Swing Hacks

v

Contents

Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 1. Basic JComponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1. Create Image-Themed Components 1

2. Don’t Settle for Boring Text Labels 8

3. Fill Your Borders with Pretty Pictures 14

4. Display Dates in a Custom Calendar 19

5. Add a Watermark to a Text Component 23

6. Watermark Your Scroll Panes 26

7. Put a NASA Photo into the Background of a Text Area 29

8. Animate Transitions Between Tabs 32

9. Blur Disabled Components 39

10. Building a Drop-Down Menu Button 43

11. Create Menus with Drop Shadows 49

12. Add Translucence to Menus 52

Chapter 2. Lists and Combos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

13. Filter JLists 58

14. Add a Filter History 63

15. Make JLists Checkable 66

16. Make Different List Items Look Different 70

17. Reorder a JList with Drag-and-Drop 80

18. Animate Your JList Selections 87

vi

|

Contents

19. Turn Methods into List Renderers 92

20. Create a Collections-Aware JComboBox 95

Chapter 3. Tables and Trees

. . . . . . . . . ...