Question

for my project, i want to create custom shaped buttons. i’ve got the codes to create circular buttons, and after much research, i managed to find some codes that i can use to generate a shape(area) from a PNG image with transparency, so that i can use the code and put it into my custom button program. however, the process of creating the shape is cpu-consuming, and it takes quite a long time for creating each shape. Here is my code for generating a shape from an image:

import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.awt.geom.Area;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;

public class CreateShapeClass {
    public static Area createArea(BufferedImage image, int maxTransparency) {
        Area area = new Area();
        Rectangle rectangle = new Rectangle();
        for (int x = 0; x < image.getWidth(); x++) {
            for (int y = 0; y < image.getHeight(); y++) {
                int rgb = image.getRGB(x, y);
                rgb = rgb >>> 24;
                if (rgb >= maxTransparency) {
                    rectangle.setBounds(x, y, 1, 1);
                    area.add(new Area(rectangle));
                }
            }
        }
        return area;
    }
}

by using the code above, there will be a NullPointerException error. here’s the stacktrace:

java.lang.NullPointerException
at CreateShapeClass.createArea(CreateShapeClass.java:10)
at CustomButton.initShape(CustomButton.java:95)
at CustomButton.paintBorder(CustomButton.java:102)
at javax.swing.JComponent.printBorder(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.paint(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.print(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.paintChildren(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.printChildren(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.paint(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.print(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.paintChildren(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.printChildren(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.paint(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JLayeredPane.paint(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.print(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.paintChildren(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.printChildren(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.paint(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.print(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.GraphicsCallback$PrintCallback.run(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.SunGraphicsCallback.runOneComponent(Unknown Source)
at sun.awt.SunGraphicsCallback.runComponents(Unknown Source)

here is my CustomButtonClass:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.Iterator;

import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.imageio.ImageReadParam;
import javax.imageio.ImageReader;
import javax.imageio.stream.ImageInputStream;
import javax.swing.*;

public class CustomButton extends JButton {
    protected Shape shape, base;
    protected BufferedImage image;
    protected String imagePath;

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    public CustomButton() {
        this(null, null);
    }
    //takes in an icon
    public CustomButton(Icon icon) {
        this(null, icon);
    }
    //takes in a text string for button
    public CustomButton(String text) {
        this(text, null);
    }

    //takes in a text string for button
    public CustomButton(Icon icon, String imagePath, boolean useless) {
        this(null, icon);
        this.imagePath = imagePath;
    }
    //takes in an action for the button press event
    public CustomButton(Action a) {
        this();
        setAction(a);
    }
    //takes in text and icon image
    public CustomButton(String text, Icon icon) {
        setModel(new DefaultButtonModel());
        init(text, icon);
        if(icon==null) {
            return;
        }
        setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(0,0,0,0));
        setBackground(Color.BLACK);
        setContentAreaFilled(false);
        setFocusPainted(false);
        //setVerticalAlignment(SwingConstants.TOP);
        setAlignmentY(Component.TOP_ALIGNMENT);
        initShape();
    }

    //creates a method for retrieving preferred size of the button (the image)
    @Override public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        Icon icon = getIcon();
        Insets i = getInsets();
        if (icon == null){
            return super.getPreferredSize();
        }
        else {
            return new Dimension(icon.getIconWidth(), icon.getIconHeight());
        }
    }

    //creates the shape of the button from the image
    protected void initShape() {
        if(!getBounds().equals(base)) {
            Dimension s = getPreferredSize();
            base = getBounds();
            if (image == null){
                try {
                    image = ImageIO.read(new File("Untitled1.png"));
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
            shape = CreateShapeClass.createArea(image, 25);
            System.out.println(shape.getBounds());
        }
    }

    //creates the border of the button
    @Override protected void paintBorder(Graphics g) {
        initShape();
        Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g;
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        g2.setColor(getBackground());
        g2.setStroke(new BasicStroke(1.0f));
        g2.draw(shape);
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_OFF);
    }
    @Override public boolean contains(int x, int y) {
        initShape();
        return shape.contains(x, y);
    }
}

so, can anyone guide me on where did i go wrong with the code? and is there any way that the shape generated can be saved into some sort of files so that it does not have to always regenerate the shape whenever the program is being run? or is there any way to precache the shape.

Answer 1

You have no check if the image parameter is null. Looking at your calling method initShape you can get a null pointer if the “Untitled1.png” cannot be read.