Re: Anybody know how to set the color of the text in a disabled JMenuItem?

From:

Knute Johnson <september@knutejohnson.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.gui

Date:

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:03:29 -0700

Message-ID:

<j2m8hg$3hh$1@dont-email.me>

On 8/19/2011 10:16 AM, Tom wrote:

On Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:52:55 -0700, markspace wrote:

On 8/18/2011 4:06 PM, Knute Johnson wrote:

Thanks for that but apparently I asked the wrong question. Why can't I
change the foreground color on my JMenuItem like you can? I'm running
1.7 on Windows XP. It may be something different with the LookAndFeel.

I'm running Java 7 on Windows 7. My LNF is just the default one (might
be Synth). I was running within NetBeans 7.0.1 IDE. Can't say why it
doesn't work for you.

BasicMenuItemUI has this:

protected void paintText(Graphics g, JMenuItem menuItem, Rectangle textRect, String text) {
   ButtonModel model = menuItem.getModel();
   FontMetrics fm = SwingUtilities2.getFontMetrics(menuItem, g);
   int mnemIndex = menuItem.getDisplayedMnemonicIndex();

   if(!model.isEnabled()) {
     // *** paint the text disabled
     if ( UIManager.get("MenuItem.disabledForeground") instanceof Color ) {
       g.setColor( UIManager.getColor("MenuItem.disabledForeground") );
       SwingUtilities2.drawStringUnderlineCharAt(menuItem, g,text,
                           mnemIndex, textRect.x, textRect.y + fm.getAscent());
     } else {
   ...

so it doesn't appear to use the disabledForeground member anyway. Perhaps
that is your problem?

Of course, other L&F may do different things.

Thanks for that, I should have looked in the source to see what was up.
  I'm not sure why they don't use their own field for this but this code
has probably been around for a long time.

For those interested, here is a horrible solution but the only one I
could come up with for now.

Thanks,

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.plaf.*;
import javax.swing.plaf.basic.*;

import sun.swing.*;

class NewBasicMenuItemUI extends BasicMenuItemUI {
     public void setDisabledForeground(Color color) {
         disabledForeground = color;
     }

     protected void paintText(Graphics g, JMenuItem menuItem,
      Rectangle textRect, String text) {

         ButtonModel model = menuItem.getModel();
         FontMetrics fm = SwingUtilities2.getFontMetrics(menuItem,g);
         int mnemIndex = menuItem.getDisplayedMnemonicIndex();

         if(!model.isEnabled()) {
             // *** paint the text disabled
             if (UIManager.get("MenuItem.disabledForeground") instanceof
              Color) {
                 g.setColor( disabledForeground );
                 SwingUtilities2.drawStringUnderlineCharAt(menuItem,
                  g,text,mnemIndex, textRect.x,
                  textRect.y + fm.getAscent());
             } else {
                 g.setColor(menuItem.getBackground().brighter());
                 SwingUtilities2.drawStringUnderlineCharAt(menuItem, g,
                  text,mnemIndex, textRect.x, textRect.y +
                  fm.getAscent());
                 g.setColor(menuItem.getBackground().darker());
                 SwingUtilities2.drawStringUnderlineCharAt(menuItem,
                  g,text,mnemIndex, textRect.x - 1, textRect.y +
                  fm.getAscent() - 1);
             }
         } else {
             // *** paint the text normally
             if (model.isArmed() ||
              (menuItem instanceof JMenu && model.isSelected())) {
                 g.setColor(selectionForeground); // Uses protected field.
             }
             SwingUtilities2.drawStringUnderlineCharAt(menuItem, g,text,
              mnemIndex, textRect.x, textRect.y + fm.getAscent());
         }
     }
}

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.plaf.*;
import javax.swing.plaf.basic.*;

import sun.swing.*;

public class test extends JFrame {
     public test() {
         setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

         JMenuBar mb = new JMenuBar();
         setJMenuBar(mb);

         JMenu menu = new JMenu("test");
         mb.add(menu);

         JMenuItem mi = new JMenuItem("This is default disabled");
         mi.setEnabled(false);
         menu.add(mi);

         mi = new JMenuItem("This I want to be bright red");
         mi.setEnabled(false);
         NewBasicMenuItemUI newUI = new NewBasicMenuItemUI();
         newUI.setDisabledForeground(Color.RED);
         mi.setUI(newUI);
         menu.add(mi);

         JPanel p = new JPanel();
         p.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,100));
         add(p);

         pack();
         setVisible(true);
     }

     public static void main(String[] args) {
         EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
             public void run() {
                 new test();
             }
         });
     }
}

--

Knute Johnson