There are three simple steps to using commands.

1. Create and xml file describing the command properties.
2. Load the xml file into the CommandManager
3. Create a subclass of ActionCommand and implement its handleExecute() method.

Write the configuration file

The following shows a simple xml configuration file for a command with the id of "my.command".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE commands SYSTEM "commands.dtd">
<commands version="1.1.0">
   <command id="my.command">
      <face>
         <text>My _Command</text>
         <icon type="classpath">images/my-commands-icon.gif</icon>
         <description>This will be in the tooltip</description>
         <accelerator key="a">
            <modifier value="control"/>
         </accelerator>
      </face>
    </command>
</commands>

The <face> element is used to define the visual appearance of the buttons and menu items created by this command. Because only a single face is defined, it is used as the default for all buttons and menus this command creates (you can read a detailed explanation of faces here). The elements of the face are fairly self explanatory but the following is worth noting.

• The accelerator is only used by menus. Further information regarding accelerator configuration can be found in command faces.
• Multiple <modifier> elements can be specified.

Load the Configuration

Now the configuration has been written, we can load it into the CommandManager .

// load the xml command definition and initialize the manager.
File myCommandFile = new File("commands.xml");
try 
{
   CommandManager.defaultInstance().load(myCommandFile);
}
catch (LoadException e)
{
   // oops
   e.printStackTrace();
   System.exit(1);	
}

Creating a Command

Creating a command instance is as simple performing the following steps.

public class MyCommand
extends ActionCommand
{
   public MyCommand
   {
      super("my.command");
   }

   public void handleExecute()
   {
      System.out.println("I've been executed");
   }
}

// create a new instance of the command.
MyCommand myCommand = new MyCommand();

// and use it!
AbstractButton button = myCommand.createButton();
JMenuItem menu = myCommand.createMenuItem();

Notes on Button Types

The default ActionCommand.createButton() methods will return a JButton, however CommandGroups and ToggleCommand s will return a JToggleButton.