Customizing JList Cell Renderer

Question

Hi all,
I got a problem with JList not rendering properly in my program. basically I create a customized renderer by extending JPanel and implementing ListCellRenderer.
but somehow i cannot get the tooltiptext from the JLabel inside my JPanel (the renderer) to display the tooltiptext and responding to my mouse gesture. here's a snippet of my code.
did i do something wrong?
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class TestR {
     private static class ListItem {
          private Color color;
          private String value;
          public ListItem(Color c, String s) {
               color = c;
               value = s;
          public Color getColor() {
               return color;
          public String getValue() {
               return value;
     private static class MyCellRenderer extends JPanel implements
               ListCellRenderer {
          private JLabel lbl;
          public MyCellRenderer() {
               // Don't paint behind the component
               setOpaque(true);
               setLayout(new BorderLayout());
               lbl = new JLabel();
               add(lbl);
          // Set the attributes of the
          //class and return a reference
          public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list, Object value, // value to display
                    int index, // cell index
                    boolean iss, // is selected
                    boolean chf) // cell has focus?
               // Set the text and
               //background color for rendering
               lbl.setText(((ListItem) value).getValue());
               lbl.setToolTipText("tooltip: "+((ListItem) value).getValue());
               setBackground(((ListItem) value).getColor());
               // Set a border if the
               //list item is selected
               if (iss) {
                    setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.blue, 2));
               } else {
                    setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(list.getBackground(),
                              2));
               return this;
     // Create a window
     public static void main(String args[]) {
          JFrame frame = new JFrame("Custom List Demo");
          frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
               @Override
               public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
                    System.exit(0);
          // Use a list model that
          //allows for updates
          DefaultListModel model = new DefaultListModel();
          JList statusList = new JList(model);
          statusList.setCellRenderer(new MyCellRenderer());
          // Create some dummy list items.
          ListItem li = new ListItem(Color.cyan, "test line one");
          model.addElement(li);
          li = new ListItem(Color.yellow, "foo foo foo");
          model.addElement(li);
          li = new ListItem(Color.green, "quick brown fox");
          model.addElement(li);
          // Display the list   
          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
          panel.add(statusList);
          frame.getContentPane().add("Center", panel);
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible(true);
}

Answer 1

hi!
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class TestR {
     private static class ListItem {
          private Color color;
          private String value;
          public ListItem(Color c, String s) {
               color = c;
               value = s;
          public Color getColor() {
               return color;
          public String getValue() {
               return value;
     private static class MyCellRenderer extends JPanel implements
               ListCellRenderer {
          private JLabel lbl;
          public MyCellRenderer() {
               // Don't paint behind the component
               setOpaque(true);
               setLayout(new BorderLayout());
               lbl = new JLabel();
               add(lbl);
          // Set the attributes of the
          //class and return a reference
          public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list, Object value, // value to display
                    int index, // cell index
                    boolean iss, // is selected
                    boolean chf) // cell has focus?
               // Set the text and
               //background color for rendering
               lbl.setText(((ListItem) value).getValue());
               /*lbl.*/setToolTipText("tooltip: "+((ListItem) value).getValue());
               setBackground(((ListItem) value).getColor());
               // Set a border if the
               //list item is selected
               if (iss) {
                    setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.blue, 2));
               } else {
                    setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(list.getBackground(),
                              2));
               return this;
     // Create a window
     public static void main(String args[]) {
          JFrame frame = new JFrame("Custom List Demo");
          frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
               @Override
               public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
                    System.exit(0);
          // Use a list model that
          //allows for updates
          DefaultListModel model = new DefaultListModel();
          JList statusList = new JList(model);
          statusList.setCellRenderer(new MyCellRenderer());
          // Create some dummy list items.
          ListItem li = new ListItem(Color.cyan, "test line one");
          model.addElement(li);
          li = new ListItem(Color.yellow, "foo foo foo");
          model.addElement(li);
          li = new ListItem(Color.green, "quick brown fox");
          model.addElement(li);
          // Display the list   
          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
          panel.add(statusList);
          frame.getContentPane().add("Center", panel);
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible(true);
}try this out. this may help you. note at line no 50. /*lbl.*/setToolTipText("tooltip: "+((ListItem) value).getValue());:)
Aniruddha