Creating a custom JButton in Java

Question

Is there a way to create a JButton with your own button graphic and not just with an image inside the button    If not  is there another way to create a custom JButton in java

User · Answer

You could always try the Synth look  amp  feel  You provide an xml file that acts as a sort of stylesheet  along with any images you want to use  The code might look like this   try       SynthLookAndFeel synth   new SynthLookAndFeel        Class aClass   MainFrame class      InputStream stream   aClass getResourceAsStream    default xml         if  stream    null            System err println  Missing configuration file            System exit -1                              synth load stream  aClass        UIManager setLookAndFeel synth     catch  ParseException pe        System err println  Bad configuration file        pe printStackTrace        System exit -2     catch  UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ulfe        System err println  Old JRE in use  Get a new one        System exit -3       From there  go on and add your JButton like you normally would  The only change is that you use the setName string  method to identify what the button should map to in the xml file   The xml file might look like this    lt synth gt       lt style id  button  gt           lt font name  DIALOG  size  12  style  BOLD   gt           lt state value  MOUSE OVER  gt               lt imagePainter method  buttonBackground  path  dirt png  sourceInsets  2 2 2 2   gt               lt insets top  2  botton  2  right  2  left  2   gt           lt  state gt           lt state value  ENABLED  gt               lt imagePainter method  buttonBackground  path  dirt png  sourceInsets  2 2 2 2   gt               lt insets top  2  botton  2  right  2  left  2   gt           lt  state gt       lt  style gt       lt bind style  button  type  name  key  dirt   gt   lt  synth gt    The bind element there specifies what to map to  in this example  it will apply that styling to any buttons whose name property has been set to  dirt     And a couple of useful links   http   javadesktop org articles synth   http   docs oracle com javase tutorial uiswing lookandfeel synth html

User · Answer

I haven t done SWING development since my early CS classes but if it wasn t built in you could just inherit javax swing AbstractButton and create your own  Should be pretty simple to wire something together with their existing framework

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When I was first learning Java we had to make Yahtzee and I thought it would be cool to create custom Swing components and containers instead of just drawing everything on one JPanel   The benefit of extending Swing components  of course  is to have the ability to add support for keyboard shortcuts and other accessibility features that you can t do just by having a paint   method print a pretty picture   It may not be done the best way however  but it may be a good starting point for you   Edit 8 6 - If it wasn t apparent from the images  each Die is a button you can click  This will move it to the DiceContainer below   Looking at the source code you can see that each Die button is drawn dynamically  based on its value       Here are the basic steps    Create a class that extends JComponent Call parent constructor super   in your constructors Make sure you class implements MouseListener Put this in the constructor   enableInputMethods true      addMouseListener this    Override these methods   public Dimension getPreferredSize     public Dimension getMinimumSize     public Dimension getMaximumSize    Override this method   public void paintComponent Graphics g     The amount of space you have to work with when drawing your button is defined by getPreferredSize    assuming getMinimumSize   and getMaximumSize   return the same value   I haven t experimented too much with this but  depending on the layout you use for your GUI your button could look completely different   And finally  the source code   In case I missed anything

User · Answer

Yes  this is possible  One of the main pros for using Swing is the ease with which the abstract controls can be created and manipulates   Here is a quick and dirty way to extend the existing JButton class to draw a circle to the right of the text   package test   import java awt Color  import java awt Container  import java awt Dimension  import java awt FlowLayout  import java awt Graphics   import javax swing JButton  import javax swing JFrame   public class MyButton extends JButton        private static final long serialVersionUID   1L       private Color circleColor   Color BLACK       public MyButton String label            super label               Override     protected void paintComponent Graphics g            super paintComponent g            Dimension originalSize   super getPreferredSize            int gap    int   originalSize height   0 2           int x   originalSize width   gap          int y   gap          int diameter   originalSize height -  gap   2            g setColor circleColor           g fillOval x  y  diameter  diameter               Override     public Dimension getPreferredSize             Dimension size   super getPreferredSize            size width    size height          return size               Test the button       public static void main String   args            MyButton button   new MyButton  Hello  World              JFrame frame   new JFrame            frame setDefaultCloseOperation JFrame EXIT ON CLOSE           frame setSize 400  400            Container contentPane   frame getContentPane            contentPane setLayout new FlowLayout             contentPane add button            frame setVisible true              Note that by overriding paintComponent that the contents of the button can be changed  but that the border is painted by the paintBorder method  The getPreferredSize method also needs to be managed in order to dynamically support changes to the content  Care needs to be taken when measuring font metrics and image dimensions   For creating a control that you can rely on  the above code is not the correct approach  Dimensions and colours are dynamic in Swing and are dependent on the look and feel being used  Even the default Metal look has changed across JRE versions  It would be better to implement AbstractButton and conform to the guidelines set out by the Swing API  A good starting point is to look at the javax swing LookAndFeel and javax swing UIManager classes   http   docs oracle com javase 8 docs api javax swing LookAndFeel html  http   docs oracle com javase 8 docs api javax swing UIManager html  Understanding the anatomy of LookAndFeel is useful for writing controls  Creating a Custom Look and Feel

User · Answer

I m probably going a million miles in the wrong direct  but i m only young  P    but couldn t you add the graphic to a panel and then a mouselistener to the graphic object so that when the user on the graphic your action is preformed

[java] Creating a custom JButton in Java

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