12slide - GUI Basics - Week 7

Motivations

The design of the API for Java GUI programming is an

Objectives

To distinguish between Swing and AWT (§12.2).
To describe the Java GUI

Creating GUI Objects

// Create a button with text OK
JButton jbtOK

Swing vs. AWT

So why do the GUI component classes have a

GUI Class Hierarchy (Swing)

Container Classes

Container classes can contain other GUI components.

The helper classes are not subclasses of Component. They are used

Swing GUI Components

Components Covered in the Brief Version

Components Covered in the Comprehensive Version

AWT (Optional)

Frames

Frame is a window that is not contained inside another window.

Creating Frames

Run

import javax.swing.*;
public class MyFrame {
public static void main(String[] args)

Adding Components into a Frame

// Add a button into the frame
frame.getContentPane().add(

Content Pane Delegation in JDK 1.5

// Add a button into the

JFrame Class

Layout Managers

Java’s layout managers provide a level of abstraction to automatically

Kinds of Layout Managers

FlowLayout (Chapter 13)
GridLayout (Chapter 13)
BorderLayout (Chapter 13)
Several other

FlowLayout Example

Write a program that adds three labels and text fields

The FlowLayout Class

GridLayout Example

Rewrite the program in the preceding example using a GridLayout

The GridLayout Class

The BorderLayout Manager

The BorderLayout manager divides the container into five areas:

BorderLayout Example

ShowBorderLayout

Run

The BorderLayout Class

The Color Class

You can set colors for GUI components by using

Standard Colors

Thirteen standard colors (black, blue, cyan, darkGray, gray, green, lightGray,

Setting Colors

You can use the following methods to set the component’s

The Font Class

Font myFont = new Font(name, style, size);
Example:
Font myFont =

Finding All Available Font Names

GraphicsEnvironment e =
GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
String[] fontnames =

Using Panels as Sub-Containers

Panels act as sub-containers for grouping user interface

Creating a JPanel

You can use new JPanel() to create a panel

Testing Panels Example

This example uses panels to organize components. The program

Common Features of Swing Components

Borders

You can set a border on any object of the JComponent

Test Swing Common Features

Component Properties
font
background
foreground
preferredSize
minimumSize
maximumSize

JComponent Properties
toolTipText
border

TestSwingCommonFeatures

Run

Image Icons

Java uses the javax.swing.ImageIcon class to represent an icon. An