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Java AWT/SWT/Swing: How to plan a GUI?
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Closed 8 years ago.
Does anybody know Swing related GUI guidelines - specifically on how to design Swing apps and which components I should use? I'm not looking for an official standard, but pragmatic tips I can use to set a good standard for my projects.
I haven't used too much of Swing by myself. Surely clicking a GUI with a GUI designer isn't a big deal. However I'd like to get some insights from people who have experience with Swing and know what to avoid. Swing lately (in Java 6- 10) got decent changes. So there isn't too much specific standardization out there currently.
There are many resources out there discussing good uses of Swing or showcasing good uses of Swing. Here are a few:
Kirill Grouchnikov's Blog
Pushing Pixels
Swing FX (hasn't been updated in a while, but has lots of good stuff in the archives)
These resources aren't simple best practices lists, but I find that I'm constantly inspired by general design blogs and Swing design blogs in particular. On top of that, projects like swinglabs can show you what people can and are doing with Swing.
When attempting to select the right layout manager for placing components in a panel I tend to take a quick look through Sun's visual guide to layout managers.
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I am currently working on an application with a code base that dates back to at least 2001. One of the components of this system is a desktop client that is written using Java Swing. It uses most of the good old layouts including BorderLayout, FlowLayout, and Gridbag layout. There are a number of fairly complex screens we need to manage and update periodically and we sometimes need to create new features with new user interfaces.
Is there something better than Swing we could look into migrating to?
Would it be possible to do this migration in stages (i.e. we would have a mix of the old Swing components with the new components during a prolonged migration phase)?
If we were to re-write the desktop client in Java today should we still use Swing?
I find myself using primarily GridBagLayout, is this still the tool of choice for more complex layouts or are there better layouts I could be using?
I was reading in book that Oracle intend to replace Swing by JavaFX.
Take a look in the question and answer bellow:
6. Is JavaFX replacing Swing as the new client UI library for Java SE?
Yes. However, Swing will remain part of the Java SE specification for the foreseeable future, and therefore included in the JRE. While we recommend developers to leverage JavaFX APIs as much as possible when building new applications, it is possible to extend a Swing application with JavaFX, allowing for a smoother transition.
You can see there original comment here.
In this case, I believe that you can consider to user JavaFX.
More details here and good examples here.
If you are using Java 8 you can use javafx for new componant. It's possible to use Swing componant with javafx.
you can still use java swing, but if you need to migrate you can migrate in stages using JavaFX (again a Desktop Client). if you need to use Web Client, then you could use GWT (this helps since the developers already have knowlege of UI Components) and GWT code is in Java and Javascript gets generated in Compile Time.
Java FX is more powerful and beautiful
We can say that swing is replaced with java FX.
Now a days no body is using swing because there are lot of advantage in java FX over swing
It has good feature called scaneBuilder we can just drag and drop the components to appropriate position so lot of time is saving.
Different type of layout are there to place the components attractively.
Impertinently we can use CSS to disign the UI so is more beautiful and attractive
we can integrate with web components also.
If you're redoing a layout entirely, I'd look at Matisse which uses Spring Layout.
https://netbeans.org/features/java/swing.html
It's far easier to get the relationships between components using a layout tool than trying to line everything up manually in GridBag or something similar.
If you're not redoing a major part of the code, I wouldn't touch it. Don't fix what ain't broken.
Regarding JavaFX, I personally have not been impressed by it. You can take a look at it, but JavaFX struck me as needing more "bake" time. I would not abandon Swing just yet.
If you need to have a Java desktop client looks like native application for some platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux) you can look on Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) library.
One famous application example of usage of this library is Eclipse IDE. Another - Angry IP Scan, sources are at GitHub.
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Java GUI frameworks. What to choose? Swing, SWT, AWT, SwingX, JGoodies, JavaFX, Apache Pivot? [closed]
(9 answers)
Closed 8 years ago.
Is there any alternative of swing?
I need a high performance GUI toolkit to create desktop application on linux (Ubuntu). I've been creating swing application for 2 years, therefore I want use java.
Yes, there's a number of other UI toolkits available - AWT, SWT, JavaFX, QT to name a few.
I'd primarily recommend JavaFX as the new UI toolkit (it's now part of Java8 and is still under heavy development) or perhaps SWT if you want the "native" feel (since it uses native OS components.) QT does this as well of course, but it requires bindings and is generally more of a faff - so its use is relatively rare in Java land.
On the other sided of things, I'd recommend staying away from AWT (it's the old, original Java GUI framework that lacks many common components in other UI toolkits, and is not really supported any more.)
Try Java FX. It will give you better performance than java Swing. Java FX
Take a look at JavaFX it's now part of the JRE/JDK for Java 8.
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/javase-clienttechnologies.htm
You can probably use SWT as an alternative.
https://www.eclipse.org/swt/
I am pretty capable when it comes creating GUIS in Java using Swing, however I can't help feeling that what I am creating is a little too simple. I am getting annoyed when trying to make quick changes.
If I had more free time I would love to spend time becoming more familar with Swing however at the moment that is out of the question.
So my question for the community is, do you have any thoughts on an alternative way for me to make more attractive GUIs?
This is a very good thread discussing this. Swing is a very capable framework/library, and you can do many things with it and certainly attractive GUIs.
If you like, you can use a GUI designer, such as the one that comes with Netbeans.
If you don't want to stay with Swing, there is SWT, but, that adds your bloat to your code since it isn't standard, and it won't necessarily make your app look better.
I am not saying this is a good idea, but you could use Adobe Air/Flash to create your GUI and then use BlazeDS to communicate between Java and Flex/Air/Flash. It does look better but then you are programming in Flash which some people don't like.
Not saying that is a good idea, but it does work.
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Closed 12 years ago.
Considering that
Sun/Oracle decided to not develop Swing any further after they "invented" JavaFX
JavaFX doesn't really work and some consider it a failure already
the not really platform-independent nature of SWT, the manual task to dispose GUI elements and the necessity to bundle platform-specific libraries
is there another way out?
If I would like to do GUI development on the JVM
with a good API (Swing and SWT are not bad, but they are not really good either.)
which "feels" responsive (still a problem today with Swing and SWT, despite the claims that this is solved.)
which won't be obsolete in a few years
what decision should I make?
Is there even a third option available or a possibility there might be one in the future?
An option
which is fast and responsive (Not Swing's ideology of "If it's not fast, it is the developer's fault")
with native look and feel
with a single library which runs on all platforms
Is this realistic?
Thanks!
=========
To clarify: If I have to start a new software project on the JVM, there are several existing options, like using SWT or Swing, using Swing with third-party libraries like SwingX, JIDE, JGoodies, Flamingo or using application frameworks like Netbeans Platform or Eclipse RCP. Is there a supported/suggested way which weakens the pain normally associated with Java GUI development?
The answer is prefer swing, I think.
since 1.4 there are big progress on awt (sun do that because java fx need awt, fortunately)
since 1.5 big progress in thread managment (SwingWorker and concurrents things)
swing is excellent, responsive (what the problem with developper fault ? ), native l&f, and so on
there are excellent libraries, like swingx, trident, etc, and platform, like netbeans.
Of course it is a mature technology (a little old), but I know nothing else. It will be cobol of GUI development :-)
You won't find an objective answer to this question, only personal preferences and options.
SWT
My personal preference is SWT. I started using it, when Swing was to bad to be an option. SWT is "just" a layer on top of the native windowing APIs and thus applications written with SWT feel like natively written applications. Those can also be screwed up. No API will ever be safe from bad developers. The performance is as fast as it can get in my experience. If it is not, there is another way of implementing it, where it will be.
SWT's API is very low level which makes implementing basic stuff unexpectedly tedious, but fortunately most typical usecases can be solved with JFace, which improves the situation. And when you use the API for a while you'll accumulate your own util classes. You can become pretty fast in implementing SWT tools.
Since SWT gives you only the basics, you need MigLayout and Nebula widgets to survive. You might like Glazed Lists.
Qt Jambi
Actually I would have liked to include another option besides SWT and Swing for you: Qt Jambi. But Nokia gave up on this, and it is "maintained by an open source community" now. So I don't know about "not being obsolete in a few years".
Nevertheless I am excited by this ongoing discussion. Some people have written an SWT implementation using Qt Jambi as "native" API. They are trying to figure out how to contribute it. Having Qt as an option might enable your "single library which runs on all platforms" for SWT one day, though I wouldn't count on it anytime soon.
But for me your requirement of "a single library" is not such a big issue. Use maven for your builds, add a few lines of configuration and you'll forget about this very soon.
Swing
I can't really compare SWT to Swing, since my experience with Swing is limitted. As a user I don't like most Swing applications, but I did see some beatiful ones.
Nowadays the native look and feel of Swing apps got pretty good, but you won't fool a power-user. Also performance seems to be really good in new and well done Swing apps, but again, this is only from my limitted view as a user.
Obviously there are more 3rd party extensions for Swing than for SWT - just do a Google search. (But then again, if you endure the pain of learning Eclipse RCP you'll get an huge, interesting infrastructure as well. That's not talking about widgets though, that's stuff like EMF or RAP. I am no Eclipse RCP person - I never had enough patience for that...)
A really big advantage for Swing, if you like that stuff, is Matisse, the GUI builder of Netbeans. Qt has also a well done GUI builder by the way.
Summary
If you plan for long term, I don't see more options than SWT or Swing for GUI development in Java. Both are good enough to satisfy most needs if you spend enough time. But they are not perfect. You'll always envy people using other languages for their widgets, implementation speed, tooling, ... If you are not bound to Java, you might even prefer Flash or Qt.
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Closed 10 years ago.
Most of the desktop application development I do is in Swing, and I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on using JavaFX and/or Adobe Flex for building desktop applications. Have you had success building desktop apps with these? Or would you stick with Swing for now and use tools to help make Swing development more productive?
If you're making desktop apps, I'd stick to Swing. JavaFX/Flex/Silverlight would be more appropriate for RIA - rich internet apps. Although I'd argue that none of them would be a choice for the long term - looks to me like HTML5/CSS3/Ajax are winning the day, but thats a pretty subjective area. But for desktop apps - I'm a big fan of Swing (also Java Web Start is a very underrated technology)
I would say that JavaFX can be seen as a kind of extension of Swing with a new way of developing a Java GUI by using a declarative programming language: the JavaFX Script. JavaFX Script code looks exactly like a JSON script, unlike Adobe Flex or Microsoft Silverlight which uses an XML syntax.
JavaFX Script can interface with Java and therefore can call Swing components easily. It's really a new generation of GUI API, like Swing was for AWT: nice graphical components, new easy ways to manage layouts, really nice features to build dynamic interfaces: bindings, timers (to build animations), etc. Have a look here: http://www.javafx.com/samples/ and to the tutorials and see how fast you can build a kind of Google Picasa application... The API even contains some tools to use easily web services: you can find plenty of samples of GUI built in JavaFX connected to some public web services (like a Weather Forecast tool).
And the best... is the deployment part. You can embed your application within an html page, like an applet, and the user can drag and drop the application to her/his desktop to use it whenever she/he wants (without returning to its browser)!
Really, I think JavaFX, at its early stage though (v1.2), is a really good tool and represents the first step for Java toward the next generation of applications: the Rich Internet Applications (RIA).
Java Swing is an established and mature technology for desktop development. You'll be able to find lots of information online and plenty of sample programs. With that said, however, you might want to consider Adobe AIR. AIR is basically a runtime that lets you run your Flex apps on the desktop, and gives them access to local resources such as the file system. I've written Java Swing apps for 10 years and I am amazed at how much more productive I am using Flex/Adobe AIR. One nice aspect of Flex is that you can create your GUIs declaritively, much like how you use HTML to declare the layout of a webpage. It's a much more concise way to specify a GUI, and much faster and easier to maintain than the reams of Java Swing code you need to do the same thing. I wouldn't recommend JavaFX since it is so late to the party and hasn't really gotten with mainstream developers.
You should try them all and see which one fits best with your requirements. If you want to see what you can do with Flex and how to do it then check out Tour de Flex.
Some of the advantages of Flex are that it is mature (over 5 years old now) and a significant area of investment for Adobe. You can also find numerous examples of AIR apps built with Flex in the Adobe AIR Marketplace.
Swing can look good with Substance L&F.
However, if you are developing alone (as opposed to with a team), trying JavaFX might be a good idea.
Please read the about this, write extremely lightweight swing applications and with the same code base move it to web.
demos
runtime
I had evaluated these for desktop application and finally desided to go for JavaFx . This have very good media library and hardware accelerated graphics and media capabilities . With Jdk 7 update 6 onwards contains JavaFx totally I integrated no separate installation is required . Java swing is very good technology and will be continued but I see JavaFx is the future for GUI and Internet application to some extent. Biggest advantage for me was that JavaFx app could be converted to exe files with native packaging
Also try scenebuilder for drag and drop component designer
I feel that I do not have enough information to answer this question. There are many applications in which an AIR approach is a better choice, other applications use other technologies better. I am primarily an AS3/Flex developer, but I know there are many instances where one of the Java platforms is a better choice. Now that Flex is no longer an Adobe product but rather a Apache product, it will either improve the product as the users will create the roadmap, or kill it off completely.