We Keep Coding

Java Swing macOS buttons are grey instead of blue when selected

I have a bug in my Swing program where the background of JButton and JToggleButton components is grey instead of blue, when the component is selected. Here is a screenshot of the issue on a JToggleButton, but the same issue occurs when pressing down on a JButton.
I have tried manually setting the background with
button.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
button.setOpaque(true);
but that just paints a small border around the button:
Also added button.setBorderPainted(false); which removes the border but also removes the macOS button look entirely + gives the text a darker background color:
It looks like the border (AquaButtonBorder) blocks the background color from changing or something? Because simply setting button.setBackground(Color.BLUE); does absolutely nothing.
The look and feel is set to UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName(), but also tried UIManager.getCrossPlatformLookAndFeelClassName() which was unsuccessful.
Java specifications: running on Java 11, but the same issue persists in Java 17
System specifications: M1 MacBook Pro, macOS version 12.4

Sooo, I spent WAY to much time digging into the source code for the "Aqua" look and feel, and I found that the AquaButtonUI has a "button type" client property which is used to (amongst a couple of other things) determine the border type.
Sooo, I pulled all the internal "types" and did a quick test...
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.GridBagConstraints;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JToggleButton;
import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(System.getProperty("user.dir"));
new Main();
}
public Main() {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.add(new TestPane());
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
public class TestPane extends JPanel {
private String[] keys = new String[]{
"toolbar",
"icon",
"text",
"toggle",
"combobox",
"comboboxInternal",
"comboboxEndCap",
"square",
"gradient",
"bevel",
"textured",
"roundRect",
"recessed",
"well",
"help",
"round",
"texturedRound",
"segmented-first",
"segmented-middle",
"segmented-last",
"segmented-only",
"segmentedRoundRect-first",
"segmentedRoundRect-middle",
"segmentedRoundRect-last",
"segmentedRoundRect-only",
"segmentedTexturedRounded-first",
"segmentedTexturedRounded-middle",
"segmentedTexturedRounded-last",
"segmentedTexturedRounded-only",
"segmentedTextured-first",
"segmentedTextured-middle",
"segmentedTextured-last",
"segmentedTextured-only",
"segmentedCapsule-first",
"segmentedCapsule-middle",
"segmentedCapsule-last",
"segmentedCapsule-only",
"segmentedGradient-first",
"segmentedGradient-middle",
"segmentedGradient-last",
"segmentedGradient-only",
"disclosure",
"scrollColumnSizer"
};
public TestPane() {
setBorder(new EmptyBorder(32, 32, 32, 32));
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
JPanel contentPane = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
gbc.gridwidth = GridBagConstraints.REMAINDER;
for (String key : keys) {
JToggleButton btn = new JToggleButton(key);
btn.putClientProperty("JButton.buttonType", key);
contentPane.add(btn, gbc);
}
add(new JScrollPane(contentPane));
}
}
}
Generally, I found that bevel and segmented-only will achieve your desired result (although segment-first/middle/last looks interesting)

Packed JFrame Too Tall?

I am trying to create a simple Java Swing GUI that consists of a panel on top and tabs in the center. I want the top panel to remain its preferred size and the tabs to take up the remaining space so I used a BorderLayout. The content of the tab can be tall so I put the tab component into a scroll pane.
Everything seems to work the way I expect (with respect to component sizing and scroll bar behavior when I resize the frame) except that my packed frame is 12 pixels too tall (and possibly 16 pixels too wide). Would someone please explain what is going on and how to resolve it. Somehow when the pack is sizing all of the components, something is smart enough to (mostly) respect the screen size. I am using Java 8 on Windows 7 with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1200.
Below is my test code and the output it produces.
Code:
package test;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public final class SizeTest
{
public static void main(final String[] args)
{
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
createAndShowGui();
}
});
}
private static void createAndShowGui()
{
final JPanel topPanel = new JPanel();
topPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Top"));
topPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(800, 150));
final JPanel centerPanel = new JPanel();
centerPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Center"));
centerPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(800, 1300));
final JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(centerPanel);
final JTabbedPane tabbedPane = new JTabbedPane();
tabbedPane.addTab("Tab", scrollPane);
final JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(0, 10));
mainPanel.add(topPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
mainPanel.add(tabbedPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
final JFrame mainFrame = new JFrame("Size Test");
mainFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
mainFrame.add(mainPanel);
mainFrame.pack();
System.err.println("***** Frame Size: " + mainFrame.getSize() + ", Screen Size: "
+ Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize() + ", Maximum Window Bounds: "
+ GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getMaximumWindowBounds());
mainFrame.setVisible(true);
}
}
Output:
***** Frame Size: java.awt.Dimension[width=816,height=1212], Screen Size: java.awt.Dimension[width=1920,height=1200], Maximum Window Bounds: java.awt.Rectangle[x=0,y=0,width=1920,height=1156]

If you're going to stuff around with setPreferredSize, be prepared for things to go astray.
The first thing I would do, is seriously reconsider using setPreferredSize.
Because of the way the API works, JScrollPane will use the preferredSize of the component to make determinations about it's own size. You can change this by implementing the Scrollable interface, which allows you to return the preferredScrollableViewportSize, which JScrollPane will use instead when determing how large it needs to be
You see Scrollable demonstrated here and here and lots of other places if you do some searching

jPanel and jButton customization

I'm trying to learn how to code Conway's game of life in Java, and I'm getting stuck creating the GUI. I want to make a JPanel within the JFrame, with a larger border at South, and then two buttons in the south border, one for "Play" and one for "Restart." But the Design element won't let me resize or move anything around. I was able to resize the JPanel by going into the code and creating a larger border in the South, but I can't figure out how to resize the JButton. Any ideas?
(I'm using Eclipse Kepler...I hear NetBeans is better at this kind of stuff, should I just ditch Eclipse and try it with NetBeans?)
Here's my code so far:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
public class GameOfLife extends JFrame {
private JPanel contentPane;
/**
* Launch the application.
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
GameOfLife frame = new GameOfLife();
frame.setVisible(true);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
}
/**
* Create the frame.
*/
public GameOfLife() {
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setBounds(100, 100, 518, 508);
contentPane = new JPanel();
contentPane.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(10, 10, 50, 10));
contentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout(0, 0));
setContentPane(contentPane);
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setBackground(Color.GRAY);
contentPane.add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
JButton btnNewButton = new JButton("New button");
contentPane.add(btnNewButton, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
}
}
Basically, instead of doing BorderLayout.SOUTH, I want to manually place it where I want it within the frame. I'd also love to be able to do that with the JPanel--the whole North/West/South/East/Center thing in general seems very constricting. What's the way around it?

Maybe you should look at Swing Layouts in Java documentation:
A Visual Guide to Layout Managers
And the layout which is able to give you the most flexibility is the GridBagLayout but you will write much code to display the User Interface as your needs.
You will have a detailled way to go with the following official tutorial:
How to Use GridBagLayout
In your code, you are using the simple BorderLayout which is very simple but not so much configurable.

How to Center JButtons in a centered JLabel in a BoxLayout?

I'm new in Java GUI programming and I have a strange issue with the BoxLayout:
I have an JLabel with an Icon. Added to the label are two JButtons. The Jlabel is placed in the CENTER position of the BorderLayout from a JFrame. Now I want that these two JButtons are always in the center of the JLabel even when I resize the JFrame. With setAlignmentX() the Jbuttons are centered horizontally , but there is no solution with setAlignmentY() for the vertical direction.
here is the code:
package footballQuestioner;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
public class Houdini {
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new House();
}
}
class House extends JFrame {
private JLabel label = new JLabel(
new ImageIcon(
"C:\\Users\\laudatio\\Documents\\Java\\MyProject\\src\\footballQuestioner\\footballfield.jpg")
);
private JButton one=new JButton("one");
private JButton two=new JButton("two");
public House() {
label.setLayout(new BoxLayout(label, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
label.add(one);
label.add(two);
one.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
one.setAlignmentY(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
two.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
two.setAlignmentY(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
setLocation(300, 500);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setResizable(true);
add(label,BorderLayout.CENTER);
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
}
Please Help! :-((((

but there is no solution with setAlignmentY() for the vertical direction.
Use "glue" before and after your two components. See the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Box Layout for more information and examples.
Although MadProgrammers comment to use a GridBagLayout is an easier solution, but knowing about "glue" and "struts" can be helpful for customizing the layout of a BoxLayout.

MigLayout row-height and changing font-size

I have a problem using MigLayout in combination with dynamically changing the font-size of the components which are shown in the MigLayout cells.
In detail: I added a JCheckBox via MigLayout to a JPanel. The font-size of the JCheckBox is default (12pt?) and the row which contains the JCheckBox has a preferred height of 17lp. That all works fine.
(View here: http://www.bilderload.com/bild/227327/migproblemcellheight1UQXP2.png)
Now I change the font-size to e.g. 20pt and start the program again. Now the text of the JCheckBox is cut because the row has also the height of 17lp.
(View here: http://www.bilderload.com/bild/227328/migproblemcellheight2DDPGJ.png)
If I for example let the row definition empty ("[]") the text shows correctly with both font sizes - the normal and the large one. But in this case the row will sadly never reach a minimum of 17lp. (It will always have a minimum of 23lp or so)
How can I change the MigLayout definition to get a minimum row-height of 17lp and to let the cell grow correctly with the components font-size/text etc.?
Or maybe this is a L&F problem?
Thanks & best regards,
Philipp
Here is my sample code (working example):
import java.awt.Font;
import javax.swing.JCheckBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import net.miginfocom.swing.MigLayout;
public class TestMigLayoutFontSize extends JFrame {
public TestMigLayoutFontSize() {
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setSize(600, 400);
setContentPane(getTestPanel());
setVisible(true);
}
private JPanel getTestPanel() {
JCheckBox testBox = new JCheckBox("Program argument");
Font normalFont = testBox.getFont();
Font largeFont = new Font(testBox.getFont().getName(), testBox.getFont().getStyle(), 20);
// testBox.setFont(normalFont);
testBox.setFont(largeFont);
JPanel tempPanel = new JPanel(new MigLayout("debug", "0lp![grow,fill]0lp!", "[17lp:17lp:n]"));
tempPanel.add(testBox);
JPanel testPanel = new JPanel(new MigLayout("", "[grow,fill]", "[grow,fill]"));
testPanel.add(tempPanel);
return testPanel;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new TestMigLayoutFontSize();
}
}

You may reduce the space around your checkbox by reducing the border size, e.g. put
testBox.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(1, 1, 1, 1));
directly after the assignment of testBox. You may then leave the row definition empty and still get a reasonable height for your panel.

The following works for me. I think the problem is , that you specify the preferred size.
Regards
Roger
package de.test;
import java.awt.Font;
import javax.swing.JCheckBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import net.miginfocom.swing.MigLayout;
public class MigTest extends JFrame {
public MigTest() {
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setSize(600, 400);
setContentPane(getTestPanel());
setVisible(true);
}
private JPanel getTestPanel() {
JCheckBox testBox = new JCheckBox("Program argument");
Font normalFont = testBox.getFont();
Font largeFont = new Font(testBox.getFont().getName(), testBox.getFont().getStyle(), 90);
// testBox.setFont(normalFont);
testBox.setFont(largeFont);
JPanel tempPanel = new JPanel(new MigLayout("debug", "0lp![grow,fill]0lp!", "[80:n:]"));
tempPanel.add(testBox);
JPanel testPanel = new JPanel(new MigLayout("", "[grow,fill]", "[grow,fill]"));
testPanel.add(tempPanel);
return testPanel;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new MigTest();
}
}