Is there a standard GUI toggle switch in Java?

Question

Is there a standard implementation or library that provides a GUI toggle switch in Swing? I know Swing provides a toggle button, but the UX leaves a bit to be desired. I'm looking for this:

Also, is there a canonical term for this type of control? The Apple HIG refer to it as a UISwitch. I also tried searching for "toggle switch", but I didn't have much luck. (Plenty of JavaScript results, but nothing native.)

Answer 1

You might mimic it by using two icons to represent on & off, then set those to a JToggleButton.

As an aside, users want to see logical and consistent GUIs that represent the 'path of least surprise', it's developers that think users want a 'beautiful, clever' GUI (and that they can design one). Why on earth would they want such a control over a standard toggle-button?

Answer 2

I don't know of a standard one, but Gerrit Grunwald who creates the Steel Series components created an implementation of this that he calls a Steel Checkbox

Answer 3

Guess I am 6 years late, but nevertheless for those who still search for a simple solution:

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.awt.Cursor;

import javax.swing.JPanel;

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class ToggleSwitch extends JPanel {
    private boolean activated = false;
    private Color switchColor = new Color(200, 200, 200), buttonColor = new Color(255, 255, 255), borderColor = new Color(50, 50, 50);
    private Color activeSwitch = new Color(0, 125, 255);
    private BufferedImage puffer;
    private int borderRadius = 10;
    private Graphics2D g;
    public ToggleSwitch() {
        super();
        setVisible(true);
        addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent arg0) {
                activated = !activated;
                repaint();
            }
        });
        setCursor(new Cursor(Cursor.HAND_CURSOR));
        setBounds(0, 0, 41, 21);
    }
    @Override
    public void paint(Graphics gr) {
        if(g == null || puffer.getWidth() != getWidth() || puffer.getHeight() != getHeight()) {
            puffer = (BufferedImage) createImage(getWidth(), getHeight());
            g = (Graphics2D)puffer.getGraphics();
            RenderingHints rh = new RenderingHints(
            RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
            RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
            g.setRenderingHints(rh);
        }
        g.setColor(activated?activeSwitch:switchColor);
        g.fillRoundRect(0, 0, this.getWidth()-1,getHeight()-1, 5, borderRadius);
        g.setColor(borderColor);
        g.drawRoundRect(0, 0, getWidth()-1, getHeight()-1, 5, borderRadius);
        g.setColor(buttonColor);
        if(activated) {
            g.fillRoundRect(getWidth()/2, 1,  (getWidth()-1)/2 -2, (getHeight()-1) - 2,  borderRadius, borderRadius);
            g.setColor(borderColor);
            g.drawRoundRect((getWidth()-1)/2, 0, (getWidth()-1)/2, (getHeight()-1), borderRadius, borderRadius);
        }
        else {
            g.fillRoundRect(1, 1, (getWidth()-1)/2 -2, (getHeight()-1) - 2,  borderRadius, borderRadius);
            g.setColor(borderColor);
            g.drawRoundRect(0, 0, (getWidth()-1)/2, (getHeight()-1), borderRadius, borderRadius);
        }

        gr.drawImage(puffer, 0, 0, null);
    }
    public boolean isActivated() {
        return activated;
    }
    public void setActivated(boolean activated) {
        this.activated = activated;
    }
    public Color getSwitchColor() {
        return switchColor;
    }
    /**
     * Unactivated Background Color of switch
     */
    public void setSwitchColor(Color switchColor) {
        this.switchColor = switchColor;
    }
    public Color getButtonColor() {
        return buttonColor;
    }
    /**
     * Switch-Button color
     */
    public void setButtonColor(Color buttonColor) {
        this.buttonColor = buttonColor;
    }
    public Color getBorderColor() {
        return borderColor;
    }
    /**
     * Border-color of whole switch and switch-button
     */
    public void setBorderColor(Color borderColor) {
        this.borderColor = borderColor;
    }
    public Color getActiveSwitch() {
        return activeSwitch;
    }
    public void setActiveSwitch(Color activeSwitch) {
        this.activeSwitch = activeSwitch;
    }
    /**
     * @return the borderRadius
     */
    public int getBorderRadius() {
        return borderRadius;
    }
    /**
     * @param borderRadius the borderRadius to set
     */
    public void setBorderRadius(int borderRadius) {
        this.borderRadius = borderRadius;
    }

}

Just copy it in a ToggleSwitch.java. You can add it to your JFrame like this:

ToggleSwitch ts = new ToggleSwitch();
ts.setLocation(5, 135);
frame.add(ts);

Answer 4

Swing doesn't have a standard switch like the one you described. Your best bet if you can't find a third party one would be to simply write one. The way I'd approach it would be a simple structure like this:

• JLabel
• Override paintComponent
• Check for state with something like isOn()
• Add a MouseListener to toggle state.
• Custom painting would take into account label values and sizes.

I could send you one that I wrote some time ago, but you probably have a very specific idea of what you want so might be worth the half an hour constructing it.