I need a new way to create the graphical user interface of my application. I don't want to use Swing. I'm looking for something that looks a little different. Can you recommend me some other way of creating it, please?
Why not JavaFX ?
It is supposed to be replacing Swing as the standard Java GUI builder, so it would be a good option as it will be getting regular updates from Oracle itself. Additionally, being an officially sanctioned kit, it has plenty of tutorials, guides, and a decent (and growing) userbase that you can use for help.
And it uses CSS, which is good to learn as it can be useful in other applications. (Webdesign, etc.)
Finally, JavaFX is included with Java 8, so you don't even have to worry about installing a separate package! (Although adding a package is really not difficult if you prefer Java 7 or below.)
If your complaint with Swing is how it looks, note that you can change the look and feel of a Swing application very easily, or even write your own if you really wanted.
To get a look and feel that matches other applications on your system, you call:
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
At the beginning of your program.
The default L&F, called Metal, also has a couple themes you can choose from (or you can create your own):
MetalLookAndFeel.setCurrentTheme(new DefaultMetalTheme());
Yes, javafx could be the way for you.
You can create Views using FXML files instead of coding everything in java.
The learning curve is not too hard in my view (and I am far from being a guru).
The tool Javafx Scene Builder is here to help you create your views or controls in FXML and integrates nicely with netbeans, and I suppose also with eclipse.
You can adapt the look of your controls using css.
I would suggest to start here to see if it would fit your need:
http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/overview/jfxpub-overview.htm
Related
Okay, i am officially scared to ask this question. I am a PHP developer that is attempting to learn the language of JAVA. My experience limits me to PHP, JavaScript and basic CSS to develop and style my web apps.
I would like to know, and this is embarrassing, What technology is used to "Style" JAVA Applications just like CSS is used to "Style" HTML & PHP applications?
I feel so stupid asking this! Please don't think i am an idiot, i am really good with PHP.
I tried to google the answer but gained more questions than answers.
Web Application using Java:
Frontend is same i.e. HTML/Javascript/CSS
Backend Java (from where data you will get, connect with DB etc etc) similar to role of PHP
Desktop Application:
you can use Java Swing for UI and other API for respective work.
Mobile Application:
use J2ME API for developing application
UI here is developed using JAVA API(only api that are allowed to use under KVM (kilobyte virtual machine)).
For better look and feel there are frameworks for it.
What about JavaFX? As far as I know there are similarities to CSS. However, most of the Java applications are designed to match the system's look-and-feel. That's why tweaking is not as important as to web pages. If you want to start with that, have a look at Swing components. Be aware that JavaFX will be included in Java 8. So JavaFX may be seen as the next gen GUI.
Basically U use JSP/JSF/HTML for front end . There too you can use your CSS skills .. That is CSS can be used for styling ...
Assuming you are doing a desktop application, not internet application - as otherwise PHP and especially HTML/CSS would suffice.
Java Swing is a cross-platform emulation of GUI components. It has so called Look and Feels, one of which is the System L&F, which under Windows tries to look as the Windows GUI. Another is really cross-platform looking: the Nimbus L&F. And there are other Look-and-Feels, even from third parties.
Start with System or Nimbus Look and Feel.
Besides that one might set default colors/fonts for specific type of things. One may query them with SystemColor.activeCaptionText or so. Nice for White on Black.
Inside Swing one uses layouts to do the layouting. Generally not pixel perfect, but with really cross-platform, with consideration for different buttons, menues and such.
Use a GUI editor; I am always advocating the NetBeans IDE, also for its simplicity. Though eclipse is very nice too.
Use separate classes, do not pack all in a GUI class, as that becomes a maintenance mess.
The text components: JLabel, tooltip, and so on, have HTML capabilities: "<html><b>Bold</b><i>Italics</i>".
I'm a .net developer and I am studying Swing for Java and I have a question.
Is there any way to build the form controls by dragging and drop like a simple .net windows application project or WPF project?
I am using eclipse and it seems that everybody works with controls by adding positioning and width, height by code, I find that a pain in the a**.
Yes! Take a look at Window Builder for Eclipse (install it from the update site). Netbeans has also a built-in editor, if you prefer that IDE.
You need to install a plugin to do that.
In Eclipse you can try WindowBuilder.
In Netbeans this ability comes within the standard package.
Java's Swing framework tries to address a broad set of platforms, and it does this by separating out look-and-feel concerns, layout concerns, etc. The most painful part of setting up a form is the layout, and that is driven by the LayoutManagers.
There are various LayoutManager implementations built to be used in conjunction with form designer tooling. I've personally had good results with IntelliJ's designer. See some screen shots and feature listings here.
I would personally not recommend using any Drag and Drop builders. In some IDEs the generated code is not editable. Some IDEs allow you to edit the code, but the bottom line is no matter what IDE you use the generated code is very difficult to maintain. After a while you will find it difficult to work with it yourself.
Instead, since you are just starting out, I would recommend using a good layout manager right away. While we are on that, give the jdk's layout managers a wide berth. They are horrible and that's what causes most people to go in for the drag and drop solution. Instead try the Jgoodies Form Layout. Its very easy to understand and use. The link is here:
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/formsdemo/index.html
After you have understood that, try to give this builder I wrote a shot. It makes life even more simple:
http://code.google.com/p/swingobjects/source/browse/SwingObjects/src/org/aesthete/swingobjects/view/SwingObjFormBuilder.java
I cannot find one online and I am surprised there isn't one... but is there an online Java GUI Layoutmanager at least?
WindowBuilder for Eclipse is phenomenal. One of the things that awesome about it is that you can hand modify its' generated code and it will pick that up without a problem.
What do you mean by an online GUI builder? If you want one that's a webapp, it's not likely you're going to find one.
If you're looking for a GUI to build a GUI, I would recommend the Netbeans IDE. I forget where it is exactly in the IDE, but you can basically just do file->new->java-gui (or something of the sort) and you will get a very nice interface for constructing swing gui's.
Thanks for your answers to my previous question about GUI in java. I now wonder what are the solutions chosen by professionals to get a nice GUI, for "real" applications. Do you use swing and JComponents and just change the "look and feel" ? Do you prefer awt or another library ?
Sorry if that question sounds weird, I'm a student and I don't really know how java is used in the real world...
In our company we use Swing, as that is supported by the JVM out of the box, but we do use color coded background colors for some panels and buttons.
If we'd use something different, like SWT or Jambi we'd also have to roll out those frameworks for all platforms, and test those frameworks for all OSses and (supported) java versions. Not nice at all.
It is however fairly tricky to create a nice responsive application with Swing; so you really need to use SwingWorker and the like. With a bit of experience however you can create a nice application that way.
And even if it isn't the fastest framework to develop in, development time is really small compared to defining the functional requirements of the user interface, and testing and support when the version is released.
That said, our target is desktops. If you target mobile devices or also need a web frontend your choices may vary.
I don't believe anyone prefers AWT anymore. Swing supplanted it entirely eleven years ago, building on top of it to correct flaws in the AWT 1.0 design.
Swing isn't the only way that professionals make Java UIs. That works for desktops, but there's also JavaFX now. For the web, UIs are built using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JSPs.
My experience is that most organizations that want to create rich GUIs still use Swing, and manually go through all the annoyances of layout managers, etc.
The use of SWT is fairly limited to organizations that are using the Eclipse RCP as their platform. I'm not sure why it hasn't caught on outside this platform.
It's sad to admit, but Java Swing GUIs don't generally look good unless you spend a lot of time creating a more native feel for them. Even then, they often lose out on aesthetics to equivalent programs written specifically for Windows and which use Window APIs like WinForms.
The most decent Apps I saw in the last years were build using Eclipse Rich Client Platform
Eclipse uses the Standard Widget Toolkit
and provides Graphical Editing Framework (GEF)
We typically use Swing becuse it's supported in standard JREs out of the box. Normally we do the initial form design and event hookup in Netbeans and then export it to whatever we wish, Eclipse, for example.
Netbeans spits out pure Java using standard libraries (plus a jar or two you have to include) so it's no big deal designing the form in Netbeans and later moving on to something else.
Some people suggested doing form layout by hand using a layout manager. I see that as an option only if you are doing something big and very well budgeted that has to be maintained ad infinitum. Otherwise it's just too time consuming to be worth it.
We rely on SWT for our Java GUIs. Yes, you have to include an external native library, but the look and feel is native, more responsive (although Swing has become much faster in the past few years) and seamless with other apps on the target platform.
Macintosh OS X creates their own Java runtime. They give Swing components the same look and feel as native applications.
I use strictly Swing. I distribute "real" desktop applications via Web Start for both Mac and Windows that interface with the user's smart card reader.
The NetBeans IDE gives you a WYSIWYG way to create your forms. I've tried it out, and it's pretty neat, but we still use Eclipse as our IDE and design the forms in code.
I need to create a GUI application in Java. I just realized that I have different optional ways to go (SWT and Swing are among them).
I have already found out that there is a lot of discussions about what way is better and I do not want to go to deep into these discussions (I am a newbie).
I do not care about all aspects of the dilemma. I just have a few main requirements listed bellow:
It should be easy to use (easy to create what I want).
In the end I would like to have just one file which can be easily executed (without any additional tricks, settings and installations) like a standalone application.
It should be platform independent. Or more specifically, the application should work fine on Microsoft-Windows and Ubuntu (Linux).
Based on your requirements, I would say Swing. SWT has a more platform-specific look about it but Java ships with Swing built-in, there's no messing about with external libraries as with SWT although the use of Eclipse may make that much easier (I still develop quite a bit of my stuff from the command line unfortunately).
They're both easy in terms of use (well, easy once you get used to layout managers) and will work fine under both your desired platforms but since the only differentiator you seem to care about is the "without any additional tricks, settings and installations", I would stick with Swing.
That's my advice. Feel free to accept or ignore or even call me an old coot. I won't take offence :-)
I just completed a two year project creating a buisiness application, so my focus was clearly on usability and speed.
My decision in the end clearly led to SWT, for the following reasons:
Buisiness users tend to use Terminal Servers and RDP for their apps. Every Swing app is very slow over RDP, because the app has to render every pixel again and again. Try using Photoshop or Gimp over RDP and start scrolling in an image. That is the performance you have with Swing in tables.
Some very good gui components are only available as COM objects. I wanted to be able to use those, and since 100% of all buisiness customers are Windows users, they accept the fact that your software only runs on Windows. (We have linux clients, too, but only for machine input terminals, that don't need the full blown Windows GUIs)
We use SWTDesigner as a GUI designer, which is as good as SwingDesigner für Swing (which both are the best GUI designers at all). They are worth the price tag if you have to create a few hundred masks.
Our GUI looks 100% native, honors the large fonts they use on their desktops, and feels fast.
We are very satisfied with SWT, but it has some downsides:
Native Java components are a bit rare. There is more on the Swing side of life.
I would suggest that you use Java's Swing libraries if you are not familiar with Java GUI development. They are very well documented, and there are lots of tutorials on-line, including on Sun's Java website (here).
GUI development in Java is not very straightforward, but the tools available are getting better all the time. I would suggest you try out the NetBeans IDE that has a nice visual designer for GUI components. I have not used the Eclipse IDE's GUI designer, but I gather its good as well. You will need to get your head around the MVC pattern, but it should be a good learning experience.
In short, my vote goes for using Swing/JFC, especially if you are new to Java GUI development.
EDIT - You can control the look and feel of a Java APP very easily. If you use the platform independent (Metal) look and feel, your GUI will look pretty much identical on Windows and on Linux. Of course, a Java app will run just fine on Windows of *nux as long as there is a supported JVM installed.
I cannot add comment yet because I'm new here (please mod me up so I can comment) but choosing Swing or SWT depends on the IDE you're using.
If you're using Eclipse, then both are fine.
If you're using the free IntelliJ IDEA community edition, you'll prefer to use Swing because the IDE's GUI editor is "Swing only".
I take it you're using Eclipse?
Based on your requirements, I recommend using Swing:
SWT requires additional native libraries (violates item #2),
You are likely to find more instructional material on Swing (since you are a newbie),
Both solutions are somewhat platform independent and supported on both platform you mentioned but SWT is not equally supported on all platforms,
There are more WYSIWYG tools supporting Swing which may help with the learning curve.
Note that the APIs are similar and sometimes identical so learning one gives you a head start on the other.
I find Netbeans' drag and drop visual editor and pre-wired Swing Desktop Application template much easier to use that what comes bundled with Eclipse, so I'd suggest that.
It'll automatically create an executable jar, and let you create a Java Web Start launcher if you wish as well. And being Java, it's OS-independent.
Here's a link to the quickstart tutorials.
Swing,
SWT works on Ubuntu but not nearly as well as on Windows, that's at least my experience. The main reason to choose SWT is if you want to build your application on the Eclipse RCP framework( where you get a dockable views/editors, plugin mechanism, automatic updates, user roles. help browser, preference mechanism etc) or if you want your application to have that polished native look.
From my experience, if you want easy to develop Swing is the way to go. If you need good performance, then SWT is a better bet.
NOTE: The last time I did GUI development in Java was 4 years ago.