Painting jcombobox onto g2

Question

Hi
I am trying to paint several types of swing components onto the g2 of a jpanel. I have been able to do this satisfactorily with most types of jcomponent, however, i am struggling to get a suitable result for jcomboboxs. I cant get it to paint the drop down arrow, it just paints the box with the text in. Below is the code i am using
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
public class NewJFrame extends JFrame {
     public static void main(String args[]){
          try {
               UIManager.setLookAndFeel( UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName() );
          }catch (Exception e) {
               e.printStackTrace();
          new NewJFrame();
     public NewJFrame(){
          JPanel panel = new MyPanel();
          getContentPane().add(panel);
          setSize(300,300);
          setVisible(true);
     class MyPanel extends JPanel{
          public void paintComponent(Graphics g){
               super.paintComponent(g);
               Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g;
               g2.translate(10,10);
               JComboBox box = new JComboBox(new String[]{"First"});
               box.setSize(100,20);
               box.paint(g2);
               g2.translate(-10,10);
I would really appreciate any help anyone can give me on sorting this out. Thanks.

Answer 1

OK, firstly thanks for the replies. Perhaps I should
have explained what I am trying to achieve. What I
am trying to build is basically something tantermount
to a GUI builder, whereby the user can select a
widget from a tool bar, and place it on a canvas,
they can then select any components they've dragged
out and drag them around the page, resize them,
change thier properties, etc. To do this i have
decided i want to render the components directly to
the g2 of the JPanel. What I am not trying to do is
create a bog standard GUI that you would indeed use a
layout manager(s) for. I have done a pretty
commendable amount of googleing for this, and the
closest thing i can come up with is the Draw app
here, and this is loosely what Ive based my app on.
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/demos.html
I have my program up and running for most of the
e basic widgets, except JComboBoxs. So I will ask
again can anyone
a) Please answer my original question and tell me how
i can render the JComboBox with its arrow.
Or perhaps even more usefully,
b) Point me to a sample app where what I am trying to
achieve is done already
Thanks in advance,Then why not use absolute layout and implement listeners to move the items around when the user drags. The other thing I would look at is creating a single version of each widget to use. You could then use that one widget to paint it in a number of different places in the same manner a JTable does, I'm sure that'd be far more efficient.