How the enhanced To-Do List program will behave

Before jumping into the modifications that you will be making to your applet to create the updated To-Do List program, let's review how the finished program will work.

Here is what the To-Do List program will look like:
Finished ToDoList program UI

Like your existing applet, the updated To-Do List program adds the text in the To-Do Item field to To-Do List when you select the Add button. When you select the Remove button, the program removes the selected item from the To-Do list.

What about the new buttons? Here is an overview of their behavior:

In addition to the differences in interface and behavior, there is one other important difference between the To-Do List applet and the To-Do List program. Because it needs access to the file system to read and write files, the To-Do List program must be run as an application rather than an applet. Java applets are not allowed to access the file system.

You will follow these steps to create the enhanced To-Do List program:

  1. Create the new methods.
  2. Add the two new buttons.
  3. Add a connection from the Open To-Do File button.
  4. Test the program to verify your work so far.
  5. Add a connection from the Save To-Do File button.
  6. Test the completed program.

The following sections describe these steps in detail.