Java 9: Building Robust Modular Applications

Performing Actions

We'll look at PhotoViewerTopComponent in a moment, but there are a few more items we need to look at before moving on to that.

PhotoNode overrides two additional methods, which are as follows:

    @Override 
    public Action[] getActions(boolean context) { 
      return new Action[]{SystemAction.get(OpenAction.class)}; 
    } 
 
    @Override 
    public Action getPreferredAction() { 
      return SystemAction.get(OpenAction.class); 
    } 

Unsurprisingly, the getActions() method returns an array of Actions for this Node. Actions are an abstraction (from Swing, not NetBeans) that allow us to add items to menus, and provide a means for a user to interact with the system. Each entry you see in the main menu or a context menu is backed by an Action. In our case, we're ...