Show arrow in top JMenu

Question

The problem is that for top JMenu object there is no way to turn arrow on. Here is simple example:
import javax.swing.*;
public class A extends JFrame
public A()
     super("Test");
     JMenuBar bar = new JMenuBar();
     JMenu menu = new JMenu("menu1")
//     public boolean isTopLevelMenu()
//          return false;
     JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem("subitem");
     menu.add(item);
     bar.add(menu);
     setJMenuBar(bar);
public static void main(String args[])
A a = new A();
a.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
a.pack();
a.setVisible(true);
In this example, JMenu object is top level and is shown without arrow. If I overload the isTopLevelMenu then MenuSelectionManager doesn't work anymore and JMenu object doesn't show popup window anymore. How to overcome this? Probably somebody aware about "right" solution? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hi Vadik,
I wanted to do something similar recently, and noticed your post. After a bit of stuffing around creating UI (that didn't quite work!), I ended up using this simple work around:
import javax.swing.*;
public class A extends JFrame {
     public A() {
          super("Test");
          JMenuBar bar = new JMenuBar();
          JMenu menu = new JMenu("menu1");
          menu.setIcon(UIManager.getIcon("Menu.arrowIcon"));
                menu.setHorizontalTextPosition(JMenu.LEFT);
          JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem("subitem");
          menu.add(item);
          bar.add(menu);
          setJMenuBar(bar);
     public static void main(String args[]) {
          A a = new A();
          a.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          a.pack();
          a.setVisible(true);
}This might not be what you want, but it works for me!
-Muel