Create a Swing component based on another but with different API

Question

I would like to create a new Swing JComponent based on an existing one, but with a different API. In other words, I don\'t want to extend the existing component, because I don\'

Answer 1

You can create a new class which extends JComponent then inside the constructor insert a checkbox into itself.

public class MyCoolCheckbox extends JComponent{
    private JCheckBox checkbox;
    public MyCoolCheckbox(String label) {
        checkbox= new JCheckBox(label);
        this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        this.add(checkbox, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    }
}

This is obviously incomplete and you may need to delegate certain methods to the child. It might get messy. IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA will generate all this for you if you hit alt-ins (by default) then delegate, then select the checkbox member and pick the entries you want to delegate. For example:

public void setForeground(Color fg) {
    checkbox.setForeground(fg);
}

public void setBackground(Color bg) {
    checkbox.setBackground(bg);
}
public Color getForeground() {
    return checkbox.getForeground();
}

public Color getBackground() {
    return checkbox.getBackground();
}

Keep in mind that because the child is within the Swing component tree, other code will have access to the children even though they are marked private.

((JCheckBox)myCoolCheckbox.getComponents()[0]).setSelected(true);