Vaadin - Remove Component from its parent

Question

In the Vaadin framework (v7.1.9), how do we remove a Component from it's parent?

I'm only aware of the removeComponent function, but that requires me to get a handle on the parent (ugly):

ComponentContainer parent = (ComponentContainer) child.getParent();
parent.removeComponent(child);

I tried to just detach the child but that removed it from the 'application' without removing the Component from the UI.

Sondra

This is the way to do it. – Huehuebner

Why do you think this is ugly? It is like removing an Element from a Collection (HashSet, ArrayList...). – Helms

Ok, I like the HashSet/ArrayList comparison. However, when working with HashSet or ArrayList, you don't need to cast. remove is defined in Collection. In Vaadin, removeComponent is defined in ComponentContainer.. but Component.getParent() returns a HasComponents object instead. To me, this is either a flaw in the API or this isn't the way to do what I want to do. What do you guys think? – Sondra

honestly I didn't check the interfaces, but it's a good point. I think the reason for this is that some parents are implementing SingleComponentContainer and not HasComponents. Panel for example. But I'm not working on vaadin only using it. May I ask you in what situation you have a component and don't know its parent? – Helms

In Java collection comparison how would you get parent collection for a child element? It's totally different situation. I think you should remove components inside your layout class where you will just call removeComponent method without any casts – Azote

Answer 1

if Child is added to Any Layout you should cast it to that layout e.g if child ws added to AbsoluteLayout then

AbsoluteLayout parent = (AbsoluteLayout ) child.getParent();
parent.removeComponent(child);

Try this one

Phenoxide

If this Ans Solve your problem then please select it as ANS – Phenoxide

Answer 2

Or like this if child was added to layout.

Layout parent = ( Layout ) child.getParent();
parent.removeComponent(child)

I think this is better than Mubasher solution because it's implementation independent, I mean you don't have to know the Parent layout and if it changes the code still works.

Fructificative

My original code is better for the same reason. ComponentContainer is the lowest interface and is what specifies removeComponent, so it's the most robust cast. Still, I've decided it's a Vaadin API flaw that the cast is needed at all. That's the real answer =\ – Sondra