Based on ListDemo sample from SUN.
If you enter some text in the textfield which isn't in the list and you hit highlight it gets added.
If the text is in the list and you hit highlight the entry in the list gets temporarily highlighted blue.
Note the solution here with the match field is just for demo. For more correct implementation consider the other ideas proposed and consider using javax.swing.Timer
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
public class ListDemo extends JPanel {
private JList list;
private DefaultListModel listModel;
public String match = null;
private static final String hireString = "Highlight";
private JTextField employeeName;
public ListDemo() {
super(new BorderLayout());
listModel = new DefaultListModel();
listModel.addElement("Test1");
listModel.addElement("Test2");
listModel.addElement("Test3");
list = new JList(listModel);
list.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
list.setSelectedIndex(0);
list.setVisibleRowCount(5);
list.setCellRenderer(new MyListCellRenderer());
JScrollPane listScrollPane = new JScrollPane(list);
JButton hireButton = new JButton(hireString);
HireListener hireListener = new HireListener(hireButton);
hireButton.setActionCommand(hireString);
hireButton.addActionListener(hireListener);
hireButton.setEnabled(false);
employeeName = new JTextField(10);
employeeName.addActionListener(hireListener);
employeeName.getDocument().addDocumentListener(hireListener);
listModel.getElementAt(list.getSelectedIndex()).toString();
JPanel buttonPane = new JPanel();
buttonPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(buttonPane,
BoxLayout.LINE_AXIS));
buttonPane.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(5));
buttonPane.add(employeeName);
buttonPane.add(hireButton);
buttonPane.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
add(listScrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(buttonPane, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
}
class MyListCellRenderer extends JLabel implements ListCellRenderer {
public MyListCellRenderer() {
setOpaque(true);
}
public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList paramlist, Object value, int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {
setText(value.toString());
if (value.toString().equals(match)) {
setBackground(Color.BLUE);
SwingWorker worker = new SwingWorker() {
@Override
public Object doInBackground() {
try {
Thread.sleep(5000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) { /*Who cares*/ }
return null;
}
@Override
public void done() {
match = null;
list.repaint();
}
};
worker.execute();
} else
setBackground(Color.RED);
return this;
}
}
class HireListener implements ActionListener, DocumentListener {
private boolean alreadyEnabled = false;
private JButton button;
public HireListener(JButton button) {
this.button = button;
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
String name = employeeName.getText();
if (listModel.contains(name)) {
match = name;
list.repaint();
employeeName.requestFocusInWindow();
employeeName.selectAll();
return;
}
if (name.equals("")) {
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep();
employeeName.requestFocusInWindow();
employeeName.selectAll();
return;
}
int index = list.getSelectedIndex();
if (index == -1)
index = 0;
else
index++;
listModel.insertElementAt(employeeName.getText(), index);
employeeName.requestFocusInWindow();
employeeName.setText("");
list.setSelectedIndex(index);
list.ensureIndexIsVisible(index);
}
public void insertUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
enableButton();
}
public void removeUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
handleEmptyTextField(e);
}
public void changedUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
if (!handleEmptyTextField(e))
enableButton();
}
private void enableButton() {
if (!alreadyEnabled)
button.setEnabled(true);
}
private boolean handleEmptyTextField(DocumentEvent e) {
if (e.getDocument().getLength() <= 0) {
button.setEnabled(false);
alreadyEnabled = false;
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
private static void createAndShowGUI() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("ListDemo");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JComponent newContentPane = new ListDemo();
newContentPane.setOpaque(true);
frame.setContentPane(newContentPane);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() { createAndShowGUI(); }
});
}
}