How can I tell what events fire from GXT?

Question

I cannot seem to find any documentation of what events fire and when in GXT.

The API docs have lists of all the events that could fire (in Events). And it describes how to handle events that you catch. But I'm interested in the opposite side, which events are fired when I take a certain action.

I can set some listeners for various different components, or I can use addListener with a specific event code to catch individual events. That's spotty, and I seem to be using trial-and-error to guess what I might want to catch.

Is there a way to log all the events that are firing? Or catch all of them so I could look at them in a debugger?

Or is there some documentation I am missing that has the information? Something along the lines of "when you click on a widget, a ButtonEvent is fired. Events.x is fired on the hover, Events.y on the click."

Answer 1

Maybe someone will find this useful, I've created utility class for seeing what kind of events are risen. The idea of course was proposed in accepted answer.

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import com.extjs.gxt.ui.client.event.BaseEvent;
import com.extjs.gxt.ui.client.event.EventType;
import com.extjs.gxt.ui.client.event.Events;
import com.extjs.gxt.ui.client.event.Listener;
import com.extjs.gxt.ui.client.widget.Component;

/**
 * Class for debugging purposes. Sometimes it is hard to tell what type of event
 * is invoked and when. During debug process you can just do:
 * 
 * EventUtils.attachDebugListeners(c);
 * EventUtils.attachDebugListeners(c, "NAME");
 * 
 * You'll then get information about events as they are invoked.
 * 
 * List of events copied from {@link Events} class.
 * 
 */
public class EventUtils {

    public static void attachDebugListeners(final Component c) {
        attachDebugListeners(c, null);
    }

    public static void attachDebugListeners(final Component c, final String msg) {
        for (final EventType type : eventTypeNames.keySet()) {
            c.addListener(type, new Listener<BaseEvent>() {
                @Override
                public void handleEvent(BaseEvent be) {
                    String typeName = eventTypeNames.get(type);
                    if (msg != null)
                        System.out.print(msg + " -> ");
                    System.out.println(typeName);
                }
            });
        }
    }

    final static Map<EventType, String> eventTypeNames = new HashMap<EventType, String>();
    static {
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Activate, "Events.Activate");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Add, "Events.Add");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Adopt, "Events.Adopt");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.AfterEdit, "Events.AfterEdit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.AfterLayout, "Events.AfterLayout");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ArrowClick, "Events.ArrowClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Attach, "Events.Attach");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.AutoHide, "Events.AutoHide");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeAdd, "Events.BeforeAdd");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeAdopt, "Events.BeforeAdopt");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeBind, "Events.BeforeBind");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeCancelEdit, "Events.BeforeCancelEdit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeChange, "Events.BeforeChange");
        eventTypeNames
                .put(Events.BeforeCheckChange, "Events.BeforeCheckChange");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeClose, "Events.BeforeClose");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeCollapse, "Events.BeforeCollapse");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeComplete, "Events.BeforeComplete");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeEdit, "Events.BeforeEdit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeExpand, "Events.BeforeExpand");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeHide, "Events.BeforeHide");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeLayout, "Events.BeforeLayout");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeOpen, "Events.BeforeOpen");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeOrphan, "Events.BeforeOrphan");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeQuery, "Events.BeforeQuery");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeRemove, "Events.BeforeRemove");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeRender, "Events.BeforeRender");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeSelect, "Events.BeforeSelect");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeShow, "Events.BeforeShow");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeStartEdit, "Events.BeforeStartEdit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeStateRestore,
                "Events.BeforeStateRestore");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeStateSave, "Events.BeforeStateSave");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeSubmit, "Events.BeforeSubmit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Bind, "Events.Bind");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Blur, "Events.Blur");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BodyScroll, "Events.BodyScroll");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.BrowserEvent, "Events.BrowserEvent");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.CancelEdit, "Events.CancelEdit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.CellClick, "Events.CellClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.CellDoubleClick, "Events.CellDoubleClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.CellMouseDown, "Events.CellMouseDown");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.CellMouseUp, "Events.CellMouseUp");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Change, "Events.Change");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.CheckChange, "Events.CheckChange");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.CheckChanged, "Events.CheckChanged");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Clear, "Events.Clear");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Close, "Events.Close");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Collapse, "Events.Collapse");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ColumnClick, "Events.ColumnClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ColumnResize, "Events.ColumnResize");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Complete, "Events.Complete");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ContextMenu, "Events.ContextMenu");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Deactivate, "Events.Deactivate");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Detach, "Events.Detach");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Disable, "Events.Disable");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.DoubleClick, "Events.DoubleClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.DragCancel, "Events.DragCancel");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.DragEnd, "Events.DragEnd");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.DragEnter, "Events.DragEnter");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.DragFail, "Events.DragFail");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.DragLeave, "Events.DragLeave");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.DragMove, "Events.DragMove");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.DragStart, "Events.DragStart");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Drop, "Events.Drop");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.EffectCancel, "Events.EffectCancel");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.EffectComplete, "Events.EffectComplete");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.EffectStart, "Events.EffectStart");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Enable, "Events.Enable");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Exception, "Events.Exception");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Expand, "Events.Expand");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Focus, "Events.Focus");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.HeaderChange, "Events.HeaderChange");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.HeaderClick, "Events.HeaderClick");
        eventTypeNames
                .put(Events.HeaderContextMenu, "Events.HeaderContextMenu");
        eventTypeNames
                .put(Events.HeaderDoubleClick, "Events.HeaderDoubleClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.HeaderMouseDown, "Events.HeaderMouseDown");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.HiddenChange, "Events.HiddenChange");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Hide, "Events.Hide");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Invalid, "Events.Invalid");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.KeyDown, "Events.KeyDown");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.KeyPress, "Events.KeyPress");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.KeyUp, "Events.KeyUp");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.LiveGridViewUpdate,
                "Events.LiveGridViewUpdate");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Maximize, "Events.Maximize");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.MenuHide, "Events.MenuHide");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.MenuShow, "Events.MenuShow");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Minimize, "Events.Minimize");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Move, "Events.Move");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnBlur, "Events.OnBlur");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnChange, "Events.OnChange");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnClick, "Events.OnClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnContextMenu, "Events.OnContextMenu");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnDoubleClick, "Events.OnDoubleClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnError, "Events.OnError");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnFocus, "Events.OnFocus");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnKeyDown, "Events.OnKeyDown");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnKeyPress, "Events.OnKeyPress");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnKeyUp, "Events.OnKeyUp");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnLoad, "Events.OnLoad");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnLoseCapture, "Events.OnLoseCapture");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnMouseDown, "Events.OnMouseDown");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnMouseMove, "Events.OnMouseMove");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnMouseOut, "Events.OnMouseOut");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnMouseOver, "Events.OnMouseOver");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnMouseUp, "Events.OnMouseUp");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnMouseWheel, "Events.OnMouseWheel");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.OnScroll, "Events.OnScroll");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Open, "Events.Open");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Orphan, "Events.Orphan");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Ready, "Events.Ready");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Refresh, "Events.Refresh");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Register, "Events.Register");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Remove, "Events.Remove");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Render, "Events.Render");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Resize, "Events.Resize");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ResizeEnd, "Events.ResizeEnd");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ResizeStart, "Events.ResizeStart");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Restore, "Events.Restore");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.RowClick, "Events.RowClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.RowDoubleClick, "Events.RowDoubleClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.RowMouseDown, "Events.RowMouseDown");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.RowMouseUp, "Events.RowMouseUp");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.RowUpdated, "Events.RowUpdated");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Scroll, "Events.Scroll");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Select, "Events.Select");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.SelectionChange, "Events.SelectionChange");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Show, "Events.Show");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.SortChange, "Events.SortChange");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.SpecialKey, "Events.SpecialKey");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.StartEdit, "Events.StartEdit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.StateChange, "Events.StateChange");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.StateRestore, "Events.StateRestore");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.StateSave, "Events.StateSave");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Submit, "Events.Submit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Toggle, "Events.Toggle");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.TriggerClick, "Events.TriggerClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.TwinTriggerClick, "Events.TwinTriggerClick");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.UnBind, "Events.UnBind");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Unregister, "Events.Unregister");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Update, "Events.Update");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.Valid, "Events.Valid");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ValidateDrop, "Events.ValidateDrop");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ValidateEdit, "Events.ValidateEdit");
        eventTypeNames.put(Events.ViewReady, "Events.ViewReady");
    }
}

Answer 2

I ended up using brute force: Created a Map of EventType and name, then attach a Listener for each type of event that the component could receive. Then I just set a breakpoint inside the Listener, and I could see what events were received when anything happened.

If it hadn't been throwaway code, I would have cleaned it up into a utility class, not used an anonymous Listener class, etc.

    final Map<EventType, String> eventTypeNames = new HashMap<EventType, String>();
    eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeExpand, "BeforeExpand");
    eventTypeNames.put(Events.Expand, "Expand");
    ...
    eventTypeNames.put(Events.BeforeStateSave, "BeforeStateSave");
    eventTypeNames.put(Events.StateSave, "StateSave");

    for (EventType eventType : Arrays.asList(
            Events.BeforeExpand,
            Events.Expand,
            ...
            Events.BeforeStateSave,
            Events.StateSave
    )) {
        this.addListener(eventType, new Listener<BaseEvent>() {
            public void handleEvent(final BaseEvent be) {
                String type = eventTypeNames.get(be.getType());
                String ev = be.toString();
            }
        });
    }