JFileChooser centers the directories in the dialog box

Question

Hello,
I have been searching the forums for days looking for inspiration on my problem and haven't found anything.. (If I've missed it, sorry :( )
My problem is as follows:
I am using JFileChooser to create a pop-up dialog box to open and save files. Unfortunately in the box the directories and files are centered making it look quite bad!!
I know the list button is not enabled, but is there a way I can write my own implementation for it? Err.. any help on how to would be great!!
By the way, if I run the app on my local env (Using Forte for Java 4 it looks fine), its when I put the jars on the server that the problem appears..
Thank you in advance for any help/ideas etc...
Dany

Answer 1

I just finished dealing with the same problem, which I had caused by incorporating a multiline JLabelUI implementation into my app (http://manning.com/sbe/files/uts2/Chapter27html/Chapter27.htm). It isn't likely that your problem has the same cause, but you might as well check--someone may have snuck it in on you ;).
Anyway, here's what I learned. The file/directory view in JFileChooser is just a JList, which uses JLabels to render its cells. JLabelUI, in turn, relies in the method SwingUtilities.layoutCompoundLabel. There are two versions of that method, and one of them is not "orientation-aware"--if the label's horizontal alignment is set to the default, LEADING, it will be converted to CENTER.
Of course JLabelUI should be calling the correct method, but if you're using a custom LookAndFeel, that may have gotten changed. In my case, the LabelUI wasn't calling either of the SwingUtilities methods, but a custom, non-orientation-aware replacement. Also, you may have a version conflict. I don't know when they added this component-orientation stuff, but maybe the JVM on your server doesn't have it.
Hope this helps.
Alan