I'm trying to create a GUI with Swing. My problem is, I have a textfield, but I want it to have a "placeholder" (like in html). I read here and there that it can be done by overriding the paint() of the textfield.
Since my code is generated I found out that I need to use the "Custom Creation Code" to override the code that was generated.
Here is what I have put in the "Custom Creation Code" field
new javax.swing.JTextField()
{
String test = super.getText();
String hint = "Username";
public void paint(Graphics g)
{
if ( test == null || test.length() < 1 ) {
g.setColor( Color.red );
g.drawString(hint, 0, 0);
}
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
super.paint(g);
}
}
This generates the following output
javax.swing.JTextField username = new javax.swing.JTextField()
{
String test = super.getText();
String hint = "Username";
public void paint(Graphics g)
{
if ( test == null || test.length() < 1 ) {
g.setColor( Color.red );
g.drawString(hint, 0, 0);
}
g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
super.paint(g);
}
};
For now I see the textField but there is nothing in it, maybe I need to add some function onto some event, but I am not sure.
I would be grateful if anyone could lend a hand.
EDIT : Here is a demo of what I want to do : http://davidwalsh.name/demo/html5-placeholder.php
I found this on the oracle forums.
public class TextFieldWithPrompt extends JTextField{
@Override
protected void paintComponent(java.awt.Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
if(getText().isEmpty() && ! (FocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().getFocusOwner() == this)){
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g.create();
g2.setBackground(Color.gray);
g2.setFont(getFont().deriveFont(Font.ITALIC));
g2.drawString("zip", 5, 10); //figure out x, y from font's FontMetrics and size of component.
g2.dispose();
}
}
https://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=1349874
I use to override the text fields paint method, until I ended up with more custom text fields then I really wanted...
Then I found this prompt API which is simple to use and doesn't require you to extend any components. It also has a nice "buddy" API
This has now been included in the SwingLabs, SwingX library which makes it even eaiser to use...
Try this.
private void txtUserNameFocusGained(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
String username = txtUserName.getText();
if(username.equals("User Name")){
txtUserName.setCaretPosition(0);
}
}
private void txtUserNameFocusLost(java.awt.event.FocusEvent evt) {
String username = txtUserName.getText();
if(username.equals("")){
txtUserName.setForeground(new java.awt.Color(86, 86, 86));
txtUserName.setCaretPosition(0);
txtUserName.setText("User Name");
}
}
private void txtUserNameKeyPressed(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt) {
String username = txtUserName.getText();
if(username.equals("User Name")){
txtUserName.setForeground(new java.awt.Color(0, 0, 0));
txtUserName.setText(null);
txtUserName.setCaretPosition(0);
}
}
Be adviced, the name of the text field is "txtUserName". You can see the output as like this.