Borders - The Definitive Guide to Java Swing - page 226

frame.setSize(300, 100);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
};
EventQueue.invokeLater(runner);
}
}

Customizing TitledBorder Look and Feel
The available set of UIResource -related properties for a TitledBorder is shown in Table 7-4.
It has three different properties.

Table 7-4. TitledBorder UIResource Elements

Property String Object Type

TitledBorder.font Font

TitledBorder.titleColor Color

TitledBorder.border Border

Creating Your Own Borders
When you want to create your own distinctive border, you can either create a new class that
implements the Border interface directly or you can extend the AbstractBorder class. As previ-
ously mentioned, extending the AbstractBorder class is the better way to go, because optimizations
are built in to certain Swing classes to take advantage of some of the AbstractBorder -specific
methods. For instance, if a border is an AbstractBorder , JComponent will reuse an Insets object
when getting the Insets of a border. Thus, one fewer object will need to be created and destroyed
each time the insets are fetched.
In addition to thinking about subclassing AbstractBorder versus implementing the Border
interface yourself, you need to consider whether or not you want a static border. If you attach
a border to a button, you want that button to be able to signal selection. You must examine the
component passed into the paintBorder() method and react accordingly. In addition, you
should also draw a disabled border to indicate when the component isn't selectable. Although
setEnabled(false) disables the selection of the component, if the component has a border
associated with it, the border still must be drawn, even when disabled. Figure 7-16 shows one
border in action that looks at all these options for the component passed into the border's
paintBorder() method.

Figure 7-16. Active custom border examples