You could format the tooltip text using HTML, this would allow you to provide a complex structure of information to the tooltip without the need or expense of writing your own solution. The only problem is that the tooltip will be automatically discarded.
If this still doesn't suit, you could try:
import java.awt.Point;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.JPopupMenu;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class TestTable {
private Timer showTimer;
private Timer disposeTimer;
private JTable table;
private Point hintCell;
private MyPopup popup; // Inherites from JPopupMenu
public TestTable() {
showTimer = new Timer(1500, new ShowPopupActionHandler());
showTimer.setRepeats(false);
showTimer.setCoalesce(true);
disposeTimer = new Timer(5000, new DisposePopupActionHandler());
disposeTimer.setRepeats(false);
disposeTimer.setCoalesce(true);
table.addMouseMotionListener(new MouseMotionAdapter() {
@Override
public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {
Point p = e.getPoint();
int row = table.rowAtPoint(p);
int col = table.columnAtPoint(p);
if ((row > -1 && row < table.getRowCount()) && (col > -1 && col < table.getColumnCount())) {
if (hintCell == null || (hintCell.x != col || hintCell.y != row)) {
hintCell = new Point(col, row);
Object value = table.getValueAt(row, col);
// Depending on how the data is stored, you may need to load more data
// here...
// You will probably want to maintain a reference to the object hint data
showTimer.restart();
}
}
}
});
}
protected MyPopup getHintPopup() {
if (popup == null) {
// Construct the popup...
}
return popup;
}
public class ShowPopupActionHandler implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (hintCell != null) {
disposeTimer.stop(); // don't want it going off while we're setting up
MyPopup popup = getHintPopup();
popup.setVisible(false);
// You might want to check that the object hint data is update and valid...
Rectangle bounds = table.getCellRect(hintCell.y, hintCell.x, true);
int x = bounds.x;
int y = bounds.y + bounds.height;
popup.show(table, x, y);
disposeTimer.start();
}
}
}
public class DisposePopupActionHandler implements ActionListener {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
MyPopup popup = getHintPopup();
popup.setVisible(false);
}
}
}
Now, I've not constructed the popup, I'd use the popup menu from Bob Sinclar's answer as well
