Use a Hyperlink to Invoke a Dialog in JEditorPane
R. Kevin ColeMarch 03, 2004

I once wrote an HTML custom-tag editor that required that a dialog box pop-up in response to a click on one of the hyperlinks. I developed the following technique to accomplish that task:

The technique can be summarized in the following steps:

1. Attach a HyperlinkListener to your JEditorPane.

2. In the hyperlinkUpdate event handler, look for a custom dialog protocol.

3. Invoke the dialog using a link that looks like this:
   <a href="dialog://something.com">Popup Dialog</a>

Then, in the HyperlinkListener, look for the "dialog" string in the HyperlinkEvent's description like this:

public void hyperlinkUpdate(HyperlinkEvent event) 
{
    if (event.getEventType() == HyperlinkEvent.EventType.ACTIVATED) 
    {
        /* Process our custom dialog hyperlinks */
        if( (event.getDescription() != null)
          && event.getDescription().substring(0,6).equals("dialog") )
        {
           ... popup a dialog ...
        }
        else
        {
            /* Process all other hyperlinks */
            try 
            {
                htmlPane.setPage(event.getURL());
            } catch(IOException ioe) 
            {
               // Some warning to user
            }
        }
    }
}
    .
    .
    .