Extreme Java G22.3033-007 Session 3 - Sub-Topic 1 Swing Dr. Jean-Claude Franchitti New York University Computer Science Department Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences Java Core Technologies Q JFC Swing 1 What is Swing? Q A GUI toolkit that simplifies and streamlines the development of windowing components (e.g., menus, toolbars, etc.) Q Pluggable look-and-feel design (PL&F) Q Platform specific look and feel with platform independent software Q Swing components never rely on peer code Q Lightweight components Swing and AWT Q Swing extends - but does not replace - the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) Q AWT is a set of OO GUI classes Q Swing extends the Lightweight UI Framework that became part of the Java AWT with the introduction of JDK 1.1 2 Swing is 100% Pure Java and Swing Beans Q Components are 100% pure Java versions of AWT components (e.g., Button, Scrollbar, List, etc.) Q Swing also include new higher-level components written in pure Java (e.g., tree- view, list-box, tabbed-pane components) Q Swing is compatible with the JavaBeans specification Swing and the JFC Library Q The JCF Library includes the Swing component set Q JFC also contains three major APIs: Q Java 2D Q advanced 2D graphics and imaging Q Drag and Drop Q data transfer across Java and native applications, and within a single Java application Q Accessibility API Q e.g., screen magnifiers, and audible text readers 3 Swing Architecture Differences between AWT and Swing Q Swing does not use any platform-specific implementations (such as AWT’s “peers”) Q Swing creates its components using pluggable look-and-feel (PL&F or plaf) Q Swing automatically plugs in the L&F module that matches its platform Q Other L&F modules can also run in a given GUI 4 Differences between AWT and Swing (continued) • L&F can be changed dynamically at runtime • The 3 other JFC APIs can be used in Swing programs in a 1.2/1.3 environment (real integration is planned for a future release) The Three Parts of Swing Q New set of components inheriting from JComponent Q Jcomponent is a descendent form AWT’s Container class Q Jcomponent is the root class of almost all Swing Component classes Q Hierarchy allows Swing components to contain other components (component nesting) 5 The Three Parts of Swing (continued) Q Group of Swing-related support classes Q Vital services to the Swing API Q Not used to create visible Swing components Q New set of Swing-related interfaces implemented by Swing component classes and support classes Swing & IFC Q Best features of AWT and Netscape’s IFC (Internet Foundation Class) library are being integrated Q Some similarity in the default look and feel of Swing and IFC widgets Q Similarities are disappearing since L&Fs give Swing components different looks and feels in different implementations 6 Swing Component Gallery JApplet - Border Interface - JButton - JCheckBox - JCheckBoxMenuItem JColorChooser - JComboBox - ImageIcon - Jdialog - JFileChooser JInternalFrame - Jlabel - JList - JMenu - JMenuBar - JOptionPane Swing Component Gallery (cont.) JPopupMenu - JProgessBar - JRadioButton - JRadioMenuItem - JScrollBar JScrollPane - Jslider - JSplitPane - JTabbedPane - JTable JTextArea - JTextField - JToggleButton - JToolBar - JToolTip - JTree 7 Swing’s Inheritance Hierarchy Swing Component Hierarchy Q More than 250 classes Q More than 75 interfaces for creating lightweight, 100% pure Java GUI components Q More than twice as many components as AWT 8 UI classes and non-UI classes Q All UI-Swing component classes start with “J” and descend from JComponent Q UI classes create visible components (e.g., buttons, menus, etc.) Q Examples of non-UI classes Q events classes, and model classes Differences Between AWT & Swing 9 Differences Between AWT & Swing Q In AWT: CheckBox served as a check-box class and a radio-button class Q In Swing all buttons have three states (pressed, enabled, and selected) Q It is easier to synchronize and coordinate menu events and button events in Swing (a single mouse click can activate or desactivate both a menu item and its toolbar button) JComponent Class 10 Roots in MVC New AWT/Swing Capabilities (J2SE 1.4) Q AWT improvements Q Mouse wheel support Q High-perf. graphics to directly draw on the screen Q Similar to DirectX (Windows) or Sun OpenGL (Solaris) Q Swing Q New formatted input components Q JFormatterTextField, JSpinner Q Seamless drag-and-drop support Q Printing API Q New Image I/O framework providing a pluggable architecture to load/save images 11.