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more efficiently load images for JList, presumably with SwingWorker

I have a problem in which I hope SwingWorker can help me, but I am not quite sure how to integrate it in my program.
The problem:
In a CardLayout I have a button on Card1 that opens Card2.
Card2 has a JList with a custom renderer(extending JLabel) which will display on average 1 to 6 images which are:
PNGs
around 500kb in size
loaded via imageIO with the change of cards
the renderer applies heavy operations such as image scaling or blurring and than sets the image as JLabel icon.
This can almost take up to a second if around 6 images have to be rendered, which is does not happen frequently but even that occasional split second of unresponsiveness feels bad.
Now I thought a SwingWorker might help here, but I'm thoroughly confused as to how I would have to integrate it.
Assuming we had this Code snippet
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
public class Example {
private JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
private JList<Product> list = new JList();
private JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane();
private Map<String, Color> colorMap = new HashMap<>();
public Example() {
colorMap.put("red", Color.red);
colorMap.put("blue", Color.blue);
colorMap.put("cyan", Color.cyan);
colorMap.put("green", Color.green);
colorMap.put("yellow", Color.yellow);
mainPanel.setBackground(new Color(129, 133, 142));
scroll.setViewportView(list);
scroll.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
scroll.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(80,200));
list.setCellRenderer(new CustomRenderer());
DefaultListModel model = new DefaultListModel();
model.addElement(new Product("red"));
model.addElement(new Product("yellow"));
model.addElement(new Product("blue"));
model.addElement(new Product("red"));
model.addElement(new Product("cyan"));
list.setModel(model);
mainPanel.add(scroll);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("WorkerTest");
frame.setContentPane(new Example().mainPanel);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setLocation(300, 300);
frame.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(160, 255));
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
class CustomRenderer extends JLabel implements ListCellRenderer<Product> {
private Product product;
public CustomRenderer() {
setOpaque(false);
}
#Override
public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList<? extends Product> list, Product product, int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {
this.product = product;
/**
* in the actual code image is png with alpha channel respectively named to the productID of the JList object
*
* String id = product.getId();
* image = ImageIO.read(getClass().getResource("../../resources/images/" + id + ".png"));
*/
BufferedImage image1 = new BufferedImage(80, 50, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
BufferedImage image2 = new BufferedImage( 80, 75, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
Graphics g = image2.getGraphics();
/**
* this is only an example, in the actual code I might also apply gaussian blurs or rescale several time
*/
g.drawImage(image1,0,0,null);
setIcon(new ImageIcon(image2));
return this;
}
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
g.setColor(colorMap.get(product.getColor()));
g.fillRect(0,0,80,75);
}
}
class Product {
String productID;
String color;
public Product(String color) {
this.color = color;
}
public String getColor() {
return color;
}
public String getProductID() {
return productID;
}
}
}
would I have to call a SwingWorker from every getListCellRendererComponent call
to take over the image operations ?
Is SwingWorker even the right tool for this problem?
any help as to how I can make this part of my GUI faster would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT:
Hovercraft Full Of Eels mentioned that preloading the images could help and that loading the images from the renderer is fundamentally wrong.
This leads me to another Question:
I have a list(let's call it list1) with around 3000 objects each object has a 8kb jpg thumbnail which is load via object ID (also during the rendering)
The list displays around 6 to 12 of these thumbnail at the same time (due to the List's Dimension)
when the user selects an object he can press a button to display Card2 from the Cardlayout mentioned in the original question and it's list(list2) with the Object
and all it's related Object in non thumbnail view (500kb png + heavy image operation). Now I think it would be feasible to preload the non thumbnail image of the Object and it's relations selected in the first list which would be around 1-6 images. If I understood correctly what Hovercraft Full Of Eels said, then I could use a SwingWorker to load these Images after the selection of an Object from list1.
But what about the around 3000 images from list1, the program seemingly is not slowed down or becomes unresponsive because they are rather small in size and there are no heavy operations on the thumbnails, but they are still load form the list1's renderer. Would it make sense to preload the several thousand thumbnails ?
btw. feel free to tell me if this kind of question edit is not wished for and if it should be made into a question of itself.

One approach might be the following:
Whenever a cell renderer component for a certain element (Product) is requested, you check whether the matching image is already loaded. If not, you start a Swing worker that does the work of loading and processing the image in the background. When the worker is done, the image is placed into a cache for later lookup. In the meantime, you let the renderer just say "Loading..." or something.
A very quick implementation is here:
And as an MCVE:
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Objects;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
import java.util.function.Function;
import javax.swing.DefaultListModel;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.ListCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.SwingWorker;
public class LazyImageLoadingCellRendererTest
{
private JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
private JList<Product> list = new JList<Product>();
private JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane();
public LazyImageLoadingCellRendererTest()
{
mainPanel.setBackground(new Color(129, 133, 142));
scroll.setViewportView(list);
scroll.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(
JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
scroll.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(80, 200));
list.setCellRenderer(new LazyImageLoadingCellRenderer<Product>(list,
LazyImageLoadingCellRendererTest::loadAndProcessImage));
DefaultListModel<Product> model = new DefaultListModel<Product>();
for (int i=0; i<1000; i++)
{
model.addElement(new Product("id" + i));
}
list.setModel(model);
mainPanel.add(scroll);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
JFrame frame = new JFrame("WorkerTest");
frame.setContentPane(
new LazyImageLoadingCellRendererTest().mainPanel);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setLocation(300, 300);
frame.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(160, 255));
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
private static final Random random = new Random(0);
private static BufferedImage loadAndProcessImage(Product product)
{
String id = product.getProductID();
int w = 100;
int h = 20;
BufferedImage image =
new BufferedImage(w, h, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
Graphics2D g = image.createGraphics();
g.setColor(Color.GREEN);
g.fillRect(0, 0, w, h);
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
g.drawString(id, 10, 16);
g.dispose();
long delay = 500 + random.nextInt(3000);
try
{
System.out.println("Load time of " + delay + " ms for " + id);
Thread.sleep(delay);
}
catch (InterruptedException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
return image;
}
class Product
{
String productID;
public Product(String productID)
{
this.productID = productID;
}
public String getProductID()
{
return productID;
}
}
}
class LazyImageLoadingCellRenderer<T> extends JLabel
implements ListCellRenderer<T>
{
private final JList<?> owner;
private final Function<? super T, ? extends BufferedImage> imageLookup;
private final Set<T> pendingImages;
private final Map<T, BufferedImage> loadedImages;
public LazyImageLoadingCellRenderer(JList<?> owner,
Function<? super T, ? extends BufferedImage> imageLookup)
{
this.owner = Objects.requireNonNull(
owner, "The owner may not be null");
this.imageLookup = Objects.requireNonNull(imageLookup,
"The imageLookup may not be null");
this.loadedImages = new ConcurrentHashMap<T, BufferedImage>();
this.pendingImages =
Collections.newSetFromMap(new ConcurrentHashMap<T, Boolean>());
setOpaque(false);
}
class ImageLoadingWorker extends SwingWorker<BufferedImage, Void>
{
private final T element;
ImageLoadingWorker(T element)
{
this.element = element;
pendingImages.add(element);
}
#Override
protected BufferedImage doInBackground() throws Exception
{
try
{
BufferedImage image = imageLookup.apply(element);
loadedImages.put(element, image);
pendingImages.remove(element);
return image;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
return null;
}
}
#Override
protected void done()
{
owner.repaint();
}
}
#Override
public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList<? extends T> list,
T value, int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus)
{
BufferedImage image = loadedImages.get(value);
if (image == null)
{
if (!pendingImages.contains(value))
{
//System.out.println("Execute for " + value);
ImageLoadingWorker worker = new ImageLoadingWorker(value);
worker.execute();
}
setText("Loading...");
setIcon(null);
}
else
{
setText(null);
setIcon(new ImageIcon(image));
}
return this;
}
}
Note:
This is really just a quick example showing the general approach. Of course, this could be improved in many ways. Although the actual loading process is already pulled out into a Function (thus making it generically applicable for any sort of image, regardless of where it comes from), one major caveat is that: It will try to load all images. A nice extension would be to add some smartness here, and make sure that it only loads the images for which the cells are currently visible. For example, when you have a list of 1000 elements, and want to see the last 10 elements, then you should not have to wait for 990 elements to be loaded. The last elements should be priorized higher and loaded first. However, for this, a slightly larger infrastructure (mainly: an own task queue and some stronger connection to the list and its scroll pane) may be necessary. (I'll possibly tackle this one day, because it might be a nice and interesting thing to have, but until then, the example above might do it...)

would I have to call a SwingWorker from every getListCellRendererComponent call to take over the image operations ?
No, you would in fact never call a background thread from within a key rendering method. In fact this appears to be the main problem with the code above -- you're reading in images from within a rendering method, significantly reducing the perceived responsiveness of your program.
Is SwingWorker even the right tool for this problem?
Perhaps, but not where you're thinking about using it. A SwingWorker will not speed anything up, but by performing long-running tasks in the background, it would avoid blocking the Swing event thread, freezing the GUI. Best would be to read the images, once, perhaps in a SwingWorker if not done during program initiation, and save them to a variable. Do not re-read the image every time you want to render it, if this can be avoided. And again, do not read in the image from within your rendering code as this will significantly reduce the perceived responsiveness of the program.

Resize JList file elements in JFileChooser

I have a JFileChooser. I am trying to add a zoom feature to the files JList.
I would like to change the scale factor of the file name and of the file icon, for each element of the list.
How could we achieve this ?
Should I make a custom renderer like here [JList custom renderer example] (http://www.codejava.net/java-se/swing/jlist-custom-renderer-example)
or change the list Model ?

Well, I found out some ugly lazy hacks to do it.
It might not be just what you want, but it's a good starting point (and fairly simple):
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Container;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import javax.swing.DefaultListCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicListUI;
public class TJFileChooserDemo {
//Obtains the (first) JList which is found inside the component/container:
public static JList getFirstJList(final Component component) {
if (component instanceof JList)
return (JList) component;
if (component instanceof Container)
for (int i=0; i<((Container)component).getComponentCount(); ++i) {
final JList list = getFirstJList(((Container)component).getComponent(i));
if (list != null)
return list;
}
return null;
//As you can see, it's a bit lazy hack, which has to run for every JFileChooser once at start-up.
}
private static final double SCALE_STEP_SIZE = 0.125; //Smaller values of this makes zooming slower. Greater values makes zooming faster.
private static double scaleFactor = 1;
public static class TJListCellRenderer extends DefaultListCellRenderer {
public TJListCellRenderer() {
//Ensure every pixel is painted starting from the top-left corner of the label:
super.setVerticalAlignment(JLabel.TOP);
super.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.LEFT);
//We need to do this, because the scaling in paintComponent() is also relative to the top-left corner.
}
#Override
public void paintComponent(final Graphics g) {
//setRenderingHints here? Probably for ANTIALIAS...
((Graphics2D)g).scale(scaleFactor, scaleFactor); //Let's scale everything that is painted afterwards:
super.paintComponent(g); //Let's paint the (scaled) JLabel!
}
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
final Dimension superPrefDim = super.getPreferredSize(); //Handles automatically insets, icon size, text font, etc.
final double w = superPrefDim.width * scaleFactor, //And we just scale the preferred size.
h = superPrefDim.height * scaleFactor; //And we just scale the preferred size.
return new Dimension((int)w + 5, (int)h + 5); //Add 5 extra pixels to spare.
}
#Override
public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list, Object value, int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {
// System.out.println(value.getClass()); //Something ugly...
return super.getListCellRendererComponent(list, value, index, isSelected, cellHasFocus);
}
}
public static class TJListUI extends BasicListUI {
#Override
public void updateLayoutState() {
super.updateLayoutState(); //Just make the following method public.
/*Note: this is not really needed here:
The method could remain protected, but in the case you want this
code to be a bit more reusable, then you shall make it public.*/
}
}
public static void main(final String[] args) {
final JFileChooser jfc = new JFileChooser();
jfc.setDialogType(JFileChooser.OPEN_DIALOG);
final TJListUI ui = new TJListUI();
final JList list = getFirstJList(jfc);
list.setUI(ui);
list.setCellRenderer(new TJListCellRenderer());
final JButton buttonZoomIn = new JButton("Zoom in"),
buttonZoomOut = new JButton("Zoom out"),
buttonResetZoom = new JButton("Reset zoom");
buttonZoomIn.addActionListener(e -> {
scaleFactor = scaleFactor + SCALE_STEP_SIZE;
ui.updateLayoutState(); //Read the preferred sizes from the cell renderer.
list.revalidate(); //Update the JScrollPane.
list.repaint(); //Repaint the list.
});
buttonZoomOut.addActionListener(e -> {
scaleFactor = Math.max(scaleFactor - SCALE_STEP_SIZE, SCALE_STEP_SIZE); //Do not allow underflow.
ui.updateLayoutState(); //Read the preferred sizes from the cell renderer.
list.revalidate(); //Update the JScrollPane.
list.repaint(); //Repaint the list.
});
buttonResetZoom.addActionListener(e -> {
scaleFactor = 1;
ui.updateLayoutState(); //Read the preferred sizes from the cell renderer.
list.revalidate(); //Update the JScrollPane.
list.repaint(); //Repaint the list.
});
final JPanel buttons = new JPanel(); //FlowLayout.
buttons.add(buttonZoomIn);
buttons.add(buttonZoomOut);
buttons.add(buttonResetZoom);
final JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
panel.add(buttons, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
panel.add(jfc, BorderLayout.CENTER);
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("JFileChooser's JList cell sizes demo");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
Alternatively you can check my answer here about individually resizable cells of a JList.
You can also probably add the JFileChooser's buttons for zooming in/out as an accessory. Read this simple example for how to do it.
Test this code, and I am waiting for comments...

In the end, I realized scaling the text wasn't needed.
To obtain the image files thumbnail, I used the code in making JFileChooser show image thumbnails - check BoffinbraiN answer.
Then for scaling :
1) add an ActionListener to the buttons of ThumbnailFileChooser.
public class ZoomListener implements ActionListener {
private boolean zoomIn = false;
private IconScaleManager iconScaleManager = null;
public ZoomListener(boolean zoom, IconScaleManager renderer) {
zoomIn = zoom;
iconScaleManager = renderer;
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
iconScaleManager.scaleButton(zoomIn);
}
}
2) ActionListener::actionPerformed() calls a scale method of a ScaleManager.
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
iconScaleManager.scaleButton(zoomIn);
}
3) The ScaleManager method changes and update the cells of the ThumbnailFileChooser's Jlist (the list is an attribute of the ScaleManager)
public class IconScaleManager {
static final int[] iconScales = new int[]{ 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048 };
private int scaleIndex = 4;
private JList fileList = null;
public IconScaleManager(JList list) {
fileList = list;
setFixedCellDimension();
}
public void scaleButton(boolean zoomIn) {
if (zoomIn && scaleIndex < iconScales.length - 1) {
scaleIndex++;
setFixedCellDimension();
} else if (!zoomIn && 0 < scaleIndex) {
scaleIndex--;
setFixedCellDimension();
}
}
private void setFixedCellDimension() {
fileList.setFixedCellWidth(iconScales[scaleIndex]);
fileList.setFixedCellHeight(iconScales[scaleIndex]);
}
}
Thank you #thanopi57 for your help. I didn't really use what you provided, but I appreciate your support.
Also, I will have to make sure that it works, because there might not be a JList for all JFileChooser

Components in JList are Hidden by White Square Thing Until Clicked

In a project I've been working on, I noticed that all the JList items in my JScrollPane are hidden until the JScrollPane/JList has been clicked. The weird part is it's not completely covered. There's this white box with a transparent border that spreads out over the whole thing, covering all but a few pixels on all edges.
Pictures:
As you can see, there is this white block in the middle - notice the pink "border":
Now, once I click that white box, it goes away:
I know the magenta looks horrible, but I'm using it for contrast.
Which leads me to my question: how do I get rid of that obnoxious white box?
Here is my code:
public static void listJars(File f)
{
JCheckBox firstBox = null;
DefaultListModel<JCheckBox> model = new DefaultListModel<>();
if(mainGUI.checkList != null)
{
//System.out.println("Already exists lol: " + mainGUI.checkList.getName());
mainGUI.pluginList.remove(mainGUI.checkList);
}
//mainGUI.pluginList.repaint();
File[] files = new File(f.getPath()).listFiles();
if (files != null)
{
for (File file : files)
{
if (file.getName().endsWith(".jar") || file.getName().endsWith("._jar"))
{
JCheckBox cb = new JCheckBox(file.getName());
if(firstBox == null)
{
firstBox = cb;
}
cb.setSelected(file.getName().endsWith(".jar"));
cb.setVisible(true);
cb.setText(file.getName());
model.addElement(cb);
cb.repaint();
}
}
}
JCheckBoxList jCheckBoxList = new JCheckBoxList(model, mainGUI.textField1.getText());
jCheckBoxList.setName("pluginCheckboxList");
jCheckBoxList.setSize(mainGUI.pluginList.getSize());
mainGUI.pluginList.add(jCheckBoxList);
mainGUI.checkList = jCheckBoxList;
jCheckBoxList.setVisible(true);
jCheckBoxList.setVisibleRowCount(10);
}
And ten there's my JCheckBoxList class.
package Components;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.Border;
import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.io.File;
#SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class JCheckBoxList extends JList<JCheckBox>
{
protected static Border noFocusBorder = new EmptyBorder(1, 1, 1, 1);
protected String lastPath;
public JCheckBoxList(final String lastPath)
{
this.lastPath = lastPath;
setCellRenderer(new CellRenderer());
setBackground(Color.magenta);
addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter()
{
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e)
{
int index = locationToIndex(e.getPoint());
if (index != -1)
{
JCheckBox checkBox = getModel().getElementAt(index);
checkBox.setSelected(!checkBox.isSelected());
repaint();
final String oldname = checkBox.getText();
if (!checkBox.isSelected())
{
checkBox.setName(checkBox.getText().substring(0, checkBox.getText().length() - 4) + "._jar");
}
else
{
checkBox.setName(checkBox.getText().substring(0, checkBox.getText().length() - 5) + ".jar");
}
System.out.println("Changed! Sel: " + checkBox.isSelected() + ", Name: " + checkBox.getName());
checkBox.setText(checkBox.getName());
String base = new File(lastPath).getParent() + "/plugins/";
boolean rename = new File(base + oldname).renameTo(new File(base + checkBox.getText()));
}
}
});
setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
}
public JCheckBoxList(ListModel<JCheckBox> model, String lastPath)
{
this(lastPath);
setModel(model);
}
protected class CellRenderer implements ListCellRenderer<JCheckBox>
{
public Component getListCellRendererComponent(
JList<? extends JCheckBox> list, JCheckBox value, int index,
boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus)
{
//Drawing checkbox, change the appearance here
value.setBackground(isSelected ? getSelectionBackground()
: getBackground());
value.setForeground(isSelected ? getSelectionForeground()
: getForeground());
value.setEnabled(isEnabled());
value.setFont(getFont());
value.setFocusPainted(false);
value.setBorderPainted(true);
value.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(0, 10, 5, 0));
return value;
}
}
}
And then there's my scroll pane, which has these settings (using the Intelliji IDEA UI designer):
Any ideas?

mainGUI.pluginList.add(jCheckBoxList);
mainGUI.checkList = jCheckBoxList;
jCheckBoxList.setVisible(true);
jCheckBoxList.setVisibleRowCount(10);
Looks to me like you are dynamically adding components to a visible GUI.
When you do this the basic code is:
panel.add(...);
panel.revalidate();
panel.repaint();
You should set the visibleRowCount() before the above code is executed.
Also:
Swing components are visible by default so you don't need the setVisible(true).
You may want to consider using a one column JTable since it already supports a checkbox renderer and editor.
Edit:
The solution I gave you above is the general solution. A scroll pane is different, you should only ever add a component to the viewport.
Based on your incorrect solution you should be using:
//mainGUI.pluginList.add(jCheckBoxList);
mainGUI.pluginList.setViewportView(jCheckBoxList);
The problem with posting only a few random lines of code is that we don't know the full context of the code. I did not realize "pluginList" was actually a scrollpane. Usually the variable name will have scroll or scrollpane in the name.

mainGUI.pluginList.setViewportView(mainGUI.checkList); // pluginList is the JScrollPane.
Do that, and it fixes everything! Put it in with my listJars method.

Java Swing countrycombobox with icons

I hope someone can help me out. Iam trying to create a "countrycombobox" with icons in Java Swing. I found some stuff, but nothing did work for me. Maybe the problem is, that Iam still "new" to Java.
I just want it simple like this: http://www.zomex.com/libs/images/layout/whmcs-template-language-select-w-flags-eco.jpg
Just the flags in front of the countrys.
I would really appreciate a working example. I really wonder, that there is no standard option or a good code snippet(used Google a lot to find help here) for stuff like this.

I found a better example and wanna share my stuff with you. There is just one problem left, that I dont get it sized.
package view;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class CountryComboBox extends JPanel {
ImageIcon[] images;
String[] imgStrings = {"de"};
/*
* Despite its use of EmptyBorder, this panel makes a fine content
* pane because the empty border just increases the panel's size
* and is "painted" on top of the panel's normal background. In
* other words, the JPanel fills its entire background if it's
* opaque (which it is by default); adding a border doesn't change
* that.
*/
public CountryComboBox() {
super(new BorderLayout());
//Load the images and create an array of indexes.
images = new ImageIcon[imgStrings.length];
Integer[] intArray = new Integer[imgStrings.length];
for (int i = 0; i < imgStrings.length; i++) {
intArray[i] = new Integer(i);
images[i] = createImageIcon("/res/" + imgStrings[i] + ".png");
if (images[i] != null) {
images[i].setDescription(imgStrings[i]);
}
}
//Create the combo box.
JComboBox imgList = new JComboBox(intArray);
ComboBoxRenderer renderer= new ComboBoxRenderer();
imgList.setRenderer(renderer);
imgList.setMaximumRowCount(3);
//Lay out the demo.
add(imgList, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
//setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20,20,20,20));
}
/** Returns an ImageIcon, or null if the path was invalid. */
protected static ImageIcon createImageIcon(String path) {
java.net.URL imgURL = CountryComboBox.class.getResource(path);
if (imgURL != null) {
return new ImageIcon(imgURL);
} else {
System.err.println("Couldn't find file: " + path);
return null;
}
}
class ComboBoxRenderer extends JLabel
implements ListCellRenderer {
private Font uhOhFont;
public ComboBoxRenderer() {
setOpaque(true);
setHorizontalAlignment(CENTER);
setVerticalAlignment(CENTER);
}
/*
* This method finds the image and text corresponding
* to the selected value and returns the label, set up
* to display the text and image.
*/
#Override
public Component getListCellRendererComponent(
JList list,
Object value,
int index,
boolean isSelected,
boolean cellHasFocus) {
//Get the selected index. (The index param isn't
//always valid, so just use the value.)
int selectedIndex = ((Integer)value).intValue();
if (isSelected) {
setBackground(list.getSelectionBackground());
setForeground(list.getSelectionForeground());
} else {
setBackground(list.getBackground());
setForeground(list.getForeground());
}
//Set the icon and text. If icon was null, say so.
ImageIcon icon = images[selectedIndex];
String img = imgStrings[selectedIndex];
setIcon(icon);
if (icon != null) {
setText(img);
setFont(list.getFont());
} else {
setUhOhText(img + " (no image available)",
list.getFont());
}
return this;
}
//Set the font and text when no image was found.
protected void setUhOhText(String uhOhText, Font normalFont) {
if (uhOhFont == null) { //lazily create this font
uhOhFont = normalFont.deriveFont(Font.ITALIC);
}
setFont(uhOhFont);
setText(uhOhText);
}
}
}
I call it in a JPanel with absolute layout:
JComponent newContentPane = new CountryComboBox();
newContentPane.setOpaque(true); //content panes must be opaque
newContentPane.setBounds(10, 75, 50, 26);
contentPane.add(newContentPane);
setBounds isnt working, just to get the right position. I cant size it with this.
Best regards
Acanis

Create info panel on mouseover in JTable? Tooltip might not be sufficient

I want to display an info box on mousing over a JTable cell using Java Swing, so there are multi-parts
How can I capture the mouse-over event in a table cell? I have to be able to set the cell content, then get data on it.
How can I display a panel/box with dynamic server data on mousing over that cell?
How can I cache the info panel/box so I don't have to query the server on every mouse over?
Example:
In table cell I enter: 94903. After tabbing or entering, the cell is set to the number. On mouse-over, it displays a box with Name, Address, Phone number, email, etc.
Thanks!

You could format the tooltip text using HTML, this would allow you to provide a complex structure of information to the tooltip without the need or expense of writing your own solution. The only problem is that the tooltip will be automatically discarded.
If this still doesn't suit, you could try:
import java.awt.Point;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.JPopupMenu;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class TestTable {
private Timer showTimer;
private Timer disposeTimer;
private JTable table;
private Point hintCell;
private MyPopup popup; // Inherites from JPopupMenu
public TestTable() {
showTimer = new Timer(1500, new ShowPopupActionHandler());
showTimer.setRepeats(false);
showTimer.setCoalesce(true);
disposeTimer = new Timer(5000, new DisposePopupActionHandler());
disposeTimer.setRepeats(false);
disposeTimer.setCoalesce(true);
table.addMouseMotionListener(new MouseMotionAdapter() {
#Override
public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {
Point p = e.getPoint();
int row = table.rowAtPoint(p);
int col = table.columnAtPoint(p);
if ((row > -1 && row < table.getRowCount()) && (col > -1 && col < table.getColumnCount())) {
if (hintCell == null || (hintCell.x != col || hintCell.y != row)) {
hintCell = new Point(col, row);
Object value = table.getValueAt(row, col);
// Depending on how the data is stored, you may need to load more data
// here...
// You will probably want to maintain a reference to the object hint data
showTimer.restart();
}
}
}
});
}
protected MyPopup getHintPopup() {
if (popup == null) {
// Construct the popup...
}
return popup;
}
public class ShowPopupActionHandler implements ActionListener {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (hintCell != null) {
disposeTimer.stop(); // don't want it going off while we're setting up
MyPopup popup = getHintPopup();
popup.setVisible(false);
// You might want to check that the object hint data is update and valid...
Rectangle bounds = table.getCellRect(hintCell.y, hintCell.x, true);
int x = bounds.x;
int y = bounds.y + bounds.height;
popup.show(table, x, y);
disposeTimer.start();
}
}
}
public class DisposePopupActionHandler implements ActionListener {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
MyPopup popup = getHintPopup();
popup.setVisible(false);
}
}
}
Now, I've not constructed the popup, I'd use the popup menu from Bob Sinclar's answer as well

Heres a good way to get the mouse over working I woud do this first then just output some text when your over it to check.
This shows a way to get a pop up menu to appear
And in regards to the cacheing i might store the last 10 values in memory and do a request from the server each time a new entry point is pinged ie you dont have it locally. And then maybe every minute update the last 10 hit incase their info changes.
another useful mouseover guide