Mouse Events on Disabled Buttons

Question

Hi,
In my application I should make a disabled button to show a tool tip when mouse is entered onto it.
I'm using java.awt.container not Jcontainer.
I have searched in SDN forums and after reading some of the comments what I understood is �disabled Swing button can react to Mouse events but a disabled awt button can not react to mouse events�.
Is that true or did I not understand correctly?
And how would I be able to implement the required functionality in my
application?
Thanks.

Answer 1

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class AwtTooltip {
    private Panel getContent(Frame f) {
        Button left = new Button("left");
        left.setEnabled(false);
        Button right = new Button("right");
        Panel panel = new Panel(new GridBagLayout());
        new TipManager(panel, f);
        GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
        gbc.weightx = 1.0;
        panel.add(left, gbc);
        panel.add(right, gbc);
        return panel;
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        AwtTooltip test = new AwtTooltip();
        Frame f = new Frame();
        f.addWindowListener(closer);
        f.add(test.getContent(f));
        f.setSize(300,100);
        f.setLocation(200,200);
        f.setVisible(true);
    private static WindowListener closer = new WindowAdapter() {
        public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
            System.exit(0);
class TipManager extends MouseMotionAdapter {
    Panel component;
    Window tooltip;
    Label label;
    public TipManager(Panel panel, Frame frame) {
        component = panel;
        panel.addMouseMotionListener(this);
        initTooltip(frame);
     * Since enabled Buttons consume MouseEvents we will
     * receive events sent only from disabled Buttons.
    public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {
        Point p = e.getPoint();
        boolean hovering = false;
        Component[] c = component.getComponents();
        for(int j = 0; j < c.length; j++) {
            Rectangle r = c[j].getBounds();
            if(r.contains(p)) {
                hovering = true;
                if(!tooltip.isShowing())
                    showTooltip(c[j], p);
                break;
        if(!hovering && tooltip.isShowing()) {
            tooltip.setVisible(false);
    private void showTooltip(Component c, Point p) {
        String text = ((Button)c).getLabel();
        label.setText(text);
        tooltip.pack();
        convertPointToScreen(p, component);
        tooltip.setLocation(p.x+10, p.y-15);
        tooltip.setVisible(true);
    /** Copied from SwingUtilities source code. */
    public void convertPointToScreen(Point p, Component c) {
        Rectangle b;
        int x,y;
        do {
            if(c instanceof Window) {
                try {
                    Point pp = c.getLocationOnScreen();
                    x = pp.x;
                    y = pp.y;
                } catch (IllegalComponentStateException icse) {
                    x = c.getX();
                    y = c.getY();
            } else {
                x = c.getX();
                y = c.getY();
            p.x += x;
            p.y += y;
            if(c instanceof Window)
                break;
            c = c.getParent();
        } while(c != null);
    private void initTooltip(Frame owner) {
        label = new Label();
        label.setBackground(new Color(184,207,229));
        tooltip = new Window(owner);
        tooltip.add(label);
}