Question

I am trying to set the look and feel (LAF) of a Java applet that is used via a web browser. I wish to set the system default LAF, but when loaded in a browser, the applet returns to the Metal LAF. When I run it as a stand-alone applet, the LAF is applied correctly. The only item I am showing the user is a JFileChooser. I have tried a number of methods to overcome this including:

1) Override the applet’s start() method:

@Override
public void start() {
    try {
        UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
        SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(this);
        System.out.println("LOOK AND FEEL SET!");
    }
    catch (Exception ex) {
        System.out.println(ex);
    }
}

2) Set it in the static initializer of the applet class:

static {
    try {
        UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
        System.out.println("LOOK AND FEEL SET!");
    }
    catch (Exception ex) {
        System.out.println(ex);
    }
}

3) Set it in the constructor of the applet:

public MyApplet() {
    try {
        UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
        SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(this);
        System.out.println("LOOK AND FEEL SET!");
    }
    catch (Exception ex) {
        System.out.println(ex);
    }
}

I am using Java 6, but targeting Java 5 on Windows. In every case, LOOK AND FEEL SET! gets printed to the console, so I know that it set it without throwing an exception. This happens irrespective of browser (using Firefox 3.6 and IE7). Why is it doing this and how can I get it to respect the LAF I designate?

Answer 1

So I tried finnw’s answer and marked it accepted without realizing that I had also made some other modifications to my code. When I was cleaning out code I removed my mods and left finnw’s, but then it was broken again.

These were the changes that had made that worked:

JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();

try {
    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
    SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(chooser);
}
catch (Exception ex) {
    System.out.println(ex);
}

So what I ended up doing here is setting the look and feel for the file chooser outright, instead of trying to force the LAF for the whole applet. It’s kind of a hack, but the file chooser is the only part of the UI that the user even sees anyway.