Which Swing Component to use?

Question

I am a newbie to Java and GUI programming. I have the following question.

In my GUI, I have a JTextField with a JLabel which reads "Radius". Now I want to put an icon next to the JTextField with a question mark which on clicked explains in details what the JLabel means. For instance, in this case, it should pop up a message explaining "The radius of the circle to be drawn on the image". The message should disapper when the mouse is moved Below is a pictorial description of what I am trying to implement.

My question is very basic. I want to know which Swing Component can I use to implement this? I tried looking it up on the web but I did not know which component to look for. Any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You can do it very easily. All you need to do is just use a JLabel and place no text on it. Rather, place an image on it

This code let's you set the Image to the JLabel

import java.awt.FlowLayout;

import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;

public class AddingIconJLabel {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
    JFrame frame = new JFrame();
    frame.setTitle("JLabel Test");
    frame.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

    ImageIcon imageIcon = new ImageIcon("yourFile.gif");
    JLabel label = new JLabel(imageIcon);

    frame.add(label);
    frame.pack();
    frame.setVisible(true);
  }
}

Secondly, Place the ToolTip on the JLabel to make your text appear on when you over on the Image

Here'e the helpful code hint for that

JLabel label = new JLabel("Username");
label.setToolTipText("Enter your username");