is it possible to design your own background 4 jbuttons

[john mattucci]

I was wondering if it was possible to design
a background for JButton; that way I can use
it as a parameter to setBackground. Because I
want to design a metal look and place this as
backgroung rather than using the plain colours
eg black, red. And also I dont want to use setIcon
because I would like to place an Icon on top eg
an arrow for previous or next
Thank u for your time

[Nathan Pruett]

I got this to work...

Here's the class....

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
 
public class JImageButton extends JButton
{
    Image backgroundImage;
 
    public JImageButton()
    {
        super();
    }
 
    public JImageButton( Action a )
    {
        super( a );
    }
 
    public JImageButton( Icon icon )
    {
        super( icon );
    }
 
    public JImageButton( String text )
    {
        super( text );
    }
 
    public JImageButton( String text, Icon icon )
    {
        super( text, icon );
    }
 
    public void setBackgroundImage( Image image )
    {
        MediaTracker mt = new MediaTracker( this );
        mt.addImage( image, 0 );
        try
        {
            mt.waitForAll();
            backgroundImage = image;
        }
        catch( InterruptedException x )
        {
            System.err.println(
                "Specified background image could not be loaded." );
        }
    }
 
    public void paintComponent( Graphics g )
    {
        super.paintComponent( g );
 
        Color saved = g.getColor();
        g.setColor( getBackground() );
        g.fillRect( 0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight() );
        g.setColor( saved );
 
        if( backgroundImage != null )
        {
            int imageX = ( getWidth() - backgroundImage.getWidth( this ) ) / 2;
            int imageY = ( getHeight() - backgroundImage.getHeight( this ) ) / 2;
            g.drawImage( backgroundImage, imageX, imageY, this );
        }
 
        if( !getText().equals( "" ) )
        {
            g.drawString( super.getText(), getWidth() / 2, getHeight() / 2  );
        }
 
        if( getIcon() != null )
        {
            Icon icon = getIcon();
            icon.paintIcon( this, g, 10, 10 );
        }
    }
 
    public Dimension getPreferredSize()
    {
        Dimension oldSize = super.getPreferredSize();
        Dimension newSize = new Dimension();
        Dimension returnSize = new Dimension();
 
        if( backgroundImage != null )
        {
            newSize.width = backgroundImage.getWidth( this ) + 1;
            newSize.height = backgroundImage.getHeight( this ) + 1;
        }
 
        if( oldSize.height > newSize.height )
        {
            returnSize.height = oldSize.height;
        }
        else
        {
            returnSize.height = newSize.height;
        }
 
        if( oldSize.width > newSize.width )
        {
            returnSize.width = oldSize.width;
        }
        else
        {
            returnSize.width = newSize.width;
        }
 
        return( returnSize );
    }
}

And here's a tester to show how it works...

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
 
public class JImageButtonTest extends JFrame
{ 
    JButton jb1, jb2;
    JImageButton jib1, jib2, jib3;
    Image backgroundImage;
    ImageIcon icon;
 
    public JImageButtonTest()
    {
        super( "Test for JImageButton" );
 
        Toolkit tk = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
        // Replace "someImage" and "anotherImage" with your own
        // images...
        backgroundImage = tk.getImage( "someImage.gif" );
        Image iconImage = tk.getImage( "anotherImage.gif" );
        icon = new ImageIcon( iconImage );
 
        jib1 = new JImageButton( "Button 1" );
        jib2 = new JImageButton( "Button 2" );
        jib3 = new JImageButton( "Button 3", icon );
        jib2.setBackgroundImage( backgroundImage );
        jib3.setBackgroundImage( backgroundImage );
 
        jb1 = new JButton( "JButton 1" );
        jb2 = new JButton( "JButton 2", icon );
 
        JPanel p1 = new JPanel();
        p1.add( jib1 );
        p1.add( jib2 );
        p1.add( jib3 );
 
        JPanel p2 = new JPanel();
        p2.add( jb1 );
        p2.add( jb2 );
 
        getContentPane().add( p1, BorderLayout.SOUTH );
        getContentPane().add( p2, BorderLayout.NORTH );
    }
 
    public static void main( String[] args )
    {
        JImageButtonTest jibt = new JImageButtonTest();
        jibt.addWindowListener( new ExitHandler() );
        jibt.pack();
        jibt.setVisible( true );
    }
}
 
class ExitHandler extends WindowAdapter
{
    public void windowClosing( WindowEvent e )
    {
        System.exit( 0 );
    }
}

Hope this helps,
-nate

[john mattucci]

Thank u so much for your time
Yesterday I went to this site http://www.izforge.com/izpack
and downloaded free software and I was really impressed with his
L & F . At first I thought he used a gif for his buttons ,but when I unzipped the jar there was no gif that matched his background for his buttons. Would someone have a minute to look at the programme? Is there a L& F which produces such an affect or is it something he customized himself.
Thanx s again

[Gregg Bolinger]

The following was taken from the creators source code. It is on your hard drive in the folder where you installed the program. This came from the file "installer.java".

 
// Loads the suitable L&F
    private void loadLookAndFeel() throws Exception
    {
        if (installdata.kind.equalsIgnoreCase("standard") | | 
            installdata.kind.equalsIgnoreCase("web") )
        {
            // We simply put our nice theme
            MetalLookAndFeel.setCurrentTheme(new IzPackMetalTheme());
        }
        else
        if (installdata.kind.equalsIgnoreCase("standard-kunststoff") | |
            installdata.kind.equalsIgnoreCase("web-kunststoff"))
        {
            // We change the highlight color for the buttons
            installdata.buttonsHColor = new Color(255, 255, 255);
            
            // Some reflection ...
            Class laf = Class.forName("com.incors.plaf.kunststoff.KunststoffLookAndFeel");
            Class mtheme = Class.forName("javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalTheme");
            Class[] params = { mtheme };
            Class theme = Class.forName("com.izforge.izpack.gui.IzPackKMetalTheme");
            Method setCurrentThemeMethod = laf.getMethod("setCurrentTheme", params);
            
            // We invoke and place Kunststoff as our L&F
            LookAndFeel kunststoff = (LookAndFeel) laf.newInstance();
            MetalTheme ktheme = (MetalTheme) theme.newInstance();
            Object[] kparams = { ktheme };
            UIManager.setLookAndFeel(kunststoff);
            setCurrentThemeMethod.invoke(kunststoff, kparams);
        }
    }

------------------
Happy Coding,
Gregg Bolinger