Java SE (Java Platform, Standard Edition)

what's the correct way to set the disabled foreground color of a jcombobox? i don't want to set the disabled color for the entire ui to the same color, but for one jcombobox specifically. i searched the web and found many posts with the same question, but no real solution. this one has been giving me nightmares and i thought i'd share what i've found. the solution seems to be quite simple: wrap the combobox label in a panel. that way the panel gets the disabled colors, but the coloring of the label of the combobox remains. here's the solution in short in case others need it:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.DefaultListCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.ListCellRenderer;

public class MyComboBox extends JComboBox {

  public MyComboBox() {
    super();
    setRenderer( new ColorCellRenderer());
  }
  
  public static void main(String s[]) {
    
    JFrame frame = new JFrame("ComboBox Example");
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    
    final JComboBox cb = new MyComboBox();
    cb.addItem( "ComboBox Item 1");
    cb.addItem( "ComboBox Item 2");
    cb.addItem( "ComboBox Item 3");
    
    cb.setForeground( Color.blue);
    
    final JButton bt = new JButton ("disable");
    bt.addActionListener( new ActionListener() {
      @Override
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        cb.setEnabled( !cb.isEnabled());
        if( !cb.isEnabled()) {
          cb.setForeground( Color.red);
          bt.setText( "enable");
        } else {
          cb.setForeground( Color.blue);
          bt.setText( "disable");
        }
      }
    });
    
    frame.getContentPane().setLayout( new FlowLayout());
    frame.getContentPane().add( bt);
    frame.getContentPane().add( cb);

    frame.pack();
    frame.setVisible(true);
  }
  
  
  class ColorCellRenderer implements ListCellRenderer {
    
    protected DefaultListCellRenderer defaultRenderer = new DefaultListCellRenderer();

    public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list, Object value,
        int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {
      
      JLabel label = (JLabel) defaultRenderer
          .getListCellRendererComponent(list, value, index,
              isSelected, cellHasFocus);

      JPanel wrapper = new JPanel();
      wrapper.setLayout( new BorderLayout());
      wrapper.add( label, BorderLayout.CENTER);
      
      
      return wrapper;
    }
  }  
}

if anyone knows a way to remove the dropdown button of a disabled combobox without leaving a blank space when you simply hide the button, feel free to extend this :-)

Edited by: Lofi on Mar 20, 2010 10:46 PM