4. CIS 068
The GUI
Container: JFrame
Layout: BorderLayout
North
Center
Components: JLabel JButton, containing
an ImageIcon
5. CIS 068
Steps to build a GUI
1. import package
2. set up top level container
(e.g. JFrame)
3. apply layout
(e.g. BorderLayout)
4. add components
(e.g. Label, Button)
5. REGISTER listeners
6. show it to the world !
6. CIS 068
The Source
. import package
2. set up top level container
(e.g. JFrame)
3. apply layout
(e.g. BorderLayout)
4. add components
(e.g. Label, Button)
5. REGISTER listeners
6. show it to the world !
7. CIS 068
Swing Components
• Top Level Containers
• General Purpose Containers
• Special Purpose Containers
• Basic Controls
• Uneditable Information Displays
• Interactive Displays of Highly Formatted
Information
10. CIS 068
Swing Components
General Purpose Containers
• typically used to collect Basic Controls
(JButton, JChoiceBox…)
• Added to layout of top-level containers
JPanel
JFrame
14. CIS 068
Swing Components
Basic Controls
• Unlike ‘passive’ containers, controls are
the ‘active’ part of your GUI
Remark: containers aren’t only ‘passive’, they are also ‘active’ sources of events,
eg. Mouse-events.
• Being the visible part of your interface,
controls bring your application to life
• Controls are event sources !
• Objects of your application register to
controls to handle the events
17. CIS 068
Swing Components
Interactive Displays of Highly Formatted
Information
• Define standard interfaces for
frequently needed tasks
... go to java.sun.com for further
information ...
19. CIS 068
Layout Management
• The process of determining the size and
position of components
• A layout manager is an object that performs
layout management for the components
within the container.
• Layout managers have the final say on the
size and position of components added to a
container
• Using the add method to put a component in
a container, you must ALWAYS take the
container's layout manager into account
24. CIS 068
Layouts
FlowLayout
FlowLayout is the default layout manager for every JPanel.
It simply lays out components from left to right, starting new
rows if necessary
28. CIS 068
Using a JButton
Some Constructors:
JButton() Creates a button with no text or icon
JButton(Icon icon) Creates a button with an icon
JButton(String text) Creates a button with text
JButton(String text,
Icon icon)
Creates a button with initial text and
an icon
29. CIS 068
Using a JButton
Some Methods:
addActionListener(
ActionListener a)
Registers ActionListener to JButton
Inherited from AbstractButton
setFont(Font font) Specifies Font (Type, Style, Size)
Inherited from JComponent
setBackground(
Color color)
Sets background color
Inherited from JComponent
setActionCommand
(String text)
Used to specify button if listener is
registered to multiple buttons (see
ActionEvent.getActionCommand())
30. CIS 068
Using a JSlider
Some Constructors:
JSlider() Creates a horizontal slider with the
range 0 to 100 and an initial value of 50
JSlider(
int min, int max,
int value)
Creates a horizontal slider using the
specified min, max and value.
JSlider(
Int orientation
int min, int max,
int value)
Creates a slider with the specified
orientation and the specified minimum,
maximum, and initial values.
31. CIS 068
Using a JSlider
Some Methods:
addChangeListener
(ChangeListener cl)
Registers ChangeListener to slider
int getValue() Returns the slider’s value
setValue(int value) Sets the slider’s value
32. CIS 068
Using a JCheckBox
Some Constructors:
JCheckBox() Creates an initially unselected check box
button with no text, no icon.
JCheckBox(
String text)
Creates an initially unselected check box
with text.
JCheckBox(
String text,
Icon icon,
boolean selecte
d)
Creates a check box with text and icon,
and specifies whether or not it is initially
selected.
33. CIS 068
Using a JCheckBox
Some Methods:
addItemListener
(ItemListener il)
Registers ItemListener to checkbox
Inherited from AbstractButton
setSelected(
boolean select)
Sets the state of checkbox
Inherited from AbstractButton
boolean
getSeleted()
Gets the state of checkbox.
calling method often saves from registering to the
checkbox !
35. CIS 068
Custom Painting
Decide which superclass to use, for example:
• JPanel: Generating and displaying graphs in top of a
blank or transparent background
• JLabel: Painting on top of an image
• JButton: custom button
• …
Every class derived from JComponent can be used
for custom drawing !
(Recommended: JPanel)
36. CIS 068
Custom Painting
The Graphics Object
• provides both a context for painting and
methods for performing the painting.
• Example of methods
– drawImage
– drawString
– drawRect
– fillRect
– setColor
– …
• passed as argument to the
paintComponent - method
37. CIS 068
Custom Painting
The paintComponent method
• Method of class JComponent
• Inherited to all subclasses, e.g. JPanel,
JButton,…
• The place where all custom painting
belongs !
• Invoked by the event-scheduler or by the
repaint() - method
39. CIS 068
At last...
This was a BRIEF overview and introduction to SWING.
SWING has MUCH more to offer, see
• http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/
• http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/docs/api/