Title length in JTabbedPane tabs

Question

Has anyone ever written code to make JTabbedPane tab titles shorten automatically when there isn't room for all of them in one row?
Our users like neither of the many-tabs solutions that Swing provides (scroll and multiple rows of tabs), and would prefer a style similar to Eclipse where the tab titles shorten if there isn't room for the entire text.
All I really want to know is - did anyone do it? And if so a few hints as to how you achieved it.
Thanks,
Tim

Answer 1

Well here is the code I developed in case it is useful to anyone else. Didn't have to do anything clever like work out the length of the text in the end - as you will see in the code:     import java.awt.BorderLayout;
     import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
     import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
     import java.awt.event.ContainerEvent;
     import java.awt.event.ContainerListener;
     import java.util.Random;
     import javax.swing.JButton;
     import javax.swing.JFrame;
     import javax.swing.JPanel;
     import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;
     import nz.co.timryan.components.CentredButtonPanel;
     import nz.co.timryan.components.FixedWidthButton;
      * Automatically shorten the tab selector titles if necessary to fit them
      * into the width of the space available without scrolling.
      * <br><br>Created on 10/07/2005 by Tim Ryan
     public class BTTTabbedPane extends JTabbedPane implements ContainerListener {
          static BTTTabbedPane instance;
          BTTTabbedPane() {
               setTabPlacement(JTabbedPane.BOTTOM);
               setTabLayoutPolicy(JTabbedPane.SCROLL_TAB_LAYOUT);
               addContainerListener(this);
               instance = this;
           * @param args
          public static void main(String[] args) {
               JFrame frame = new JFrame("TabbedPane test");
               frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
               JPanel main = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
               main.add(new BTTTabbedPane(), BorderLayout.CENTER);
               JPanel buttonPanel = new CentredButtonPanel();
               JButton addButton = new FixedWidthButton("Add");
               addButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                    Random random = new Random();
                    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                         String text = "MARY AND JANE SMITH AND MICHAEL".substring(0, random.nextInt(30) + 1);
                         instance.addTab(text, null, new JPanel(), text);
               JButton removeButton = new FixedWidthButton("Remove");
               removeButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                         instance.remove(instance.getTabCount() - 1);
               buttonPanel.add(addButton);
               buttonPanel.add(removeButton);
               main.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
               frame.add(main);
               frame.setBounds(100, 100, 800, 500);
               frame.setVisible(true);
          public void componentAdded(ContainerEvent e) {
               recalculateTitleWidths();
          public void componentRemoved(ContainerEvent e) {
               recalculateTitleWidths();
           * Shorten the titles of the tabs as necessary to fit the selectors across
           * the width of the available space without scrolling (if possible).
           * Whenever a title is shortened, "..." is appended to the text to show that
           * this has occurred.
           * The full length titles are held in the tooltip text so that the text can
           * be restored if other tabs are deleted, and also so that the user can see
           * the full text by mousing over the title.
          private void recalculateTitleWidths() {
               int tabCount = getTabCount();
               int[] tabWidth = new int[tabCount];
               int availableWidth = getBounds().width - 4;
               //  Reset the titles to their full text
               for (int j = 0; j < tabCount; j++) {
                    setTitleAt(j, getToolTipTextAt(j));
                    tabWidth[j] = getBoundsAt(j).width;
               int totalWidth = getTotalWidth(tabWidth, tabCount);
               boolean wasShortened = true;
               // Loop around, shortening titles until all the selectors fit across
               // the screen, or the titles are too short to be shortened further.
               while ((totalWidth > availableWidth) && wasShortened) {
                    int longestTab = -1;
                    int longestTabWidth = 0;
                    int longestText = 0;
                    wasShortened = false;
                    // Find the longest tab
                    for (int j = 0; j < tabCount; j++) {
                         if (tabWidth[j] >= longestTabWidth) {
                              longestTab = j;
                              longestTabWidth = tabWidth[j];
                              longestText = getTitleAt(j).length();
                    // Shorten its text (adding "..." if not already done)
                    // and then determine the new tab width and total tab width
                    String title = getTitleAt(longestTab);
                    if (title.length() > 4) {
                         if (title.endsWith("...")) {
                              title = title.substring(0, title.length() - 4);
                         } else {
                              title = title.substring(0, title.length() - 2);
                         setTitleAt(longestTab, title + "...");
                         tabWidth[longestTab] = getBoundsAt(longestTab).width;
                         wasShortened = true;
                         totalWidth = getTotalWidth(tabWidth, tabCount);
           * Calculate the total width of the tab selectors.
           * @param  tabWidth the individual widths of the tab selectors
           *         (held in an array for performance reasons)
           * @param  tabCount the count of tabs
           * @return the total width of all tab selectors
          private int getTotalWidth(int[] tabWidth, int tabCount) {
               int totalWidth = 0;
               for (int j = 0; j < tabCount; j++) {
                    totalWidth += tabWidth[j];
               return totalWidth;
}Regards,
Tim