Get row from selected cell in TableView in JavaFX when setCellSelectionEnabled(true) - tableview

Question

I have the following code which works great when I have standard row selection (always single, never multi).
//This is needed to set the X & Y coordinates of the stage for edit.
myTable.setRowFactory(tableView -> {
TableRow<MyDTO> row = new TableRow<MyDTO>();
row.selectedProperty().addListener((obs, wasSelected, isNowSelected) -> {
if (isNowSelected) {
lastSelectedRow.set(row);
}
});
return row ;
});
I am using the row to get the bounds in parent so that when a user selects to edit that row, I can pop a modal window up under the row for them to edit this.
However, my table is also editable for the common fields where there is no look up needed, etc. In that case I want to edit in the table. All this is working, however to make it more user friendly, I want to have cell selection turned on, but when I do that, the row.selectedProptery() listener doesn't fire.
How can I accomplish that, without trying to listen to the selectedProperty() of each cell?
Thanks

Answer 1

I don't think there's a way to do this without registering a listener with the selection property of each cell, via a cell factory on each table column.
However, this isn't too difficult, and can be done both generically (i.e. with the same code no matter the type of the table column) and also respecting any other cell factory behavior you need. Here is a SSCCE:
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.function.Function;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.binding.DoubleBinding;
import javafx.beans.property.IntegerProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.ObjectProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleIntegerProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleObjectProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleStringProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.StringProperty;
import javafx.beans.value.ObservableValue;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.TableCell;
import javafx.scene.control.TableColumn;
import javafx.scene.control.TableView;
import javafx.scene.layout.StackPane;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.shape.Rectangle;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.util.Callback;
public class SelectedTableCellTracking extends Application {
private final ObjectProperty<TableCell<?,?>> selectedCell = new SimpleObjectProperty<>();
#Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
TableView<Item> table = new TableView<>();
TableColumn<Item, String> itemCol = column("Item", Item::nameProperty);
TableColumn<Item, Number> valueCol = column("Value", Item::valueProperty);
table.getColumns().add(itemCol);
table.getColumns().add(valueCol);
Random rng = new Random();
for (int i = 1 ; i <= 100; i++) {
table.getItems().add(new Item("Item "+i, rng.nextInt(1000)));
}
table.getSelectionModel().setCellSelectionEnabled(true);
Rectangle highlight = new Rectangle();
highlight.setManaged(false);
highlight.setHeight(12);
highlight.setFill(Color.CORAL);
StackPane root = new StackPane(table, highlight);
selectedCell.addListener((obs, oldCell, newCell) -> {
if (newCell == null) {
highlight.setVisible(false);
} else {
highlight.setVisible(true);
highlight.setX(newCell.localToScene(newCell.getBoundsInLocal()).getMinX());
highlight.setWidth(newCell.getWidth());
highlight.setY(newCell.localToScene(newCell.getBoundsInLocal()).getMaxY());
}
});
table.getColumns().forEach(this::addCellSelectionListenerToColumn);
Scene scene = new Scene(root, 800, 800);
primaryStage.setScene(scene);
primaryStage.show();
}
private <S,T> void addCellSelectionListenerToColumn(TableColumn<S,T> col) {
Callback<TableColumn<S,T>, TableCell<S,T>> currentCellFactory = col.getCellFactory();
col.setCellFactory(tc -> {
TableCell<S,T> cell = currentCellFactory.call(tc);
cell.selectedProperty().addListener((obs, wasSelected, isNowSelected) -> {
if (isNowSelected) {
selectedCell.set(cell);
}
});
return cell ;
});
}
private static <S,T> TableColumn<S,T> column(String title, Function<S, ObservableValue<T>> property) {
TableColumn<S,T> col = new TableColumn<>(title);
col.setCellValueFactory(cellData -> property.apply(cellData.getValue()));
return col ;
}
public static class Item {
private final StringProperty name = new SimpleStringProperty();
private final IntegerProperty value = new SimpleIntegerProperty();
public Item(String name, int value) {
setName(name);
setValue(value);
}
public final StringProperty nameProperty() {
return this.name;
}
public final String getName() {
return this.nameProperty().get();
}
public final void setName(final String name) {
this.nameProperty().set(name);
}
public final IntegerProperty valueProperty() {
return this.value;
}
public final int getValue() {
return this.valueProperty().get();
}
public final void setValue(final int value) {
this.valueProperty().set(value);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}
}