I have a JList that I need to implement that requires a custom renderer, but when it is used the JList "loses" its ability to do selections when the user types what they want to select. The reason for the renderer is that I need to store HashMaps in the JList and need to display a "user-friendly" name in the list. If there were only a small number of items to display, I wouldn't worry too much about this, but there will be around 200 - 300 items in the list and giving the user the ability to "type and find" is desired. So far everything else for the JList is working as expected except this.
Seems to be all the same on 1.5.0_03 and 1.4.2_08 (home pc's)
perhaps the problem is that you've set a preferredSize for the JList instead of for the scrollpane - so the selections (if outside the view) do not show.
Thanks Michael! That was part of my problem (sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees!!) I also found out that in my HashFill class, the toString() method wasn't always working properly. I removed the name variable and made the toString() method return get("name") and it started working just fine.