Question

I’d like to create a set of buttons in a Java Swing application like you get in a typical tool palette in a paint program. That is, a set of small square buttons, each containing an icon, only one of which is pressed down, and when you press another button, the first is deselected. I’ve thought of a number of solutions and none of them seem very easy/elegant.

This sounds like a job for JRadioButton, but if you add an Icon to that, you still get the small circle, which is fairly space inefficient. I guess an option would be finding an alternative Look and Feel or painting code for JRadioButton.

Another alternative might be to add JButton to a ButtonGroup, maybe setting a JToggleButton.ToggleButtonModel as the model, but that doesn’t have the desired effect, as the painting code for a standard JButton does not keep it depressed when selected. Possibly the JButton code could be modified to do this. Like making it painting “selected” the same way as “pressed”.

A third alternative would be to use normal JButton’s, and add a common mouse listener that keeps them pressed or not, and communicates the changes between the buttons.

Can anyone advise on the best way to achieve the aim please? A simple method I’ve missed would be best, but advice on which of these three alternatives would be best and pointers on how to get started would be useful too.

Answer 1

What about a plain JToggleButton in a ButtonGroup? It is not abstract, you can instantiate one with an Icon, and it stays depressed while selected.