Direction for creating a custom JTextField input

[sp33dy]

Hi,

I'd like to ask if anyone would kindly point me in the direction of creating my own unique text input field. Basically, I've written a JLabel component with its paint overridden to display the text in a circle layout (pointing the angle of each character to the centre).

I'd now like to figure out how to write an input field to take the text, rather than popping up a JTextField and using that. Where do I start? I.E. Should I be:

o Look at extending and overriding the methods in JTextField (my concern is that this natively expects the text to be horizontal. I believe).

o Research how input from the keyboard can be taken and writing my input field (seems to be a lot of work here to digest and understand).

I'll continue to research, but wondered if someone can save me sometime by pointing me off in the right direction. I'm comfortable around SWING, but no way an expert; hence asking for help.

Thanks and kind regards

Sp33dy

[DarrylBurke]

JTextField with a custom (and fairly complex) UI delegate (i.e. TextFieldUI). Your custom JLabel should also be implemented via a LabelUI class, not by extending JLabel.

Maybe you can pick up some ideas from my Vertical Label UI « Java Tips Weblog

And it's Swing, not SWING (it isn't an acronym).

db

[sp33dy]

Thanks db,

I'll head to your article now. I wasn't aware of the LabelUI class, but I'll get on and learn now. I always knew my JLabel was a hack to prove I could implement what I desired. Thanks for replying so quickly! Also, thanks for the correction on Swing naming. I'd always assumed it was an acronym.

Kind regards

Sp33dy

[sp33dy]

Hi db,

A huge thanks! Using the UI Delegates is a lot easier and cleaner than I'd been doing with extending and overriding the paint methods of the JPanel and JLabel classes!

Very quick initial test is showing me that I can indeed replace the Look'n'feel whilst tapping into the JTextField's editing capability.

A huge thanks. Chuffed to nuts!

Regards

Sp33dy

[DarrylBurke]

Good job!

luck, db