retrieving a string from the system clipboard and for putting a string in the system clipboard - Java Native OS

Java examples for Native OS:Clipboard

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Description

retrieving a string from the system clipboard and for putting a string in the system clipboard

Demo Code




import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.datatransfer.Clipboard;
import java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection; // for set
import java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor; // for get

/** ClipboardHelper has two static methods for 
 *
 * @Method get//from  w w  w . j  av a2 s.c  om
 * @Method put
 * 
 * The problem in an X-Windows environment is, that the clipboard
 * contents is lost when the owner program exits (because the
 * clipboard itself just stores a pointer to a memory area of the
 * contents owning program), see
 * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ClipboardPersistence
 *
 * This can be circumvented by 
 * 
 * A) leaving the program running (e.g.
 * `System.in.read();')
 * 
 * B) using a clipboard manager
 * Maybe the contents can also be retained by some clipboard manager
 * as mentioned on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipboard_manager
 *
 * (as of today (2013-11-27):
 * - parcellite does not work for me
 * - clipit (fork of parcellite) does not work for me
 * - glipper sees what we put in the clipboard if (and only if) we
 *   afterwards ask it for the new contents, if not -- it doesn't even
 *   show up in history. However, the contents is still cleared from
 *   the current clipboard as this program exits -- the contents can
 *   only be retrieved from the clipboard manager's history, quite
 *   strange. Not good.
 * )
 *
 * C) using a clipboard console tool instead (e.g. xclip)
 *
 */
public class ClipboardHelper //implements ClipboardOwner
{
    private static Toolkit toolkit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
    private static Clipboard clipboard = toolkit.getSystemClipboard();

    public static void put(String theString) {
        System.out.println("Must put to Clipboard: " + theString);
        StringSelection strSel = new StringSelection(theString);
        clipboard.setContents(strSel, null);
        // now, re-getting seems to help to make glipper aware of
        // the new clipboard contents (-- why?, how is this done
        // correctly?)
        try {
            String s = get();
        } catch (Exception e) {/*ignore*/
        }
    }

    public static String get() throws Exception {
        String result = (String) clipboard.getData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
        System.out.println("Got String from Clipboard: " + result);
        return result;
    }

    // Well, that might be nice in the example, but why should we want
    // to do this?
    ///**
    // *    * Empty implementation of the ClipboardOwner interface.     
    // */
    //// @Override -- does not apply here!
    //public void lostOwnership(Clipboard aClipboard, Transferable aContents)
    //{
    //          //do nothing
    //}
    //the test
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            String s = get();
            put("I just got " + s + " from the clipboard");
            //System.in.read();
            //s = "";
            //s = get();
            //System.out.println("After putting, now getting back: " + s);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            //ignore?
            // e.printStackTrace();
            System.out.println("\t" + e);
        }
    }
}

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