Technically it is possible to simulate a mouse event. But I am not sure
it is a particularly good idea (more on that later). You can do what you
are trying to do by abusing the processMouseEvent ()
in Container. Here is some psuedo-code:

public class BadIdea extends JButton {

  public BadIdea () {

     // some code

  }

  public void simulateMouseClick () {
  
    MouseEvent event = new MouseEvent (this, MouseEvent.MOUSE_CLICKED, 
                                System.currentTimeMillis (), 0, 0, 0, 1, false);
   // the first 2 params would be as here, you figure out the rest
   
     processMouseEvent (event);

  }
}

calling simulateMouseClick should simulate a MOUSE_CLICK, a similar function could be
developed to simulate a MOUSE_PRESSED, etc.




Having said all this, I don't think you should write such code. My
primary argument is that I believe processMouseEvent () is
a protected method as a side-effect not by design (the JFC/AWT
designers has no choice but to make this routine protected).
If this is so, the routine can change/disappear without notice in a future
release.



A further reason is that mouse events are quite complex. You usually
don't just have a MOUSE_CLICK event. There would be a
MOUSE_PRESS, a MOUSE_RELEASE, and a MOUSE_CLICK for a single click (not to mention mouse motion events).




My suggestion would be to design your app so that you can use a more
robust mechanism. For example, you mention "hyperlink clicks". You
may want to look into The JTextPane class. It has a rich
set of features for supporting text and has built-in support for
hyperlinks.




Hope this is of some help.