked before the root node from the FXML is added to a scene. You can hack this by observing the sceneProperty() of the node, and responding when it is set to something non-null. (Yes, this is a bit of a hack...):

public class SliderDemoController implements Initializable {
    @FXML
    private RangeSlider range;
    @Override
    public void initialize(URL location, ResourceBundle resources) {
        ChangeListener<Scene> initializer = new ChangeListener<Scene>() {
            @Override
            public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends Scene> obs, Scene oldScene, Scene newScene)  {
                if (newScene != null) {
                    range.applyCss();
                    range.getParent().layout();
                    Pane thumb = (Pane) range.lookup(".range-slider .low-thumb");
                    System.out.println(thumb); // <-- No longer null
                    range.sceneProperty().removeListener(this);
                }
            }
        };
        range.sceneProperty().addListener(initializer);
    }
}

Depending on your exact requirements, you might be able to get away with something a little less ugly, such as performing the lookup in an event handler or a listener on the slider's highValue or lowValue properties.

Personally, I don't see this as a hack. I can only say that this is necessary because the API doesn't provide a "shortcut" out of the box. Just be glad there is even a solution for it :) — Jai, Jan 06 '17 at 02:36
@Jai It's a hack :). The "API-correct" way to do what you're trying to do would be to create a new skin for the `RangeSlider` that included the labels you want to show. However, since (at present) the skin class is not public, this would involve re-inventing the wheel and be a lot of work. — James_D, Jan 06 '17 at 02:40
@James_D, so long as this hack is reliable in a commercial context, I'm fine with the aesthetics. You've answered my question, thank you. Performing the lookup within a `range.lowValueProperty().addListener` indeed is sufficient. +1 — Nova, Jan 06 '17 at 02:52

How to Individually Reference Each Thumb of a RangeSlider (ControlsFX)

1 Answers1