Custom focus rectangle in JTextField

Question

I'm trying to change my theme/look & feel to show a focus rectangle for JTextField, somewhat like this: [http://www.macvswindows.com/index.php?title=GUI_Customization|http://www.macvswindows.com/index.php?title=GUI_Customization] (second image down, or direct [http://www.macvswindows.com/images/thumb/f/f2/osx_aqua_colors.png/500px-osx_aqua_colors.png|http://www.macvswindows.com/images/thumb/f/f2/osx_aqua_colors.png/500px-osx_aqua_colors.png] ) I don't want to make it exactly like MacOS, but a similar idea.
For now I'm just trying to do it on the inner part of the field. I can get it to paint with the code below, but then the caret painting messes things up as I tab through the fields or move the caret around inside the fields.
So it seems I'm headed down the wrong path, what should I be doing? Extending DefaultHighlighter or DefaultCaret, or something else?
Thanks,
Jim
package testui;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.plaf.metal.DefaultMetalTheme;
import javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel;
public class ThemeTest extends JFrame {
    public class TestMetalTheme extends DefaultMetalTheme {
        public void addCustomEntriesToTable(UIDefaults table) {
            UIManager.put("TextFieldUI", "customui.CustomTextFieldUI");
        public String getName() {
            return "TestMetalTheme";
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ThemeTest testFrame = new ThemeTest();
        testFrame.setVisible(true);
    public ThemeTest() {
        try {
            MetalLookAndFeel.setCurrentTheme(new TestMetalTheme());
            UIManager.setLookAndFeel(new MetalLookAndFeel());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        setSize(500, 500);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        add(panel);
        panel.add(new JTextField("test"));
        panel.add(new JTextField("test"));
        panel.add(new JTextField("test"));
        panel.add(new JButton("button"));
package testui;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.plaf.ComponentUI;
import javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalTextFieldUI;
import java.awt.*;
public class CustomTextFieldUI extends MetalTextFieldUI {
    private Color focusColor = Color.cyan;
    private JComponent component;
    public CustomTextFieldUI(JComponent c) {
        if (c == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("component must be specified");
        this.component = c;
    public static ComponentUI createUI(JComponent c) {
        return new CustomTextFieldUI(c);
    protected void paintSafely(Graphics g) {
        super.paintSafely(g);
        if (component.hasFocus()) {
            Dimension size = component.getSize();
            Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
            System.out.println(g2d.getClip());
            System.out.println(g2d.getClipBounds());
            g2d.setColor(focusColor);
            g2d.setStroke(new BasicStroke(2f));
            g2d.drawRect(1, 1, size.width - 3, size.height - 3);
}

Answer 1

Why not just combine the two approaches?
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.FocusEvent;
import java.awt.event.FocusListener;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.BevelBorder;
import javax.swing.border.Border;
import javax.swing.plaf.ComponentUI;
import javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalTextFieldUI;
public class CustomTextFieldUI extends MetalTextFieldUI {
     private Color focusColor = Color.cyan;
     private JComponent component;
     private Border normalBorder;
     private Border focusedBorder;
     private FocusListener focusListener;
     public CustomTextFieldUI( JComponent c ) {
          if ( c == null ) {
               throw new IllegalArgumentException( "component must be specified" );
          this.component = c;
          focusListener =  new FocusListener() {
               public void focusGained( FocusEvent fe ) {
                    if ( normalBorder == null ) {
                         normalBorder = component.getBorder();
                         focusedBorder = new BevelBorder( BevelBorder.LOWERED ) {
                              @Override
                              public Color getHighlightInnerColor() { return focusColor; }
                              @Override
                              public Color getHighlightOuterColor() { return focusColor; }
                              @Override
                              public Color getShadowInnerColor() { return focusColor; }
                              @Override
                              public Color getShadowOuterColor() { return focusColor; }
                    component.setBorder( focusedBorder );
               public void focusLost( FocusEvent fe ) {
                    component.setBorder( normalBorder );
     public static ComponentUI createUI( JComponent c ) {
          return new CustomTextFieldUI ( c );
     @Override
     protected void installListeners() {
          super.installListeners();
          component.addFocusListener( focusListener );
     @Override
     protected void uninstallListeners() {
          super.uninstallListeners();
          component.removeFocusListener( focusListener );
}