Yesterday I thought see what I could find on "Closable Tabs in
JTabbedPane". Our own framework library at work did not have anything
useful and neither our COTS libraries. A quick search of the group was
equally unhelpful. At any rate here is a long overdue contribution
that I threw together as a quick investigation of how this could be
done; although, there is likely a more elegant solution out there
still. I have tried to capture the platform look and feel without too
many dependencies on the UI classes. I have found, in general, that
however much fun it can be (NOT) playing with custom UI classes or UI
hacks are often broken with new releases of the JDK.

import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import javax.swing.Icon;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;
import javax.swing.UIManager;

/**
* A closeable tabbed pane icon.
* @author Dan Andrews          www.dotjava.ca
*/
public class TabbedPaneCloseIcon
   extends MouseAdapter
   implements Icon
{

   private static final int INSET = 2;
   private static final JButton BORDER_WORKER = new JButton();
   /** The UI's close icon */
   private Icon _closeIcon = UIManager.getIcon(
       "InternalFrame.closeIcon" );

   /** The tab that this icon is used in */
   private JTabbedPane _parentTabbedPane;

   /** The JComponent tab to be closed if required */
   private JComponent _tabbedComponent;

   /** This icons bounds in the JTabbedPane object */
   private Rectangle _bounds = new Rectangle();

   /**
    * Constructor.
    * @param parentTabbedPane
    * @param tabbedComponent
    */
   public TabbedPaneCloseIcon( JTabbedPane parentTabbedPane,
           JComponent tabbedComponent )
   {

       _parentTabbedPane = parentTabbedPane;
       _tabbedComponent = tabbedComponent;

       parentTabbedPane.addMouseListener( this );
   }

   /**
    * Gets the close icon's height.
    * @return the height
    */
   public int getIconHeight()
   {
       return _closeIcon.getIconHeight();
   }

   /**
    * Gets the close icon's width.
    * @return the width
    */
   public int getIconWidth()
   {
       return _closeIcon.getIconWidth();
   }

   /**
    * Mouse clicked check to close tab if required.
    * @param e IN the MouseEvent object.
    */
   public void mouseClicked( MouseEvent e )
   {

       if( _bounds.contains( e.getX(), e.getY() ) )
       {
           _parentTabbedPane.remove( _tabbedComponent );
       }
   }

   /**
    * Paints the icon using the platform InternalFrame.closeIcon.
    * Note this assumes it is in a button and paints relative to
    * x = 0, and y = 0.
    * @param c IN not used
    * @param g IN the Graphics object
    * @param x IN the x bounds location and used for translation
    * @param y IN the y bounds location and used for translation
    */
   public void paintIcon( Component c, Graphics g, int x, int y )
   {

       _bounds.width = getIconWidth();
       _bounds.height = getIconHeight() - INSET;
       _bounds.x = x;
       _bounds.y = y + INSET;

       BORDER_WORKER.getBorder().paintBorder(
               BORDER_WORKER, g, _bounds.x,
               _bounds.y, _bounds.width, _bounds.height );
       g.translate( x - 1, _bounds.y );
       _closeIcon.paintIcon( BORDER_WORKER, g, 0, 0 );
       g.translate( -( x - 1 ), -_bounds.y );
   }
}

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;
import javax.swing.UIManager;

/**
* FrmTest
*/
public class FrmTest
   extends JFrame
{

   private JPanel _pnlMain = new JPanel();
   private BorderLayout _borderLayout1 = new BorderLayout();
   private JTabbedPane jTabbedPane1 = new JTabbedPane();
   private JPanel jPanel1 = new JPanel();
   private JPanel jPanel2 = new JPanel();
   private JPanel jPanel3 = new JPanel();
   private JPanel jPanel4 = new JPanel();
   private JPanel jPanel5 = new JPanel();

   /**
    * Constructor
    */
   public FrmTest()
   {

       try
       {
           jbInit();
           setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
           jTabbedPane1.insertTab( "jPanel1",
                   new TabbedPaneCloseIcon( jTabbedPane1, jPanel1 ),
                   jPanel1, null, 0 );
           jTabbedPane1.insertTab( "jPanel2",
                   new TabbedPaneCloseIcon( jTabbedPane1, jPanel2 ),
                   jPanel2, null, 1 );
           jTabbedPane1.insertTab( "jPanel3",
                   new TabbedPaneCloseIcon( jTabbedPane1, jPanel3 ),
                   jPanel3, null, 2 );
           jTabbedPane1.insertTab( "jPanel4",
                   new TabbedPaneCloseIcon( jTabbedPane1, jPanel4 ),
                   jPanel4, null, 3 );
           jTabbedPane1.insertTab( "jPanel5",
                   new TabbedPaneCloseIcon( jTabbedPane1, jPanel5 ),
                   jPanel5, null, 4 );
       }
       catch( Exception e )
       {
           e.printStackTrace();
       }
   }

   /**
    * JBuilder initialization
    * @throws Exception
    */
   private void jbInit()
       throws Exception
   {

       _pnlMain.setLayout( _borderLayout1 );
       this.getContentPane().add( _pnlMain, BorderLayout.CENTER );
       _pnlMain.add( jTabbedPane1, BorderLayout.CENTER );
   }

   /**
    * Main method
    * @param args IN not used
    */
   public static void main( String[] args )
   {

       try
       {
           UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
               "javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel" );
           createShowFrame( "Metal", 100, 100 );
           UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
               "com.sun.java.swing.plaf.motif.MotifLookAndFeel" );
           createShowFrame( "Motif", 120, 200 );
           UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
             "com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel");
           createShowFrame( "Windows", 140, 300 );
       }
       catch( Exception e )
       {
           e.printStackTrace();
       }
   }

   /**
    * Shows the frame with the given title
    */
   private static void createShowFrame( String title, int x, int y )
   {

       FrmTest frame = new FrmTest();
       Dimension screenSize =
           Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
       Dimension frameSize = frame.getSize();

       frameSize.height = 400;
       frameSize.width = 400;

       frame.setTitle( title );
       frame.setSize( frameSize );
       frame.setLocation( x, y );
       frame.setVisible( true );
   }
}

-----Original Message-----

From: lamba (lambavinod@yahoo.co.in)
Subject: Closable tab in JTabbedPane
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Date: 2003-04-11 03:28:48 PST

I trying to develop a Closable Tab in JTabbedPane. The close button
should appear after/before the tab title all the time (like in
JBuilder IDE).
   I know the trick where close button appears when the mouse is in
that area, but i want it to be displayed all the time irrespective of
the mouse position.

  How i should be able to create this component??

  I am very new to swing please help...