Phil Herold

In this month's article I introduce TableLayout, a robust but easy-to-use LayoutManager for use in any Java Swing application. It's based very loosely on the HTML TABLE paradigm, where components are placed in table cells in row-major order. Vertical and horizontal alignment for the component in a cell can be specified, and a component (cell) may span rows and columns. I also present Forms-Panel, a JPanel sub-class that abstracts the underlying TableLayout. This article assumes you have some familiarity with the design and use of LayoutManagers in Swing. Background I have been doing Java Swing applications for many years, and I've never been comfortable using a GUI designer tool, both for the verbose and often horrible Java code they produce and the lack of support for ... (more)

ArrayListModel with Swing's JList and JComboBox

This article presents a data model based on a Collection implementation that can be used with Swing components JList and JComboBox. It also discusses a method to use these same concepts in constructing the user interface of an application. Overview Java Collections are indispensable for building any application, whether GUI or non-GUI. And the ArrayList class is a heavyweight in the java.... (more)

FrameResizer

This article presents a Java/Swing component implementation of a feature that is ubiquitous in nearly all desktop applications, particularly Windows applications - an area in the lower right portion of a window (Frame) that can be used to resize the window. Of course, a window can be re-sized with most desktop managers by dragging the lower-right edge - the additional component simply ser... (more)

List-Based UI Framework For Your Swing Applications

In this month's article I continue my discussion of a list-based UI framework that I started last month ("ArrayListModel," [JDJ, Vol. 10, issue 10]). The primary concept behind this idea is a data model that contains elements that describe parts of an application's user interface. Through a single model, various aspects of the user interface can be controlled, manipulated, and visually s... (more)