Styling a document as the document is written

Question

Hi all
is it possible to style a styleddocument as i write text to the document,
i know how to style a document that has text already in it, ie find a string then style it, but i want to see if i can have a toString method that provides a formatted styleddocument (something like toStyledString)
so this is my toString code
StyledDocument doc;
JTextPane jTPHolder=new JTextPane();
doc = jTPHolder.getStyledDocument();
something here rather than add to a string to say doc.setText(name) then style name, perhaps find name in the doc then style that?
result=name+"\n";
result=result+"{"+"\n";
for (Enumeration e = atrib.keys(); e.hasMoreElements(); )
String key = (String)e.nextElement();
result=result+key+":";
result=result+atrib.get(key)+";"+"\n";
result=result+"}"+"\n";in the bold is my ideas on possible styling.
is this something that is possible to do or am i approaching it wrong?

Answer 1

First off i made a simple object that i will pass my jtextpane to, for it to do my looping and styling within a thread
import javax.swing.text.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class CssSyntax implements Runnable
//this is the jtextpane holder
private JTextPane jTPHolder;
//these are my attributes i want to be coloured
private String[] formatAtribs={"font-size", "color", "background-color","background-image","height","width","border-width","border-top-width","border-left-width","border-right-width","border-bottom-width","border-color","border-top-color","border-left-color","border-right-color","border-bottom-color","padding","padding-top","padding-left","padding-right","padding-bottom","margin","margin-top","margin-left","margin-right","margin-bottom","font-family", "font-weight", "font-style","background-repeat","background-attachment","background-position","text-align","vertical-align","text-transform","overflow","white-space","cursor","display","border-style","border-top-style","border-left-style","border-right-style","border-bottom-style","text-decoration","position","top","left","right","bottom","list-style-type","list-style-position"};
//i want to colour brackets too sooooo
private String[] formatBracket={"{","}"};
//ill be passing in names dynamically
private String[] formatNames;
    private StyledDocument doc;
    private Thread animator;
    /** Creates a new instance of CssSyntax */
    public CssSyntax(JTextPane t, String[] tag)
        jTPHolder=t;
        formatNames=tag;       
        doc = jTPHolder.getStyledDocument();
//make my styles for each required colour
        Style style = jTPHolder.addStyle("Tag", null);
        StyleConstants.setForeground(style, Color.blue);
        Color myGreen=new Color(0,128,0);
        style = jTPHolder.addStyle("Bracket", null);
        StyleConstants.setForeground(style, myGreen);
        Color myBrown=new Color(160,0,0);
        style = jTPHolder.addStyle("Atrib", null);
        StyleConstants.setForeground(style, myBrown);
//this is a standard black to prevent the document from being recoloured
        style = jTPHolder.addStyle("Value", null);
        StyleConstants.setForeground(style, Color.black);
//my style document loop
    private void styleDoc()
//colour everything to black to start with to stop any niggling bugs from colouring things blue
     doc.setCharacterAttributes(0, jTPHolder.getText().length(), jTPHolder.getStyle("Value"), true);
//loop through my atributes and colour them
     for (int i=0;i<formatAtribs.length;i++)
            int pos=0;
            while ((pos = jTPHolder.getText().indexOf(formatAtribs, pos)) >= 0)
doc.setCharacterAttributes(pos, formatAtribs[i].length(), jTPHolder.getStyle("Atrib"), true);
pos += formatAtribs[i].length();
//loop through my brackets and colour them
for (int i=0;i<formatBracket.length;i++)
int pos=0;
while ((pos = jTPHolder.getText().indexOf(formatBracket[i], pos)) >= 0)
doc.setCharacterAttributes(pos, formatBracket[i].length(), jTPHolder.getStyle("Bracket"), true);
pos += formatBracket[i].length();
//loop through my names and colour them
for(int i=0;i<formatNames.length-1;i++)
int pos=0;
while ((pos = jTPHolder.getText().indexOf(formatNames[i], pos)) >= 0)
doc.setCharacterAttributes(pos, formatNames[i].length(), jTPHolder.getStyle("Tag"), true);
pos += formatNames[i].length();
//stop the thread when ive done my colouring, if this is removed then the syntax is constantly checked and coloured, but my logic sucks and the whole thing flashes as i colour everything black at the start, maybe i should double buffer or something, but for now i just stop and colour on a save event
stop();
//start my thread so it doesnt hog up my ap
public void start()
     animator = new Thread(this);
     animator.start();
//dunno if this is totally right to be honest, i just nicked it from a thread example :)
public void run()
     while (Thread.currentThread() == animator)
styleDoc();
//apparently this has been deprecated but its here anyway
public void stop()
     animator=null;
now in my code i just do this
CssSyntax colMe=new CssSyntax(jTPCode,workSheet.getTags());
colMe.start();it works for my syntax highlighting and i hope is easy enough for others to grasp a quick and messy way of syntax highlighting.
To all the super brains out there, id be happy for improvements to my code (as im sure there are many!) i know its far far far from efficent, but im learning along the way :) and i hope it helps others work on syntax highlighting without having to resort to those complicated syntax highlighters that are already out there ;)