Swing Hacks

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Chapter 2, Lists and Combos

#15 Make JLists Checkable

HACK

The general idea of this pop up can be modified to work in similar ways for

different kinds of searches, such as popping up a list of which field the

search is to be applied to if the list items are complex. An example of this is

a mail program in which the pop up might show the options Subject, To,

From, etc., meaning that the search is limited to finding the specified term in

only the selected field.

H A C K

#15

Make JLists Checkable Hack #15

Avoid losing 50 selections to an unshifted click.

One horrible UI problem is dealing with vast collections of things that need

to be presented to the user and made selectable. If, like me, you’ve ever had

1,000 emails in your inbox, you know what I mean. Worse, what if you pick

a bunch of items to delete, but your finger slips off the key used for multi-

selection (Alt on Windows, Command on the Mac, etc.) and you lose all of

your previous selections? Overriding the native selection behavior can make

this situation somewhat more palatable.

Because a list like this behaves differently than a normal list, it should look

different, too, so I’ve opted for a checkbox metaphor. Each item is shown

with a checkbox, and as you click more items, they get checked, and if you

select an already-checked item, it gets unchecked.

This turns out to be a little harder than expected. I once did

it without

JList, creating ...