Making custom non-standard components aware of custom look and feels.

Question

Hello all.
Maybe the subject of this post could also be the opposite: "Making custom look and feels aware of non-standard custom components". I'm not sure.
If I code a new custom component (extending JComponent, or extending the UI delegate of a standard component) and pretend it to be laf aware then I must create the corresponding UI delegate for each laf, like it happens to be with standard swing components. But I'm not sure it is feasible to create the UI delegates for all unknown existing custom lafs.
On the other side, if I create a custom laf then I will also create a custom UI delegate for each standard component, but I can not create UI delegate for all unknown existing custom components.
The point here is that standard components and standard lafs are universally known, while custom components (or custom ui delegates) and custom lafs are not.
So the question is: How does a swing developer deal with the case of a new custom component that will be used in an unknown custom laf?
For instance:
1. Custom text UI delegate for dealing with styled documents in JTextField. See {thread:id=2284487}.
2. JTabbedPane with custom UI delegate that paints no tab if the component only contains one tab.
In both cases I need a UI delegate for each known laf, but what happens if the application is using a laf that certainly will not be aware of this custom functionally?
Thank you!

Answer 1

If I code a new custom component (extending JComponent, or extending the UI delegate of a standard component) and pretend it to be laf aware then I must create the corresponding UI delegate for each laf, like it happens to be with standard swing components. But I'm not sure it is feasible to create the UI delegates for all unknown existing custom lafs.You are right, this is never going to work. I suggest if you want to make your custom component look & feel aware, you design the way it displays around the l & f of other components that are part of j2se and have l&f implementations.
http://download.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/plaf/ComponentUI.html
There are instructions here:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/LookAndFeel.html
>
On the other side, if I create a custom laf then I will also create a custom UI delegate for each standard component, but I can not create UI delegate for all unknown existing custom components.
The point here is that standard components and standard lafs are universally known, while custom components (or custom ui delegates) and custom lafs are not.
So the question is: How does a swing developer deal with the case of a new custom component that will be used in an unknown custom laf?
For instance:
1. Custom text UI delegate for dealing with styled documents in JTextField. See {thread:id=2284487}.
2. JTabbedPane with custom UI delegate that paints no tab if the component only contains one tab.
In both cases I need a UI delegate for each known laf, but what happens if the application is using a laf that certainly will not be aware of this custom functionally?
Thank you!