SWING WORKER

The wizard components JWizardPanel, JWizardDialog

2008-03-15T17:35:00.005Z

JWizardPanel and JWizardDialog provide a panel and dialog that accomodates a sequence of pages. Three buttons, previous, next and finish are available but one can also add others as required. The wizard navigates through a number of pages represented by a WizardPage interface. Notifications for wizard events are obtained by adding a ChangeListener.
JWizardPanel and JWizardDialog are JavaBean components so you can add them to the NetBeans Swing components pallette and use them through the GUI builder. Get the WizardView NetBeans project including the source files, compiled jar and API javadocs from here.

The titled separator component JTitleSeparator

2008-02-17T09:31:00.004Z

JTitleSeparator is a horizontal line separator with a title. The title can be aligned left, right or center (using SwingConstants LEFT, RIGHT, or CENTER). Use the setImageAlignment method to place an image on the left or right side of the text. A title or image can be specified through one of the constructors or using the setTitle and setImage methods.

JTitleSeparator is a JavaBean component so you can add it to the NetBeans Swing components pallette and use it through the GUI builder. Get the JTitleSeparator NetBeans project including the source files, compiled jar and API javadocs from here.

The popup button component JPopupButton

2008-02-08T18:41:00.000Z

JPopupButton is a button that gives access to a popup menu. The button has a small arrow indicator on the bottom right. Use the addMenuItem or addComponent methods in order to add options to the popup menu.
JPopupButton is a JavaBean component so you can add it to the NetBeans Swing components pallette and use it through the GUI builder. Get the JPopupButton NetBeans project including the source files, compiled jar and API javadocs from here.

The month selection component JMonthBox

2008-01-25T22:37:00.000Z

JMonthBox is a month selection component combining a combo box and a rolling spinner. One can obtain the currently selected month through the getSelectedMonth or getSelectedMonthNumber methods. Alternatively, use the addMonthChangeListener to get notifications of selection changes. The month names can be either those associated with the current locale or custom names.

JMonthBox is a JavaBean component so you can add it to the NetBeans Swing components pallette and use it through the GUI builder. Get the JMonthBox NetBeans project including the source files, compiled jar and API javadocs from here.

The link label component JLinkLabel

2008-01-13T10:17:00.000Z

JLinkLabel is a web link-like Swing label component. It allows customization of the link color, the hover color when the cursor is over the link and the press color when the link is pressed. A hand cursor appears when the cursor moves over the link to indicate that it can be pressed.

JLinkLabel is a JavaBean component so you can add it to the NetBeans Swing components pallette and use it through the GUI builder. Get the JLinkLabel NetBeans project including the source files, compiled jar and API javadocs from here.

The program status bar component JStatusPanel

2008-01-03T17:22:00.000Z

JStatusPanel is a Swing status bar component that consists of a message label, status label and a status indicator. Additional Swing components can be added or removed as required. The text of the message and status labels can optionally appear for a few seconds and then disappear.

JStatusPanel is a JavaBean component so you can add it to the NetBeans Swing components pallette and use it through the GUI builder. Get the JStatusPanel NetBeans project including the source files, compiled jar and API javadocs from here.

Programmatically compile and execute java code with RunnerPad

2008-01-01T23:13:00.000Z

One of my favorite articles from JavaWorld was called "Make a statement with javac!" and described code that programmatically compiled and executed Java statements. Since 2002 when this article was written the relevant APIs have changed. Java SE 6 supports this functionality through the JavaCompiler and ToolProvider classes of the javax.tools package. With these in mind I created RunnerPad, a Swing program that allows users to quickly write, compile and run Java statements. RunnerPad can be downloaded as a NetBeans project from here.

Line number in a JTextArea

2007-12-28T09:24:00.000Z

The code below looks for the caret position in a JTextArea and returns the current line number.

public int getCurrentLineNumber() {
    int line;
    int caretPosition = editorTextArea.getCaretPosition();
    Element root =
    editorTextArea.getDocument().getDefaultRootElement();
    line = root.getElementIndex(caretPosition) + 1;
    return line;
}

The method can be used by a CaretListener implementation so that every time we move the caret inside the JTextArea we get an update on the current line number.

Redirect System.out / System.err to a JTextArea

2007-12-27T16:04:00.000Z

The following code redirects text from System.out and System.err to a JTextArea.

PrintStream out = new PrintStream(new TextAreaOutputStream());
System.setOut(out);
System.setErr(out);

TextAreaOutputStream overrides the abstract OutputStream class to append characters to a JTextArea named outputTextArea.


public class TextAreaOutputStream extends OutputStream {

    public void write(int b) throws IOException {
        outputTextArea.append(String.valueOf((char) b));
    }

}

i18n for standard Swing dialogs

2007-12-26T14:44:00.001Z

Swing dialog components like JOptionPane and JFileChooser are provided with i18n support for a number of languages. Still, there are times when the language we require is not supported or we want to have complete control on the displayed text. The following example code shows how we can override the default text using the UIManager and a ResourceBundle.

UIManager.put("OptionPane.yesButtonText", bundle.getString("common.yes"));
UIManager.put("OptionPane.cancelButtonText", bundle.getString("common.cancel"));
UIManager.put("OptionPane.noButtonText", bundle.getString("common.no"));
UIManager.put("OptionPane.okButtonText", bundle.getString("common.ok"));
UIManager.put("FileChooser.saveButtonText", bundle.getString("common.save"));
UIManager.put("FileChooser.cancelButtonText", bundle.getString("common.cancel"));

The strings that can be customized for a JOptionPane and a JFileChooser are:

OptionPane.yesButtonText
OptionPane.noButtonText
OptionPane.cancelButtonText
OptionPane.okButtonText

FileChooser.newFolderErrorText
FileChooser.newFolderErrorSeparator
FileChooser.fileDescriptionText
FileChooser.directoryDescriptionText
FileChooser.saveButtonText
FileChooser.openButtonText
FileChooser.saveDialogTitleText
FileChooser.openDialogTitleText
FileChooser.cancelButtonText
FileChooser.updateButtonText
FileChooser.helpButtonText
FileChooser.directoryOpenButtonText
FileChooser.saveButtonToolTipText
FileChooser.openButtonToolTipText
FileChooser.cancelButtonToolTipText
FileChooser.updateButtonToolTipText
FileChooser.helpButtonToolTipText
FileChooser.directoryOpenButtonToolTipText