Invalidate picturescrollfield - blackberry

Question

I am loading images in PictureScrollField from the server and want that until images are loaded from server, the PictureScrollField shows a blank image and when the image loads in image array, it repaints (redraw) the PictureScrollField like a ListField.
I read from BlackBerry documentation that every field can be invalidated (that is, we can repaint it) but when I use the PictureScrollField.invalidate() method in my program, I get an error :
The method invalidate from the type Field is not visible
The program I use is listed below
public final class GetMoreImage extends MainScreen {
public static PictureScrollField psf;
int size;
int length;
String text=null;
EncodedImage[] encodedImage;
VerticalFieldManager vmanger;
private LoadImages loadImages;
public GetMoreImage(int index) {
super(NO_VERTICAL_SCROLL | NO_VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR);
this.size=index;
try {
length=ListHome.object[size].getJSONArray("UrlArray").length();
} catch (JSONException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
ScrollEntry[] entries = new ScrollEntry[length];
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if(encodedImage != null && encodedImage.length > i && encodedImage[i] != null) {
EncodedImage encodedImg =ListHome.sizeImage(JPEGEncodedImage.encode(Bitmap.getBitmapResource("icon.png"),80),640,380);
Bitmap bmp=encodedImg.getBitmap();
entries[i] = new ScrollEntry(bmp, "hello", "");
}
else {
try {
text=ListHome.object[size].getJSONArray("UrlArray").getString(i).toString();
} catch (JSONException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
EncodedImage encodedImg =ListHome.sizeImage(JPEGEncodedImage.encode(connectServerForImage(text),80),640,380);
Bitmap bmp=encodedImg.getBitmap();
entries[i] = new ScrollEntry(bmp, "hello", "");
}
}
psf = new PictureScrollField();
psf.setData(entries, 0);
psf.setHighlightStyle(HighlightStyle.ILLUMINATE_WITH_SHRINK_LENS);
add(psf);
loadImages = new LoadImages(80, 80);
loadImages.start();
}
private class LoadImages extends Thread {
int widthL;
int heightL;
LoadImages(int width, int height) {
this.widthL = width;
this.heightL = height;
}
public void run() {
encodedImage=new EncodedImage[length];
if (ListHome.object[size] != null) {
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
try {
String text=ListHome.object[size].getJSONArray("UrlArray").getString(i).toString();
EncodedImage encodedImg = JPEGEncodedImage.encode(connectServerForImage(text), 80);//Get Image from Server
encodedImage[i] = ListHome.sizeImage(encodedImg, Display.getWidth(), Display.getHeight()-100);
psf.invalidate();//This Line generate error
} catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
} else {
UiApplication.getUiApplication().invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
Dialog.alert("No Data Found");
}
});
}
}
}
}
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

The reason you get a compile error on this line:
psf.invalidate();//This Line generate error
is because the PictureScrollField#invalidate() method is protected, not public. So, code not in PictureScrollField or a class that extends PictureScrollField cannot use it directly.
However, you don't need to use invalidate(). invalidate() is a low-level method that instructs a field to repaint. However, PictureScrollField has a higher-level method that is designed to allow you to change images, and have the field (re)draw them: PictureScrollField#setData().
Because that method is changing the user interface (UI), it should be run on the UI/main thread. This will not automatically happen if you make the call inside the run() method you are using to download the images. So, you'll need something like this inside your LoadImages class:
public void run() {
encodedImage=new EncodedImage[length];
if (ListHome.object[size] != null) {
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
try {
String text=ListHome.object[size].getJSONArray("UrlArray").getString(i).toString();
EncodedImage encodedImg = JPEGEncodedImage.encode(connectServerForImage(text), 80);//Get Image from Server
encodedImage[i] = ListHome.sizeImage(encodedImg, Display.getWidth(), Display.getHeight()-100);
//psf.invalidate();//This Line generate error
entries[i] = new ScrollEntry(encodedImage[i].getBitmap(), "label", "callout");
// we must update the scroll entries on the UI/main thread:
UiApplication.getUiApplication().invokeLater(new Runnable() {
// setting the field to index 'i' will scroll to the image
// that was just downloaded
psf.setData(entries, i);
});
} catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
In order to make this work, you must change the local entries variable to a member variable in your GetMoreImage class:
public final class GetMoreImage extends MainScreen {
public static PictureScrollField psf;
private ScrollEntry[] entries;
but, you can still instantiate it (entries = new ScrollEntry[length];) in your screen's constructor, or whenever you know the correct length.