Dialog Boxes - Option Panes

The class to make dialog boxes is class option pane and it is in javax.swing.*;

Here are some examples:

//Show a warning dialog with the options OK, CANCEL, title 'Warning', // and message 'Click OK to continue': Object [] options = {"OK", "CANCEL"}; JOptionPane.showOptionDialog (null, "Click OK to continue", "Warning", JOptionPane.DEFAULT_OPTION, JOptionPane.WARNING_MESSAGE, null, options, options [0]);
//Show an error dialog that displays the message, 'alert': JOptionPane.showMessageDialog (null, "alert", "alert", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
//Get the user's name String input = JOptionPane.showInputDialog ("Please enter your name");
//Show a dialog asking the user to select from a combobox: String [] possibleValues = {"First", "Second", "Third"}; String selectedValue = (String) JOptionPane.showInputDialog (null, "Choose one", "Input", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE, null, possibleValues, possibleValues [0]);
//Show an information panel with the options yes/no and message // 'choose one': input2 = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog (null, "choose one", "choose one of these options", JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION);

Note also that you can get input from optionpanes. For example, the following code could appear in an actionPerformed method:

//Show an information panel with the options yes/no and message 'choose one':
   String input2 = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog (null,
   "choose one", "choose one", JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION);

 //Show a dialog asking the user to select from a combobox:
   String [] possibleValues = {"First", "Second", "Third"};
   String selectedValue = (String) JOptionPane.showInputDialog (null,
   "Choose one", "Input", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE, null,
   possibleValues, possibleValues [0]);

 showStatus ("Yes or No Option: " + input2 + " Combo Box Option:"    + selectedValue);

Note that optionpanes always return strings. In cases where a number is returned, you must use Integer.parseInt() to get the int out of the string.

To get a Multiline OptionPane:

JOptionPane.showMessageDialog (null, "* * * I N S T R U C T I O N S *    * * \n \n"
   + "The purpose of this very exciting game is to \n"
   + " guess whether the coin is a head or a tail. \n"
   + " when it is next flipped. \n"
   + "If you guess correctly, you get a point. \n \n"
   + "You can reset at any time by clicking CLEAR.\n \n"
   + "Have fun!", "Instructions", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE);

Simple Ways to Play With the Graphics:

JOptionPane.showMessageDialog (null, "Hi!",
   "GREETINGS", JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE);

Change the part highlighted to have one of the following graphics:

QUESTION_MESSAGE
WARNING_MESSAGE
ERROR_MESSAGE
INFORMATION_MESSAGE

The Java Doc for Option Panes: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/javax/swing/JOptionPane.html

Adding Pictures:

import java.applet.*;
   import java.awt.*;
   import javax.swing.*;

public class cat extends Applet
   {

 public void init ()
   {
   JOptionPane.showMessageDialog (null, createImageIcon ("lion.gif"), "A Lion", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
   }

 /**
   Makesanimageiconto go on a button
   @parampathisavalid path to a jpg or gif image
   @returnanImageIcon,ornull if the path was invalid.
   Directlyfrom:http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/components/example-1dot4/index.html#RadioButtonDemo
   */
   protected static ImageIcon createImageIcon (String path)
   { //change the red to your class name
   java.net.URL imgURL = cat.class.getResource (path);
   if (imgURL != null)
   {
   return new ImageIcon (imgURL);
   }
   else
   {
   System.err.println ("Couldn't find file: " + path);
   return null;
   }
   }
   }