You do not directly set the Node that is displayed by an Explorer view component (Swing components that display Nodes ) by calling a method on that component. Rather, you set that kind of information by finding the manager for that component - it’s what is in charge of what node is displayed, selected, etc.

The manager may be explicitly set on an Explorer view, but usually this is not necessary. When you add a view component (such as a BeanTreeView ) to a Swing container, it will search backward through its parent, it’s parent’s parent, and so forth, looking for a component that implements ExplorerManager.Provider (an interface with one method - getExplorerManager()). That ExplorerManager is what will determine what is displayed.

While this may seem like an unnecessary layer of indirection, it is actually quite powerful: It makes it possible to very simply create master-detail views ala Windows Explorer: Just add two views to a JPanel subclass that implements ExplorerManager.Provider . It is very easy to set it up so changing the selection in one causes the other one to show the children of the selected object - just the way selecting a folder in Windows Explorer does.

See also the ExplorerManager javadoc . The FAQ about showing explorer views in the main window includes sample usage of ExplorerManager.