Changing background of selected item in JComboBox when Uneditable

Question

I need to change the color of the items in a JComboBox list based on the values that change at runtime. I have accomplished this by creating and using a class extended from DefaultListCellRenderer.
The combobox is enabled and uneditable. The problem is that in 1.5 the behavior changed and now the selected item gets a white background that is set by the UI or DefaultJComboBox. I can no longer set the background for the selected item.
I have tried using the ComBox Editor. Also, the universal option of UIManager.put("ComboBox.background", Color.xxx) will not work since I have multiple boxes with different backgrounds.
Does anyone no a work around?

Answer 1

Unless I misread your problem you may find that your use of DefaultListCellRenderer is incorrect. The following snippet of code (using Java 1.5.0_07) will make the combo box red. The unselected items in the dropdown will be magenta and the selected item orange.
combo.setBackground(Color.red);
combo.setRenderer(new DefaultListCellRenderer()     {
     public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list,
                Object value,
                int index,
                boolean isSelected,
                boolean cellHasFocus)
               Component c = super.getListCellRendererComponent(list, value, index, isSelected, cellHasFocus);
               if(isSelected)
                    c.setBackground(Color.ORANGE);
               else
                    c.setBackground(Color.MAGENTA);
               return c;
     });