Swing, 2 edition

Book Description This book builds on the successful approach of the first edition of Swing, once again taking the power and flexibility of Java's Swing library to its limits. Using a fast-paced style, it starts by introducing each of the Swing components and continues with production-quality code examples in which Swing features are customized, combined, and vigorously exercised to demonstrate real-world usage. With over 400 pages of revised text, additional examples, and new material to bring the book up to date with J2SE 1.4, Swing 2nd edition includes complete coverage of the new JSpinner and JFormattedTextField components, the new Focus and Keyboard architectures, and many other new and enhanced Swing features. Three new chapters have also been added to cover the construction of HTML and XML editor applications, and how to work with the new Drag & Drop architecture.Written for the experienced Java developer, Swingprovides an in-depth guide to getting the most out of Sun's Swing/JFC user interface classes. Mixing real-world code examples and expert advice on advanced features, this book shows how to make use of this powerful library effectively within your own projects.

The best thing about this text has to be its sample programs, many of which incorporate other Java APIs to do "real" work. For example, a demo of the scroll pane Swing component uses other JFC classes to display JPG images. For working with lists, the authors show how to process .ZIP files in Java. For demonstrating table programming, there's coverage of JDBC to connect to databases. Other standout code samples include a working FTP client and a fully functional .RTF word processor. (Many of these examples are enhanced in separate steps, showing off new Swing classes and features along the way.) The authors do a particularly good job of annotating code with clear explanations referenced with numbered bullets that point out important lines of code.

The other noteworthy feature here is the material on extending basic Swing functionality through custom code. (To use Swing effectively, you definitely need to be able to customize its classes. The authors show you how.) There are examples for enhancing Swing with custom layout managers and numerous samples that extend trees and tables, and even a section on the basics of creating new pluggable look and feel (PLAF) modules for Swing.

With material here on virtually every component and API, plus advanced coverage on using and extending Swing, this in-depth tutorial will prove to be an indispensable resource. It's ideal for any Java developer who wants to create powerful Swing interfaces for real-world projects. --Richard Dragan
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Content

Part I Foundation
1. Swing overview
2. Swing mechanics

Part II The basics
3. Frames, panels, and borders
4. Layout managers
5. Labels and buttons
6. Tabbed panes
7. Scrolling panes
8. Split panes
9. Combo boxes
10. List boxes and Spinners
11. Text components and undo
12. Menus, toolbars, and actions
13. Progress bars, sliders, and scroll bars
14. Dialogs

Part III Advanced topics
15. Layered panes
16. Desktops & internal frames
17. Trees
18. Tables
19. Inside text components
20. Constructing an HTML Editor Application
21. Pluggable look and feel

Part IV Special topics
22. Printing
23. Constructing XML.editor
24. Drag & Drop