I'm currently working on a client-server project where the client sends a request to the server and the server runs a database statement based on the information from the client. As there's no static length for the output I add all the data to a ArrayList<String> and send it back to the client.
The data that the client requests has a certain hierarchy so that one could also display it using an XML file (however the output to a GUI is wanted here instead of file creation). There's several ways of displaying I came up with. One would be using a simple text area, however using this, I need to do applying the layout myself and the option of folding where I can expand and collapse certain items is not possible.
Another possibility of course would be using a simple JList, however I read on Stackoverflow that using a JList to display hierarchical things is way easier done using a JTree.
When I decided trying to implement JTree I also found the Genealogy.java file provided by Oracle in their documentation of JTree. As to be seen in the first examples of this documentation there is always a filestructure being displayed and hence also a filestructure kind of representation (using folder- and file-symbols) is shown. In contrast to this Genealogy.java only shows the names of the persons so I tried to adapt the implementation from Genealogy.java to my case however I'm completely clueless of how to do this as I don't even know where these symbols come from and where I could possibly disable them and also don't really get what some of the methods I need to implement do.
As I'm currently really clueless of how to possibly accomplish that I really need some detailed help (only telling me to come up with my own implementation of JTree or TreeNode doesn't really help me at this point). Is there any simpler way or is the need to implement any of the before mentioned interfaces inevitable and if so, how would it be done?
EDIT:
This is how it currently would be displayed (example taken from the Oracle documentation, showing folder- and file-symbols in front of the string):
And this is how I want it to be displayed (also from the documentation, this time only displaying a string as node):
The answer almost certainly will be found via the (icon of the) TreeCellRenderer used for the tree nodes. See the File Browser GUI for tips. It shows how to set the icons in the FileTreeCellRenderer. Admittedly the point here is almost exactly opposite what it was there, but it still comes down to the same thing - the icons.
The section of the tutorial that covers it is How to Use Trees: Customizing a Tree's Display.