public class EventListenerList extends Object implements Serializable

A class that holds a list of EventListeners. A single instance can be used to hold all listeners (of all types) for the instance using the list. It is the responsibility of the class using the EventListenerList to provide type-safe API (preferably conforming to the JavaBeans spec) and methods which dispatch event notification methods to appropriate Event Listeners on the list. The main benefits that this class provides are that it is relatively cheap in the case of no listeners, and it provides serialization for event-listener lists in a single place, as well as a degree of MT safety (when used correctly). Usage example: Say one is defining a class that sends out FooEvents, and one wants to allow users of the class to register FooListeners and receive notification when FooEvents occur. The following should be added to the class definition:

 EventListenerList listenerList = new EventListenerList();
 FooEvent fooEvent = null;

 public void addFooListener(FooListener l) {
     listenerList.add(FooListener.class, l);
 }

 public void removeFooListener(FooListener l) {
     listenerList.remove(FooListener.class, l);
 }


 // Notify all listeners that have registered interest for
 // notification on this event type.  The event instance
 // is lazily created using the parameters passed into
 // the fire method.

 protected void fireFooXXX() {
     // Guaranteed to return a non-null array
     Object[] listeners = listenerList.getListenerList();
     // Process the listeners last to first, notifying
     // those that are interested in this event
     for (int i = listeners.length-2; i>=0; i-=2) {
         if (listeners[i]==FooListener.class) {
             // Lazily create the event:
             if (fooEvent == null)
                 fooEvent = new FooEvent(this);
             ((FooListener)listeners[i+1]).fooXXX(fooEvent);
         }
     }
 }
 

foo should be changed to the appropriate name, and fireFooXxx to the appropriate method name. One fire method should exist for each notification method in the FooListener interface.

Warning: Serialized objects of this class will not be compatible with future Swing releases. The current serialization support is appropriate for short term storage or RMI between applications running the same version of Swing. As of 1.4, support for long term storage of all JavaBeans has been added to the java.beans package. Please see XMLEncoder.