Comments on: Using Multiple Swing Layouts to Create Dynamic Forms

By: Amit kalra

Amit kalra — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:14:29 +0000

hi All,

Great matter,
I have once scenario which i need help.

We are creating a gui application such that ,all the screen that we are creating will not be stored on the client machine ,instead on the application server .

the gui application will consists as a standlone frame sort of thing which will call the function to the application server for the corresponding screen name .After validating the screen name ,the application server will process the screen and display it on the client gui standlone application.

Please provide some guidance as to how we can create the swing forms and save it into the application server,and call it from the remote locations.of course client system will containg jdk /jre.

Thanks

By: k40s

k40s — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:42:54 +0000

Hi!

Great article, but I arrived here with the same problem that Ganesh has had and my question is for him/her … Can you write a little example to show how did you resolved it? or, if you did found in another web, can you link it?

Thank you

PD sorry about my english, is a little bad

By: Ganesh

Ganesh — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:55:23 +0000

Hey, Thanks.. I got the answer for my question.
I created one level of abstraction(a bean) above the components(button,label, JLabel) to hold all those .
I use a collection HashMap / ArrayList to keep adding those bean elements.

Later I use the collection to retrieve the values which I require, on receiving the event.

By: Ganesh

Ganesh — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:48:59 +0000

Hi, Nice Article.
I have a doubt around this.
I am facing a big time problem reading the values from the components - form elements if I render the elements dynamically like this.
Can you help me to understand how to do that?

By: Sahana

Sahana — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:26:19 +0000

HI,

Thanks for a nice article. I hope this is going to help me in the dynamic UI construction. I also want to know how you constructed the ‘retreivedata’ method. is it xml based? if so can you please share a sample xml.

Thanks
Sahana

By: Adam Menzies

Adam Menzies — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:07:18 +0000

Thanks to everyone for their comments/suggestions.

“e” is correct, I should have mentioned in the introduction to the article that this solution was used for a client who not only needed a “simple” and easily repeatable solution but for a client that was using Java 1.4 and had developers that had little Java and no Swing experience.

So this is a very simplified, low-level solution that is meant as a starting point when building dynamic Swing interfaces. Obviously as you build UIs using this method the logic and structure will become more complex to meet different needs. The actual structure/logic used in our application is much more complex than what is here.

We did look at some other frameworks/layout managers including MigLayout and even GUI tools like Matisse (which we did use for another application that used static forms), but for the developers who would ultimately be maintaining the application and the deployment of the application we decided it was best to use standard Java libraries only.

While 3rd party/open source solutions can be excellent in the short-term, I think many consultants can attest to being burned by those solutions that seemed like the “next best thing” only to fizzle out in a year and no longer be supported, leaving you to maintain and bug fix what you had already used.

This is certainly not a fix-all solution, but it is a good starting point for new Swing developers who want to stick to the standard Java libraries.

Thanks again for the feedback!

By: e

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:23:28 +0000

@Jacek
Take a rest. I can imagine several reasons for not using MigLayout in his case. MigLayout is certainly not a one size fits all solution.
For example, Adam needs “simple” but highly configurable layout based on data and user inputs. Nested basic layouts could be the best approach in this case. Or another example: perhaps his forms must be deployed on client machines with minimal jars and just jre 1.5 and not jre 1.8.

By: Jacek

Jacek — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:40:52 +0000

I have done extremely complex layouts using MigLayout. At worst, you may need nested JPanels. It’s an amazing piece of software. Any one still stuck using the horribly obsolete and verbose JDK layout managers in 2009 should really update their Swing knowledge.

By: John Doe

John Doe — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:12:08 +0000

While it’s probably not the best approach, the article is still interesting. It presents one natural and simple way of doing things.

MigLayout would also have some limitations in some conditions depending on the data(i.e.. not much data or fully dynamic layout depending on what’s available).

I would probably use a combined/conditional use of layout managers depending on what to display for complex cases.

By: Jacek

Jacek — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:26:53 +0000

You need to learn about MigLayout…your whole approach is extremely OBSOLETE