Swing Hacks

1

Chapter 1

C H A P T E R O N E

Basic JComponents

Hacks 1–12

Swing is a powerful toolkit, filled to the brim with complicated compo-

nents, extension APIs, and large Model-View-Controller (MVC) systems. It

can be quite daunting. The current edition of O’Reilly’s Java Swing book

now stretches over 1,200 pages! Swing now extends from the simplest

JButton to the full Look and Feel API. I am still amazed at the power and

flexibility of Swing, and quite aware of its complexity. Some of the more

esoteric parts can take years to master. However, you don’t need to go

straight into the

JTree or Look and Feel APIs just to do something cool.

There are still a lot of fun things waiting in the standard components we

don’t always think about.

This chapter covers some of the basic components that every Swing devel-

oper uses: buttons, labels, menus, and the occasional scroll pane. From this

base you will learn how to create image buttons, put watermarks into your

text areas, and even build a new component or two. These are the compo-

nents that seem boring, but with a little imagination, they can do a whole

lot, and the techniques here lay the foundation for even more exciting hacks

later in the book.

H A C K

#1

Create Image-Themed Components Hack #1

This hack shows how to use Swing’s built-in image support to create a

completely custom image-based user interface.

Most Swing applications get their look from a Look