java gui question

titanium_geek · 11-13-2003, 05:15 AM

hello.

I was wondering how to get colored components.
like buttons, combo boxes etc.

titanium_geek

Looking_Lost · 11-13-2003, 06:56 AM

Try using the

setForeground

and

setBackground

methods

titanium_geek · 11-13-2003, 06:26 PM

nope.
My problem: I'm writing a hangman program as a learning program. It's really complicated. grr.
I have multiple panels... I tried to get the background colour to be orange.. it flashed orange on repaint, and went grey.
never mind. problem I'll be able to work out as a challenge.

What i want is like: red buttons. red combo boxes.

thanks

titanium_geek

linorg · 11-14-2003, 10:08 AM

hey i guess u could do this by embedding a red colored image on the button to get a red button

titanium_geek · 11-14-2003, 03:20 PM

linorg, could you elaborate on how I would do this?

and how about JComboBoxes?

thanks.

titanium_geek

Looking_Lost · 11-14-2003, 03:50 PM

You should really be able to just do,

mybutton.setBackground(Color.RED);

etc.. sort of thing...

I can only think that maybe there's a wee quirk in your code somewhere that's messing things up...but there ya go...

linorg · 11-15-2003, 09:58 AM

hi there
according to me the foll peice of code should work
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.applet.*;
public class OneButton extends Applet {
public void init(){ Button testBut = new Button("BUTTON");
testBut.setBackground(Color.blue);
testBut.setForeground(Color.red);
add(testBut); } }

i haven't tested it yet
still better u culd use
create an image icon object say penguin
now just use
new Button(penguin)
this should wrk
fine

bye

german · 11-15-2003, 01:32 PM

what you do is subclass the components you want to change the color of. You can also do cool things like make them circles or whatever, add gradients, etc. Here is the code I used for custom text fields (this is assuming you are using Swing/JFC.. IE JButton, JTextArea, etc.). It makes them orange, and with round corners.

Code:

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;

import java.awt.*;

public class KTextField extends JTextField {
  private Paint main = new Color(0xff,0xa5,0x00); // orange
  private Paint hilite = new Color(0xff,0xff,0xff); // white
  private Paint lolite = new Color(0xa0,0x64,0x00); // dark orange

  public KTextField(int cols) {
    super(cols);
    init();
  }

  public KTextField(int cols, Paint color) {
    super(cols);
    this.main = color;
    init();
  }

  private void init() {
    setOpaque(false); // if true it paints a regular btn on top of what we do
    setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(3, 5, 3, 5));
  }

  protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
    Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D)g;
    int width = getWidth();
    int height = getHeight();

    g2d.setColor(lolite);
    g.fillRoundRect(0, 0, width-1, height-4, height, height-4);
    g2d.setColor(hilite);
    g.fillRoundRect(1, 4, width, height-4, height, height-4);
    g2d.setPaint(main);
    g.fillRoundRect(1, 2, width-2, height-4, height, height-4);

    super.paintComponent(g);
  }
}

This formula can be applied to most swing components, but the more complex ones will give you trouble. Another thing that's worth looking into is creating a custom MetalTheme (which I also have example code for) which globally replaces colors in the default Swing Theme.

HTH

B.

titanium_geek · 11-15-2003, 02:20 PM

NICE!!

well, I've messed about with this program to much, I'll probably have to re write it.

thanks to all of you.

titanium_geek

PS it's moments like this were i wonder what i'd do without LQ?!

titanium_geek · 11-16-2003, 01:25 PM

yes! it all works!
quick question:
how to change the highlight/hover colour on the menu/JComboBox?
(metal)

titanium_geek

german · 11-17-2003, 05:41 AM

In order to set colors for swing components globally without subclassing each one, there's a class javax.swing.UIManager , which all swing components use for their icons, fonts and colors (in the Metal theme).

This is an application to show the values for UIDefaults (it is essentially a hash of settings)
http://www.discoverteenergy.com/file...IDefaults.java

And make sure you set all of the colors you want to change BEFORE you create the objects (a static initializer of the main class is a good place) or else you'll have to call

Code:

SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI([main app frame object]);

which slows things down. Also, the previous example I posted does use a fair bit of CPU if you have a lot of KTextField's on screen, because when you call setOpaque(false); you force Swing to traverse the entire component hierarchy to fill in every pixel you don't (it's a speed hack that you have to set it true or false at all). If you don't want round buttons or text fields, then I'd suggest setting UIManager defaults to just change the color of stuff.

HTH

B.

edit:

Read and learn this for homework:
http://java.about.com/library/swing/...apter_21-1.htm

and this is an excellent reference to have bookmarked:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/

titanium_geek · 11-18-2003, 06:17 PM

thanks guys.

next challenge: making it do something!

titanium_geek

titanium_geek · 11-19-2003, 06:57 PM

yes it works. and for color of background:

let's make a panel "pain"

pain.setBackground(Color.RED);

note: set it for all the panels you use, will have gaps...

titanium_geek