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When to use convertRowIndexToModel

I have some JDialogs displaying JTables.
When the header columns are clicked a sort occurs on that column.
My question is : how can I know when a column header has been clicked and thus made a sort active.
When the sort is active, I know I should user the .convertRowIndexToModel method.
But how do I detect that a column is sorting in order not to mess the correct index if no sort is active?

Generally speaking, you should ALWAYS uses the convertRowIndexToModel when you take an index value from the view (JTable) and try and look up some value within the model. The JTable does this automatically when you use it's methods, but incase you're not, you need to take care of it yourself.
There's no need to know if the view is sorted or not...
If you "really" want to know when a table is sorted, you could attach a RowSorterListener to the TableRowSorter used by the table.
You could also use the TableRowSorter#getSortKeys to see which columns are included in the sort...

I have used it for my selection table. When the auto order is activated (setAutoCreateRowSorter(true))
the indices of the model table and the visual change, so you have to tell it to look for it within the model with respect to the one you are seeing.
((CustomTable)form.getAvailListView().getModel()).data.get(form.getListView().convertRowIndexToModel(i))

Populating JComboBox with multiple informations

I'm in a position, where I have to populate a JComboBox with names from my users (5 users). When the user clicks the name in the JComboBox I want to retrieve the UserID of the user, not their actual name due some of them may be the same, and make a SQL query with their UserID as WHERE filter.
I have the all the users informations temporary stored in an Object, retrieved by a MySQL database.
How can I code a way to put more informations in the JComboBox, but only show the actual name to the user?
I hope this make sense, elsewhere feel free to ask questions.
Thanks in advance,
Jesper.

Create a User object that contains the name and user id with appropriate getters (and setters if required). Add these to the combo box. Use a ListCellRenderer to define how the User object is actually renderer.
See How to use comboboxes for more details

Check out Combo Box With Custom Renderer. It explains that you need to follow two steps to implement a proper solution:
use a custom renderer
use a custom KeySelectionManager so you don't break default combo box functionality when using a custom renderer

JGoodies DefaultFormBuilder - add a row dynamically

In my form there is a JComboBox, and depending on what is selected I would like to add some additional rows (labels and JTextFields) to the form just below the JComboBox and push the rest of the fields that many rows lower. Is this possible with JGoodies DefaultFormBuilder (or any other technique), and if so how?

As far as I can tell there is no proper way. So what I ended up doing was creating a JPanel for each field with a BoderLayout. Then I added the max number of fields I would ever need to the form. Then when I needed to move fields down, I would remove them from the allocated JPanel's and push them to the ones below in a loop.
Not exactly the prettiest or most elegant but I couldn't find another solution at all...

Best way to implement a selection box from a large number of entries

I have a large set of data from which the user has to select one. I'm thinking of a way to implement it (of course, in a GUI). I have a few ideas. But just thought of posting here as there may be better alternatives..
Say, user has to select a name from a large set of user base. If I simply put a text field for user to enter the name, then there can be issues like entering same name in different formats, misspelling etc...
I see two options here
Using a combo box
Using a list (Actually i'm thinking of something like a tool tip. As I cant show the whole list always due to space issues)
But combo box won't be much user friendly i guess. As the user will have to scroll around the whole list to select an entry. If the number of entries are too large, this will be
Which means, now I'm left only one option. A popping up list, which will change the content according the text user is entering in the text field. So he can type first few letters and the list will show all the entries starting from the entered text. Got my point, right?
Are there any other better to achieve this kind of need?
If I'm going to implement above, what will be the best way to follow. I'm thinking of extending the JTextField to add required functionality. Well, I'll put some method to set the popup list entries. And I'll add some actionListner to watch the text field, and control the popup list accordingly...

Autocomplete is what you are probably looking for. Google for "java swing jcombobox autocomplete" and limit results for the last couple of years to get relevant results. There will be a lot of examples and ideas on how to implement this with custom code.
I believe there is also some custom libraries like "swingx" that provide at least partial or full implementations to save time.
http://swingx.java.net/
They have released code as recently as the beginning of this years so it appears active and might have what you need.

You could take a look at SwingLab's autocomplete feature, it allows you to attach it to a JCombBox, JList or JTextComponent

use AutoComplete JComboBox/JTextField
based on Standard Java Classes
no issue with larger sets of data
no issue with Focus, BackSpace Key, Caret
for better performance to required sort the array before use
simple workaround for setStrict(true/false), restrict input to array

GUI: Changing panels based on value of combo box

I have a question about GUI design, specifically with Java Swing and creating clean separation between presentation and model.
It's a bit difficult to describe, but essentially we have lots of reference data in our system (i.e. that would correspond to lookup tables in the DB). We want people to be able to edit them all from one screen.
So, in an ideal world what we'd like is a combo box in the top-left corner with a list of 'types' of reference data (so each corresponding to one table in the DB).
Then, when selected, a list of the data is populated below, also a filter (or search box). When one of these items is selected, the panel to the right is activated which will allow the actual data to be edited.
Now, here's the problem: each type of data we need to edit is different, so it has different fields etc. We could go with a generic solution but I'm not really a fan of them - there are lots of different validation rules for each etc, even for different clients, and it would be a nightmare to manage.
We're using the Presentation Model pattern to achieve some degree of separation between GUI code and the model but I can't think of a clean way of doing this which doesn't somehow blur the line of responsibilities a bit.
What are the ways you have solved problems like this?
[Note: apologies for the long question, hope it's understandable, I can re-phrase if necessary]

You could use the Factory Pattern to create a UI widget for the element that you are selecting. You could also use it to create a validation rule object depending on the type. This would give you some of the flexibility you desire.
So you can have something like:
IWidget widget = UIFactory.createFor(myObject.getType())
That can be invoked on the selection event to create the right widget to edit the selected element.
The IWidget could have methods such as:
validateData()
refreshData()
setDataElement(IDataElement element)
That would allow you to treat all UI widgets generically, but still have a special UI widget for each element type. I am assuming that the elements that you are selecting from the table all implement some IDataElement interface that contains the getType() method.
I used this solution tied together with the Eclipse Extension mechanism to plug-in new UI elements into my "base" solution, to have an extensible core and a high level of reuse. You could achieve something similar by injecting types and widgets into your factory, either manually or with Spring.

If you dont want to go down the generic path, you could have your model hold a mapping of combobox item -> panel name for use with a CardLayout. You could then create custom panels for the editing each of the reference data types. When the combo box selection is changed, you can save the current state in your model, request the panel name of the current selection, prepare your next panel for display and then have your CardLayout show it.