Creating a custom JButton in Java

Question

Is there a way to create a `JButton` with your own button graphic and not just with an image inside the button? If not, is there another way to create a custom `JButton` in java?

Accepted Answer

When I was first learning Java we had to make Yahtzee and I thought it would be cool to create custom Swing components and containers instead of just drawing everything on one `JPanel`. The benefit of extending `Swing` components, of course, is to have the ability to add support for keyboard shortcuts and other accessibility features that you can't do just by having a `paint()` method print a pretty picture. It may not be done the best way however, but it may be a good starting point for you.

Edit 8/6 - If it wasn't apparent from the images, each Die is a button you can click. This will move it to the `DiceContainer` below. Looking at the source code you can see that each Die button is drawn dynamically, based on its value.

Here are the basic steps:

- Create a class that extends `JComponent`

- Call parent constructor `super()` in your constructors

- Make sure you class implements `MouseListener`

Put this in the constructor:

```
enableInputMethods(true);   
addMouseListener(this);
```

Override these methods:

```
public Dimension getPreferredSize()  
public Dimension getMinimumSize()  
public Dimension getMaximumSize()
```

Override this method:

```
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
```

The amount of space you have to work with when drawing your button is defined by `getPreferredSize()`, assuming `getMinimumSize()` and `getMaximumSize()` return the same value. I haven't experimented too much with this but, depending on the layout you use for your GUI your button could look completely different.

And finally, the source code. In case I missed anything.

Creating a custom JButton in Java

Solution

Problem