Chapter 14

GUI Basics

CIS265/506 Cleveland State University – Prof. Victor Matos

Adapted from: Introduction to Java Programming: Comprehensive Version, Eighth Edition by Y. Daniel Liang
 Objectives
 To distinguish between Swing and AWT (§12.2).
 To describe the Java GUI API hierarchy (§12.3).
 To create user interfaces using frames, panels, and simple GUI components (§12.4).
 To understand the role of layout managers (§12.5).
 To use the FlowLayout, GridLayout, and BorderLayout managers to layout
components in a container (§12.5).
 To use JPanel as subcontainers (§12.7).
 To specify colors and fonts using the Color and Font classes (§§12.7-12.8).
 To apply common features such as borders, tool tips, fonts, and colors on Swing
components (§12.9).
 To use borders to visually group user-interface components (§12.9).
 To create image icons using the ImageIcon class (§12.10).

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 Creating GUI Objects
// Create a button with text OK
JButton jbtOK = new JButton("OK");

// Create a label with text "Enter your name: "

JLabel jlblName = new JLabel("Enter your name: ");
Label Text Check Radio
field Box Button

Button

// Create a text field with text "Type Name Here"

Combo
JTextField jtfName = new JTextField("Type Name Here"); Frame Box
// Create a check box with text bold
JCheckBox jchkBold = new JCheckBox("Bold");

// Create a radio button with text red

JRadioButton jrbRed = new JRadioButton("Red");

// Create a combo box with choices red, green, and blue

JComboBox jcboColor = new JComboBox(new String[]{"Red", "Green", "Blue"});

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 Swing vs. AWT
 First Java GUI library was known as the Abstract Windows Toolkit (AWT).

 AWT is fine for developing simple graphical user interfaces, but not for
complex GUI projects.

 A newer, more robust, and flexible library is known as Swing components.

 Swing components are less dependent on the target platform and use less of
the native GUI resource.

 Swing components that don’t rely on native GUI are referred to as

lightweight components and AWT components are referred to as
heavyweight components.

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 Swing - Container Classes

Container classes can contain

other GUI components.

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 GUI API - Container Classes

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 GUI API - Helper Classes

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 Use AWT or SWING classes?

• To distinguish new Swing component classes from their older

AWT counterparts, the Swing GUI component classes are
named with a prefixed J.

• Although AWT components are still supported in Java, it is

better to learn to how program using Swing components, because
the AWT user- interface components will eventually fade
away.

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 Swing GUI Components
JCheckBoxMenuItem

JMenuItem JMenu

AbstractButton JButton JRadioButtonMenuItem

JToggleButton JCheckBox

JRadioButton
JComponent JEditorPane

JTextComponent JTextField JPasswordField

JTextArea

JLabel JList JComboBox JPanel JOptionPane JScrollBar JSlider

JTabbedPane JSplitPane JLayeredPane JSeparator JScrollPane JRootPane

JToolBar JMenuBar JPopupMenu JFileChooser JColorChooser JToolTip

JTree JTable JTableHeader JInternalFrame JProgressBar JSpinner

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 AWT (Optional)
AWTEvent Container Panel Applet

Font Button Window Frame

FontMetrics Label Dialog FileDialog

TextField
Object Color TextComponent

TextArea
Graphics List

Component Choice

CheckBox

LayoutManager CheckBoxGroup

Canvas

MenuComponent MenuItem Menu

MenuBar
Scrollbar

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 Frames
 To create a user interface, you need to create either a frame or an applet
to hold the user- inter-face components.
 Frame is a window that is not contained inside another window.
 Frame is the basis to contain other user interface components in Java
GUI applications.
 The JFrame class can be used to create windows.
 For Swing GUI programs, use JFrame class to create widows.

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 JFrame Class

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 Example1: Creating Jframes
import javax.swing.*;

public class MyFrame {

public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test Frame");
frame.setSize(400, 300);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

frame.setVisible(true);
Title bar,
Minimize,
} Maximize,
} Close btn.

JFrame

Content pane Resize

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 Example2: Adding Components to a Frame

import javax.swing.*;

public class MyFrame {

public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test Frame");
frame.setSize(400, 300);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

// Add a button into the frame

frame.add(new JButton("OK"));

frame.setVisible(true);
}
}

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 JFrame Class

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 Layout Managers
 UI components are placed in containers.
 Each container has a layout manager to arrange the UI
components within the container.
 Layout managers are set in containers using the
setLayout(LayoutManager) method in a container.

 Some basic LayoutManager types are:

 FlowLayout,
 GridLayout,
 BorderLayout,
 Others …

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 The FlowLayout Class

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 Example3: FlowLayout

This program adds three

labels and a text fields into
the content pane of a frame
with a (horizontal) Horizontal
FlowLayout manager.
Flow direction

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 Example3: FlowLayout
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import javax.swing.*;

public class MyFrame {

public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test Frame");
frame.setSize(400, 300);
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frame.setVisible(true);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

frame.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT, 10, 20));

// Add components to the frame 2

frame.add(new JLabel("First Name"));
frame.add(new JTextField(8));
frame.add(new JLabel("Init")); 3
frame.add(new JTextField(1));
frame.add(new JLabel("Last Name"));
frame.add(new JTextField(8));

}
}

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 Example4: GridLayout

This program uses a

GridLayout manager
(instead of a FlowLayout
manager) to display the
labels and text fields.

3x2

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 The GridLayout Class

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 Example4: GridLayout
public class MyFrame {
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test Frame");
frame.setSize(400, 300); 1
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, 2, 5, 5));

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// Add components to the frame
frame.add(new JLabel("First Name"));
frame.add(new JTextField(8));
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frame.add(new JLabel("Init"));
frame.add(new JTextField(1));
frame.add(new JLabel("Last Name"));
frame.add(new JTextField(8));
}
}
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 The BorderLayout Manager

The BorderLayout manager add(Component, constraint),

divides the container into five areas: where constraint is:
East, South,West,
BorderLayout.EAST,
North, Center. BorderLayout.SOUTH,
BorderLayout.WEST,
Components are added to a BorderLayout.NORTH, or
BorderLayout by using the add BorderLayout.CENTER.
method.

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 The BorderLayout Manager

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 Example5: BorderLayout Manager

This version
places a JButton
in each region of
a BorderLayout

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 Example5: BorderLayout Manager

public class MyFrame {

public static void main(String[] args) {

JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test Frame");

frame.setSize(400, 300); 1
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout(10, 10));

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// Add components to the frame
frame.add(new JButton("North"), BorderLayout.NORTH);
frame.add(new JButton("South"), BorderLayout.SOUTH); 3
frame.add(new JButton("Center"), BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.add(new JButton("East"), BorderLayout.EAST);
frame.add(new JButton("West"), BorderLayout.WEST);
}

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 The Color Class
RGB Colors are made of red, green, and blue components, each
intensity is represented by a byte value
 0 (darkest shade)
 255 (lightest shade).

Red
Green
Example: Blue

Color c = new Color(228, 100, 255); //light purple

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 Standard Colors
A number of standard colors are defined as constants in
java.awt.Color.

You use then as: Color.xxx where xxx is:

BLACK, GREEN, RED,
BLUE, LIGHT_GRAY, WHITE, and
CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW.
DARK_GRAY, ORANGE,
GRAY, PINK,

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 Setting Colors
You can use the following methods to set the component’s
background and foreground colors:
setBackground(Color c)
setForeground(Color c)

Example:
The button jBtn shows red text on a yellow background
jBtn.setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
jBtn.setForeground(Color.RED);

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 The Font Class
Font Names
Supported in all platforms: Font.PLAIN (0),
Font.BOLD (1),
SansSerif, Serif, Font.ITALIC (2),
Monospaced, Font.BOLD +
Dialog, Font.ITALIC (3)
DialogInput.

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

Example:
Font myFont1 = new Font("SansSerif", Font.BOLD, 16);

Font myFont2 = new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD+Font.ITALIC, 12);

JButton jbtOK = new JButton("OK“);
jbtOK.setFont(myFont2);
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 Finding All Available Font Names
GraphicsEnvironment e = GraphicsEnvironment
.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();

String[] fontnames = e.getAvailableFontFamilyNames();

for (int i = 0; i < fontnames.length; i++)

System.out.println(fontnames[i]);

Agency FB
Aharoni ...
Algerian
Andalus Batang
Angsana New BatangChe
AngsanaUPC Bauhaus 93
Aparajita Bell MT
Arabic Typesetting Berlin Sans FB
Arial Berlin Sans FB Demi
Arial Black Bernard MT Condensed
Arial Narrow Blackadder ITC
Arial Rounded MT Bold Wingdings 3
Arial Unicode MS ZWAdobeF
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Baskerville Old Face
 Using Panels as Sub-Containers
 Panels act as sub-containers for grouping user interface
components.
 It is recommended that you place the user interface
components in panels and place the panels in a frame.
 You can also place panels in a panel.
 To add a component to JFrame, you actually add it to the
content pane of JFrame.
 To add a component to a panel, you add it directly to the
panel using the add method.

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 Example6: Testing Panels
 This example uses panels to organize components.
 The program creates a user interface for a Microwave oven.

frame
A textfield
p2
A button 12
buttons p1

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 Example6: Testing Panels

public class MyFrame {

public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame( //make JPanel p2 to hold a textField and p1
"Front View of a Microwave"); JPanel p2 = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
frame.setSize(400, 300);
frame.setVisible(true); p2.add(new JTextField(
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( "Time to be displayed here..."),
JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); BorderLayout.NORTH);
p2.add(p1, BorderLayout.CENTER);
JPanel p1 = new JPanel();
p1.setLayout(new GridLayout(4, 3)); frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout(10, 10));

for (int i=1; i<=9; i++){ // Add components to the frame

p1.add(new JButton(""+ i)); frame.add(new JButton("Food goes here..."),
BorderLayout.WEST);
}

frame.add(p2, BorderLayout.CENTER);
p1.add(new JButton("0"));
}
p1.add(new JButton("Start"));
p1.add(new JButton("Stop")); }

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Common Features of Swing Components
The get and set methods for these data fields are provided in
the class, but omitted in the UML diagram for brevity.
java.awt.Component
-font: java.awt.Font The font of this component.
-background: java.awt.Color The background color of this component.
-foreground: java.awt.Color The foreground color of this component.
-preferredSize: Dimension The preferred size of this component.
-visible: boolean Indicates whether this component is visible.
+getWidth(): int Returns the width of this component.
+getHeight(): int Returns the height of this component.
+getX(): int getX() and getY() return the coordinate of the component’s
+getY(): int upper-left corner within its parent component.

java.awt.Container
+add(comp: Component): Component Adds a component to the container.
+add(comp: Component, index: int): Component Adds a component to the container with the specified index.
+remove(comp: Component): void Removes the component from the container.
+getLayout(): LayoutManager Returns the layout manager for this container.
+setLayout(l: LayoutManager): void Sets the layout manager for this container.
+paintComponents(g: Graphics): void Paints each of the components in this container.

The get and set methods for these data fields are provided in
the class, but omitted in the UML diagram for brevity.
javax.swing.JComponent
-toolTipText: String The tool tip text for this component. Tool tip text is displayed when
the mouse points on the component without clicking.
-border: javax.swing.border.Border The border for this component.

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 Borders
 You can set a border on any object of the JComponent class.
 To create a titled border, use
new TitledBorder(String title)

 To create a line border, use

new LineBorder(Color color, int width)
where width specifies the thickness of the line.

Example: display a titled border on a panel:

JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setBorder(new TitleBorder(“My Panel”));

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 Borders
Example: Modify previous example adding statements

p1.setBorder(new TitledBorder("My Panel p1 keys"));

and

p2.setBorder(new LineBorder(new Color(255,0,0), 5));

TitleBorder

LineBorder

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 Test Swing Common Features

Component Properties JComponent Properties

 font  toolTipText
 background  border
 foreground
 preferredSize
 minimumSize
 maximumSize

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 Test Swing Common Features

JTextField textField = new JTextField("Hello");

textField.setBackground(new Color(0,0,255)); //blue

textField.setForeground(new Color(255,255,0)); //yellow

textField.setFont(new Font("Times New Roman", Font.BOLD, 25));

textField.setBorder(new LineBorder(new Color(0,255,0), 3) );

textField.setToolTipText("Enter some text here ..." );

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 Image Icons
 Java uses the javax.swing.ImageIcon class to represent an
icon.
 Images are normally stored in image files.

Example:
the following statement creates an icon from an image file
us.gif in the image directory under the current class path:

ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("image/us.gif");

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 Image Icons
Example: Modify Microwave GUI to add icon
ImageIcon myIcon = new ImageIcon("c://temp//Food-128.png");

JButton btnWakeUp = new JButton("Food here...");

btnWakeUp.setIcon(myIcon);

frame.add(btnWakeUp, BorderLayout.WEST);

icon
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 Splash Screen
A splash screen is an image that is displayed while the (slower)
application is starting up.

To display a splash screen do this:

java –splash:image/us.gf TestImageIcon

displays an image while the program TestImageIcon is being

loaded.

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 Advanced Resources
WindowBuilder
http://code.google.com/javadevtools/wbpro/
http://code.google.com/javadevtools/wbpro/quick_start.html
http://www.java-javafx.com/2011/01/windowbuilder-pro-hello-world-java.html

SWING Builder (Formelry Matisse / NetBeans IDE)

http://netbeans.org/
http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/java/gui-functionality.html#Exercise_1

GWT (Google Web Tool) Plug-in for eclipse

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/tools/gwtdesigner/tutorials/loginmanager.html

VE (Visual Editor) Archived Eclipse Projets

http://www.eclipse.org/archived/

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