I have a Node.Property. I want to control its appearance or custom editor somehow. What options are available?

Apache NetBeans Wiki Index

Note: These pages are being reviewed.

NetBeans built-in property editors support a number of "hints" which will affect how the property editor behaves. A few are global to all property editors; the rest are specific to property editors for specific types.

propertyViewCustomization

Note that all of these are hints - a property editor is free to ignore them or not support them in the future. However all of these have been present since NetBeans 3.6 and are should still work as of NetBeans 6.9.

Property Type Hint Name Value Type Effect

Any

suppressCustomEditor

java.lang.Boolean

Causes the property not to show a […​] button in the property sheet

Any

valueIcon

javax.swing.Icon

Causes the property not to show an icon beside the value (should be 16x16 or smaller) when not in edit mode

Most editors (string, etc.)

htmlDisplayValue

java.lang.String

An HTML-ized string which should be rendered using HTML rendering, not literally. The subset of HTML supported by org.openide.awt.HtmlRenderer is supported. Generally the value should be a formatted variant of the actual value - otherwise when the user edits the value, it will suddenly seem to have changed.

All property editors

nameIcon

java.awt.Image or javax.swing.Icon

An icon which should be displayed next to the property name in the property sheet (16x16 or smaller)

All property editors

helpID

java.lang.String

A JavaHelp help ID to provide custom help for this property’s custom editor (not when the property sheet has focus)

All property editors

postSetAction

javax.swing.Action

An action which should be invoked after the property sheet has updated the property’s value from the property editor (not very useful unless you need access to the TableCellEditor - not sure what this was used for)

java.lang.String and editors which show a combo box

initialEditValue

java.lang.String

A string which should be the initial value when the user starts editing, even if the actual property value is null

Most editors (string, etc.)

htmlDisplayValue

java.lang.String

An HTML-ized string which should be rendered using HTML rendering. Has effect only when a cell in the property sheet or tree table or outline is not in edit mode.

Any editor that shows a combo box in the property sheet

canEditAsText

java.lang.Boolean

Causes the combo box to be editable by text entry

java.io.File and java.io.File[]

See the separate FAQ entry for File properties

java.lang.String[] (array of strings)

item.separator

java.lang.String

The delimiter for splitting a user entered string into an array (the default is a , character)

java.lang.Integer

stringKeys

java.lang.String[] (array of strings)

Keys - allows an integer editor to show a combo box with strings, instead of a text editor. If this property is used, the additional hint intValues; for custom code generation in the form editor, optionally codeValues may also be set.

java.lang.Integer

intValues

int[] (not `java.lang.Integer` - array of ints)

The values that map to the strings passed in the stringKeys hint

java.lang.Integer

codeValues

java.lang.String[] (array of strings)

The value that should be returned by the property editor’s getJavaInitializationString() method if the corresponding value is selected

java.lang.Boolean

stringValues

java.lang.String[] (array of strings)

Alternate names to show instead of true and false (note, this will result in a radio-button boolean editor instead of a checkbox; to use radio buttons in all boolean editors, set the system property netbeans.ps.forceRadioButtons to true)

java.lang.String

instructions

java.lang.String

Localized instructions to the user which should be visible above the text field/area in the custom editor

java.lang.String

oneline

java.lang.Boolean

Instruct the custom editor to use a single-line JTextField instead of a mult-line JTextArea

java.awt.Image

images

java.awt.Image[]

An array of images the user can select from

java.awt.Image

values

java.lang.String[]

Names for the images passed in the images hint

java.awt.Image

descriptions

java.lang.String[]

An array of descriptions corresponding to the array of images passed in the images hint

java.lang.Object (yes, you can have a property of Object and there is an editor for it - the user can select from all objects of a type in the default Lookup or a specific lookup [see below] using a combo box)

superClass

java.lang.Class

The superclass, passed to Lookup.getDefault().lookupAll() to find all possible values

java.lang.Object

nullValue

java.lang.Object (must be of the same type as the type passed in the superClass hint)

The value the editor should show if the property initially has a value of null

java.lang.Object

lookup