JTree Nimbus selection treeNode

Question

I made a jtree with a custom TreeCellRenderer. The leaf nodes are a jpanel with a checkbox in and JPanel. The problem now is that when you select a tree node, there is a selection color box beside the jpanel.
Here is a sscce:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.JCheckBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTree;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo;
import javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException;
import javax.swing.tree.DefaultMutableTreeNode;
import javax.swing.tree.DefaultTreeCellRenderer;
public class Users {
    private static JFrame frame;
    private static JPanel usersPanel;
    private JTree usersTree;
    public Users(){
        usersPanel = new JPanel();
        DefaultMutableTreeNode rootNode = new DefaultMutableTreeNode("Gebruikers");
        DefaultMutableTreeNode willie = new DefaultMutableTreeNode("Willie");
        DefaultMutableTreeNode Anna = new DefaultMutableTreeNode("Anna");
        rootNode.add(willie);
        rootNode.add(Anna);
        usersTree = new JTree(rootNode);
        myTreeWithCheckBoxRenderer renderer = new myTreeWithCheckBoxRenderer();
        usersTree.setCellRenderer(renderer);
        usersTree.setRootVisible(true);
        usersTree.setEditable(false);
        usersTree.setOpaque(false);
        usersPanel.add(usersTree);
    class myTreeWithCheckBoxRenderer extends DefaultTreeCellRenderer {
        DefaultTreeCellRenderer renderer = new DefaultTreeCellRenderer();
        JPanel panel;
        JCheckBox checkBox;
        JLabel label;
        public myTreeWithCheckBoxRenderer() {
            checkBox = new JCheckBox();
            label = new JLabel("Gebruikers");
            panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
            panel.add(checkBox, BorderLayout.WEST);
            panel.add(label, BorderLayout.EAST);
            panel.setBackground(Color.red);
        @Override
        public Component getTreeCellRendererComponent(JTree tree, Object value, boolean sel, boolean expanded, boolean leaf, int row, boolean hasFocus) {
            Component returnValue;
            if(!leaf){
                renderer.setBackgroundSelectionColor(null);
                renderer.setText("Gebruikers");
                returnValue = renderer;
            else{
                if(hasFocus){
                    panel.setBackground(Color.blue);
                returnValue = panel;
            return returnValue;
    private static void createAndShowGUI(){
        new Users();
        frame = new JFrame("Tree");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setContentPane(usersPanel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(800, 600));
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.setVisible(true);
     public static void main (String[] args){
        try {
            for (LookAndFeelInfo info : UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) {
                if ("Nimbus".equals(info.getName())) {
                    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName());
                    break;
        } catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException e) {
            // handle exception
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            // handle exception
        } catch (InstantiationException e) {
            // handle exception
        } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
            // handle exception
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
            @Override
            public void run(){
                createAndShowGUI();
}I tried using a DefaultTreeCellRenderer and use the setBackgroundSelectionColor() method to null, but it doesn't change anything. Also setting the background of the JPanel to null doesn't make a change when you check with (if(hasFocus)). However I have the impression that nimbus is causing the problem, because if you comment the nimbus part out, you don't have the selection box anymore.
Does anyone has an idea to solve this?
Edited by: Kligham on 30-aug-2010 19:25

Answer 1

Kligham wrote:
Thank you very much!You're welcome.
Kligham wrote:
Problem solved. So since this cell background rendering is a Nimbus "feature", can I assume that the "not displaying of angled lines" also is a Nimbus "feature". Since the JTree tutorial says this should do the trick:
usersTree.putClientProperty("JTree.lineStyle", "Angled");So I probably have to override it the same way, so I was wondering how you know what UIDefaults there are?Well, "JTree.lineStyle" is actually a client property and not a UIDefaults property. In other words, "JTree.lineStyle" is on the same logical level as "Nimbus.Overrides". Unfortunately, there is no way to determine which client properties a component or a component UI implementation supports except carefully examining its source code. javax.swing.plaf.synth.SynthTreeUI (the Nimbus TreeUI implementation) doesn't seem to support any client properties. It might be handled somewhere else, though.
As an alternative to using "JTree.lineStyle", you could try to use a backgroundPainter that draws angle lines instead of the "do nothing" painter I suggested.
To determine which UIDefaults properties are available for a given LaF implementation, you can iterate over the UIDefaults' entrySet (UIDefaults is a subclass of Hashtable). For Nimbus specifically, Jasper Potts already did that. See the [corresponding blog entry|http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2008/08/nimbus-uimanager-uidefaults/] and [Nimbus UIDefaults Properties List|http://jasperpotts.com/blogfiles/nimbusdefaults/nimbus.html]