Changing a color chooser button's background color in Java

I have a Java button that opens a JColorChooser dialog. I would like for the color of the button to change according to the color selected in the dialog. I have tried calling the setBackgroundColor() method of the button, but in my case it has no effect (the button is on a JToolBar in Winsows 7). Also, this question suggests that changing a button's background is not platform independent.

Maybe the answer to this problem is not to use a button in the first place. So, my question is: is there a method of showing a "color picker" control in Java that reflects the picked color? Kind of like how MS Paint would show the picked color on the "fill with color" button.

trashgod

You have several options:

Change the background of a related component, as shown in @mKorbel's answer.
Make the button opaque, as suggested by @Robin here.
Modify the background of a panel containing the button, as shown here.
Implement the Icon interface and apply an instance to (or near) your button, as shown here.

not sure from context, do you meaning this way (code example) or to setBackground for JColorChooser or its JComponents in the JColorChooser

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.ComboBoxEditor;
import javax.swing.DefaultListCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JColorChooser;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.ListCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.border.LineBorder;
import javax.swing.event.EventListenerList;

class ColorComboBoxEditor implements ComboBoxEditor {

    final protected JButton editor;
    private EventListenerList listenerList = new EventListenerList();

    ColorComboBoxEditor(Color initialColor) {
        editor = new JButton("");
        editor.setBackground(initialColor);
        ActionListener actionListener = new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                Color currentBackground = editor.getBackground();
                Color color = JColorChooser.showDialog(editor, "Color Chooser", currentBackground);
                if ((color != null) && (currentBackground != color)) {
                    editor.setBackground(color);
                    fireActionEvent(color);
                }
            }
        };
        editor.addActionListener(actionListener);
    }

    @Override
    public void addActionListener(ActionListener l) {
        listenerList.add(ActionListener.class, l);
    }

    @Override
    public Component getEditorComponent() {
        return editor;
    }

    @Override
    public Object getItem() {
        return editor.getBackground();
    }

    @Override
    public void removeActionListener(ActionListener l) {
        listenerList.remove(ActionListener.class, l);
    }

    @Override
    public void selectAll() {
    }

    @Override
    public void setItem(Object newValue) {
        if (newValue instanceof Color) {
            Color color = (Color) newValue;
            editor.setBackground(color);
        } else {
            try {
                Color color = Color.decode(newValue.toString());
                editor.setBackground(color);
            } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
            }
        }
    }

    protected void fireActionEvent(Color color) {
        Object listeners[] = listenerList.getListenerList();
        for (int i = listeners.length - 2; i >= 0; i -= 2) {
            if (listeners[i] == ActionListener.class) {
                ActionEvent actionEvent = new ActionEvent(editor, ActionEvent.ACTION_PERFORMED, color.toString());
                ((ActionListener) listeners[i + 1]).actionPerformed(actionEvent);
            }
        }
    }
}

class ColorCellRenderer implements ListCellRenderer {

    private DefaultListCellRenderer defaultRenderer = new DefaultListCellRenderer();
    private final static Dimension preferredSize = new Dimension(0, 20);

    @Override
    public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list, Object value, int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {
        JLabel renderer = (JLabel) defaultRenderer.getListCellRendererComponent(list, value, index, isSelected, cellHasFocus);
        if (value instanceof Color) {
            renderer.setBackground((Color) value);
        }
        if (cellHasFocus || isSelected) {
            renderer.setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.DARK_GRAY));
        } else {
            renderer.setBorder(null);
        }
        renderer.setPreferredSize(preferredSize);
        return renderer;
    }
}

class ColorComboBoxEditorRendererDemo {

    public ColorComboBoxEditorRendererDemo() {
        Color colors[] = {Color.BLACK, Color.BLUE, Color.GREEN, Color.RED, Color.WHITE, Color.YELLOW};
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Color JComboBox");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        final JComboBox comboBox = new JComboBox(colors);
        comboBox.setEditable(true);
        comboBox.setRenderer(new ColorCellRenderer());
        Color color = (Color) comboBox.getSelectedItem();
        ComboBoxEditor editor = new ColorComboBoxEditor(color);
        comboBox.setEditor(editor);
        frame.add(comboBox, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        final JLabel label = new JLabel();
        label.setOpaque(true);
        label.setBackground((Color) comboBox.getSelectedItem());
        frame.add(label, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        ActionListener actionListener = new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
                Color selectedColor = (Color) comboBox.getSelectedItem();
                label.setBackground(selectedColor);
            }
        };
        comboBox.addActionListener(actionListener);
        frame.setSize(300, 200);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                ColorComboBoxEditorRendererDemo colorComboBoxEditorRendererDemo = new ColorComboBoxEditorRendererDemo();
            }
        });
    } 
}

luca

From here, a colour selection button class: