Best Way To Make Swing Applications

Question

Is there a better way to develop Java Swing applications?

SWIXML? JavaFX? Anything else that the developers liked and recommended here?

Answer 1

Another “best way” is to use the best Layout Manager:

MigLayout :
An extremely flexible and easy-to-use layout manager that works for both Swing and SWT.
It can do what a table layout, a form layout, and almost all Swing Layout managers can, with a simple understanding of String and / or API-based coding.
It is intended for manual coded layouts that Matisse / Group Layout for IDE.

JPanel panel = new JPanel(new MigLayout()); panel.add(firstNameLabel); panel.add(firstNameTextField); panel.add(lastNameLabel, "gap unrelated"); panel.add(lastNameTextField, "wrap"); panel.add(addressLabel); panel.add(addressTextField, "span, grow"); 

alt text http://www.miglayout.com/images/Form.png

Answer 2

JavaDesktop is a very complete source of information for these kinds of questions.

Recently, I found (but did not use it directly) the Flamingo swing component package . Moreover, it allows you to integrate one recent recent user interface design: ribbons

(This is not a new development method in the sense that it is still a classic Swing component, and not, for example, an XML-based swing specification, but I would look at another javadestop projects for other illustrations to your question)

Answer 3

I like to create UIs (HTML, SWT or Swing) with Groovy . This is much easier with Groovy pickers .

Answer 4

If you like Groovy programming instead of Java, check out Griffon: http://griffon.codehaus.org/

Answer 5

The Swing Application Framework is a lightweight infrastructure that simplifies the creation and maintenance of small and medium-sized desktop applications. The structure consists of a Java class library that supports constructs for things like:

• Preservation of state between sessions.
• Easy action management, including starting as background tasks and defining lock behavior.
• Advanced resource management, including resource injection for bean properties.

Here's an article about it.

It has been integrated with Netbeans 6.0 and later .