Multiple tooltips at once

Question

I have an application that uses a JPanel with multiple JLabels in it. Each JLabel has a ToolTip to display. I would like to implement a button that when clicked, displays all ToolTips at once. Any ideas on how to do this?
Bonus: If not by default, the ToolTips should be arranged, if possible, in a way so that they do not overlap each other. (5 Duke dollars)

Answer 1

WARNING!!! This is a hack! I had a theory that I could drag code out of TooltipManager and display the tooltips. It worked, however, this is just test code. I paid very little attention to figuring out what every piece of code did. I commented out some pieces and created some variables where they were undefined. You should probably redo what I did and put a little more thought into it. Anyways, here it is.import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class Test extends JFrame  {
  Container content = getContentPane();
  ArrayList tips = null;
  public Test() {
    super("Test");
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    JPanel jp = new JPanel(new FlowLayout());
    content.add(jp, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    JTextArea jta = new JTextArea("Four score and seven years ago");
    jta.setWrapStyleWord(true);
    jta.setLineWrap(true);
    JScrollPane jsp = new JScrollPane(jta);
    jsp.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,100));
    jta.setToolTipText("Abe Lincoln");
    jp.add(jsp);
    JTextField jtf = new JTextField("Inna Gadda Da Vida");
    jtf.setToolTipText("Iron Butterfly");
    jp.add(jtf);
    JButton jb = new JButton("Tooltips");
    content.add(jb, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    jb.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
      public void mousePressed(MouseEvent me) {
        tips = getAllToolTips(content, new ArrayList());
        for (int i=0; i<tips.size(); i++) {
          ((Popup)tips.get(i)).show();
      public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent me) {
        for (int i=0; i<tips.size(); i++) {
          ((Popup)tips.get(i)).hide();
    setSize(300, 300);
    setVisible(true);
  public static void main(String[] args) { new Test(); }
  public ArrayList getAllToolTips(Container c, ArrayList al) {
    Component[] comps = c.getComponents();
    for (int i=0; i<comps.length; i++) {
      if (comps[i] instanceof JComponent) {
        String s;
        if (comps.isShowing() && comps[i].isEnabled() &&
comps[i] instanceof JComponent &&
(s=((JComponent)comps[i]).getToolTipText())!=null) {
JToolTip tip = ((JComponent)comps[i]).createToolTip();
tip.setTipText(s);
MouseEvent mouseEvent = new MouseEvent(comps[i], 0, 0, 0, 0,0,1,false,0);
Point screenLocation = comps[i].getLocationOnScreen();
Point location = new Point();
Rectangle sBounds = comps[i].getGraphicsConfiguration().
getBounds();
boolean leftToRight = true;//SwingUtilities.isLeftToRight(comps[i]);
Dimension size = tip.getPreferredSize();
Point preferredLocation = ((JComponent)comps[i]).getToolTipLocation(mouseEvent);
if(preferredLocation != null) {
location.x = screenLocation.x + preferredLocation.x;
location.y = screenLocation.y + preferredLocation.y;
if (!leftToRight) {
location.x -= size.width;
} else {
location.x = screenLocation.x + mouseEvent.getX();
location.y = screenLocation.y + mouseEvent.getY() + 20;
if (!leftToRight) {
if(location.x - size.width>=0) {
location.x -= size.width;
// we do not adjust x/y when using awt.Window tips
// if (!heavyWeightPopupEnabled){
Rectangle popupRect=null;
if (popupRect == null){
popupRect = new Rectangle();
popupRect.setBounds(location.x,location.y,
size.width,size.height);
int y = getPopupFitHeight(popupRect, comps[i]);
int x = getPopupFitWidth(popupRect,comps[i]);
if (y > 0){
location.y -= y;
if (x > 0){
// adjust
location.x -= x;
// Fit as much of the tooltip on screen as possible
if (location.x < sBounds.x) {
location.x = sBounds.x;
else if (location.x - sBounds.x + size.width > sBounds.width) {
location.x = sBounds.x + Math.max(0, sBounds.width - size.width)
if (location.y < sBounds.y) {
location.y = sBounds.y;
else if (location.y - sBounds.y + size.height > sBounds.height) {
location.y = sBounds.y + Math.max(0, sBounds.height - size.height);
PopupFactory popupFactory = PopupFactory.getSharedInstance();
// if (lightWeightPopupEnabled) {
// popupFactory.setPopupType(PopupFactory.LIGHT_WEIGHT_POPUP);
// else {
// popupFactory.setPopupType(PopupFactory.MEDIUM_WEIGHT_POPUP);
Popup tipWindow;
tipWindow = popupFactory.getPopup(comps[i], tip,
location.x,
location.y);
// popupFactory.setPopupType(PopupFactory.LIGHT_WEIGHT_POPUP);
al.add(tipWindow);
if (comps[i] instanceof Container) getAllToolTips((Container)comps[i], al);
return al;
private int getPopupFitWidth(Rectangle popupRectInScreen, Component invoker){
if (invoker != null){
Container parent;
for (parent = invoker.getParent(); parent != null; parent = parent.getParent()){
// fix internal frame size bug: 4139087 - 4159012
if(parent instanceof JFrame || parent instanceof JDialog ||
parent instanceof JWindow) { // no check for awt.Frame since we use Heavy tips
return getWidthAdjust(parent.getBounds(),popupRectInScreen);
} else if (parent instanceof JApplet || parent instanceof JInternalFrame) {
Rectangle popupFrameRect=null;
if (popupFrameRect == null){
popupFrameRect = new Rectangle();
Point p = parent.getLocationOnScreen();
popupFrameRect.setBounds(p.x,p.y,
parent.getBounds().width,
parent.getBounds().height);
return getWidthAdjust(popupFrameRect,popupRectInScreen);
return 0;
// Returns: 0 no adjust
// >0 adjust by value return
private int getPopupFitHeight(Rectangle popupRectInScreen, Component invoker){
if (invoker != null){
Container parent;
for (parent = invoker.getParent(); parent != null; parent = parent.getParent()){
if(parent instanceof JFrame || parent instanceof JDialog ||
parent instanceof JWindow) {
return getHeightAdjust(parent.getBounds(),popupRectInScreen);
} else if (parent instanceof JApplet || parent instanceof JInternalFrame) {
Rectangle popupFrameRect=null;
if (popupFrameRect == null){
popupFrameRect = new Rectangle();
Point p = parent.getLocationOnScreen();
popupFrameRect.setBounds(p.x,p.y,
parent.getBounds().width,
parent.getBounds().height);
return getHeightAdjust(popupFrameRect,popupRectInScreen);
return 0;
private int getHeightAdjust(Rectangle a, Rectangle b){
if (b.y >= a.y && (b.y + b.height) <= (a.y + a.height))
return 0;
else
return (((b.y + b.height) - (a.y + a.height)) + 5);
private int getWidthAdjust(Rectangle a, Rectangle b){
// System.out.println("width b.x/b.width: " + b.x + "/" + b.width +
//          "a.x/a.width: " + a.x + "/" + a.width);
if (b.x >= a.x && (b.x + b.width) <= (a.x + a.width)){
return 0;
else {
return (((b.x + b.width) - (a.x a.width)) 5);