JSlider rendering with custom LabelTable

Question

I want to use a JSlider to browse some chronological events, so I set a custom LabelTable so that it displays some Dates instead of the default integer values. My code goes like this:

JSlider slider = new JSlider();
...
Date[] dates = getDates();
        slider.setModel(new DefaultBoundedRangeModel(0, 0, 0, dates.length - 1));
        Hashtable<Integer, JLabel> ht = new Hashtable<Integer, JLabel>();
        for (int i = 0; i < dates.length; ++i) {
            JLabel label = new JLabel(DateFormat.getDateInstance().format(dates[i]));
            ht.put(i, label);
        }
        slider.setLabelTable(ht);
        slider.setPaintLabels(true);
        slider.setInverted(true);

This works fine, as you can see:

However, if I want to change the orientation of the slider, say slider.setOrientation(JSlider.HORIZONTAL);, here is the result:

What if I want to, say, display one date above/one date below the slider on every other date? Also, can I display the labels to the left of the slider on the Vertical slider?

Regards, Remi

Answer 1

Changing the labels side (simply apply RTL orientation):

public static void main ( String[] args )
{
    try
    {
        UIManager.setLookAndFeel ( new NimbusLookAndFeel () );
    }
    catch ( UnsupportedLookAndFeelException e )
    {
        e.printStackTrace ();
    }


    JFrame frame = new JFrame ();

    JSlider slider = new JSlider ( SwingConstants.VERTICAL );
    slider.setPaintLabels ( true );
    slider.setComponentOrientation ( ComponentOrientation.RIGHT_TO_LEFT );

    Hashtable<Integer, JLabel> table = new Hashtable<Integer, JLabel> ();
    table.put ( 0, new JLabel ( "May 2, 2000" ) );
    table.put ( 25, new JLabel ( "May 3, 2001" ) );
    table.put ( 50, new JLabel ( "May 4, 2002" ) );
    table.put ( 75, new JLabel ( "May 5, 2003" ) );
    table.put ( 100, new JLabel ( "May 6, 2004" ) );
    slider.setLabelTable ( table );

    frame.add ( slider );

    frame.pack ();
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo ( null );
    frame.setVisible ( true );
}

Result:

To vary labels placement you will have to modify them manually. This can be done for example this way:

public static void main ( String[] args )
{
    try
    {
        UIManager.setLookAndFeel ( new NimbusLookAndFeel () );
    }
    catch ( UnsupportedLookAndFeelException e )
    {
        e.printStackTrace ();
    }


    JFrame frame = new JFrame ();
    frame.getRootPane ().setBorder ( BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder ( 5, 5, 5, 5 ) );

    JSlider slider = new JSlider ( SwingConstants.HORIZONTAL );
    slider.setPaintLabels ( true );

    Hashtable<Integer, JLabel> table = new Hashtable<Integer, JLabel> ();
    table.put ( 0, new JLabel ( "May 2, 2000" ) );
    JLabel l2 = new JLabel ( "May 3, 2001" );
    l2.setBorder ( BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder ( 20, 0, 0, 0 ) );
    table.put ( 25, l2 );
    table.put ( 50, new JLabel ( "May 4, 2002" ) );
    JLabel l3 = new JLabel ( "May 5, 2003" );
    l3.setBorder ( BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder ( 20, 0, 0, 0 ) );
    table.put ( 75, l3 );
    table.put ( 100, new JLabel ( "May 6, 2004" ) );
    slider.setLabelTable ( table );

    frame.add ( slider );

    frame.pack ();
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo ( null );
    frame.setVisible ( true );
}

Result:

Ofcourse you could improve that code and add the border according to previous label preferred height (taken from preferred size) in your labels creation cycle each even run.