BOF-5110 Extending the Groovy SwingBuilder

Extending Groovys Swing User Interface in Builder to Build Richer Applications Danno Ferrin, Intelligent Software Solutions, Inc. James Williams, Spatial Networks, Inc. BOF-5110 Speaker’s logo here (optional)

Learn how to customized Groovy’s SwingBuilder to add custom widgets and non-visual components.

Not always an enterprise question…
BUT WILL IT
S C A L E
?

Agenda
Ways to Extend SwingBuilder
FactoryBuilderSupport Overview
Case Study: SwingXBuilder

Issues of Scale How you extend should be driven by how much the extension is used
Magic Nodes
bean(), widget(), container()
Individual Factory Registration
Automatic Bean Factory
Custom Factory
Builder Suite
Example: SwingXBuilder
CompositeBuilder
<Coming Soon>
Single use of particular widgets
Multiple uses of a few types
Multiple use of a lot of types
Multiple uses from multiple suites

Magic Nodes
bean(…)
Accepts any object
Not added to parent
No child content
widget(…)
Accepts any java.awt.Component
Added to parent java.awt.Container
No child content
container(…)
Accepts any java.awt.Container
Added to parent java.awt.Container
Accepts child content

Magic Nodes
An instance of the object must be passed in as the argument
Attributes are applied as JavaBeans properties
Semi-Magic Nodes
Most existing nodes can become magic nodes
Argument must match node type

Magic Nodes Example
bean(model, propertyChanged: { panel.repaint() } )
widget(new JXMonthPanel(),
selectedBackground:Color.YELLOW)
container(new JXTitlePane(), title:"Demo”) {
// whatever you would add in the JXTitlePane
}

First, what are the characteristics of the Widget?
Well behaved JavaBeans?
No-args constructor
Bean can be fully configured via properties
Complex Beans/Objects
Only constructors with arguments
Some features configured only by constructor
Example: JFrame, JWindow, JDialog owner
Non-JavaBeans style properties/configuration

Well behaved JavaBeans may use registerBeanFactory(…)
All lifecycle methods are automated
No fancy processing
Child nodes added via JComponent.add(child [,constraints])
Some common cases handled based on widget type
JTable, Layouts, JScrollPane, java.awt.Window
Complex Beans/Objects must use registerFactory(…)
Must implement groovy.util.Factory
May extend groovy.util.AbstractFactory
newInstance(builder, name, arg, attrs) is the only unimplemented method

Builder Suite
Logical progression from creating factories
How? Subclass the SwingBuilder
Do factory loading in instance methods
Call those methods from the Constructor
SwingBuilder factories may be over-ridden
SwingBuilder factories may be renamed –
getFactories().each {k, v -> registerFactory("j" + k, v) }

Builder Suite
But what if I want multiple suites?
JideSplitButton
JXMap
JRibbon
Ways to Add more than one suite
Manually add via magic nodes
Manual add factories after construction
Hand roll a custom suite
This can be burdensome…

Composite Builder
Coming Soon
Won’t be in Groovy 1.6 core
The Idea
Declare a builder that is a composite of other builders
Have each builder use a common Binding
Allow children of one builder to nest inside another
Widgets from different libraries
Nesting non-GUI Widgets
tree() { rootFolder { treeNode(); treeNode(); treeNode(); } }

The Vision
def builder = new CompositeBuilder( SwingBuilder, ogb:ObjectGraphBuilder, jx:SwingXBuilder, jide:JIDEBuilder, fl:FlamingoBuilder, nodeName: randomFactory ) builder.jxframe { flribbon { editActionsGroup, saveActionsGroup }
jidepopup(visible:false) { … popup contents … } }

The code as of Today
Called ‘UberBuilder’
Available on SVN (only for the brave…)
https://svn.codehaus.org/groovy/trunk/groovy/modules/griffon/
GUIBuilder is an auto composite of a few builders
SwingBuilder
SwingXBuilder
JIDEBuilder
GraphicsBuilder
Not quite soup yet…

Agenda

First some Terminology
nodeName( argument, attr : value, attr2 : value) { … }
Node
Syntactically a method call, but it represents a widget or bean
Argument
The un-named method argument for the node
As of Groovy 1.5 there can be only one
Attribute
Any named parameter in the node
Names cannot be duplicated – enforced by the Compiler
Child Content
The closure after the method
Usually executed by the builder

Factory Lifecycle

Delegate Closures
Some steps can be intercepted without a Factory
addPreInstantiateDelegate, addPostInstantiateDelegate, addAttributeDelegate
{FactoryBulderSupport builder, Object node, Map attributes -> … }
addPostNodeCompleteDelegate
{FactoryBulderSupport builder, Object parent, Object node -> … }
Delegates handle all nodes
No picking and choosing, each closure must handle every call
Some built-in tasks done via delegates
Handling of constraints: attributes
Handling of id: attributes
Handling of bind() and attributes

Agenda

SwingXBuilder
Google Summer of Code 2007 project
James Williams – Nova Southeastern University, FL
Proof of concept for SwingBuilder extension
First Groovy builder in 100% Groovy
SwingBuilder later ported to Groovy

Summary
SwingBuilder extension is easy
Choose your extension method based on frequency of use
FactoryBuilderSupport FTW
Look to SwingXBuilder to see how it’s been done

For More Information
TS-5098
Friday at 12:10 in EP 305
Covers more of the SwingBuilder basics not covered here
Groovy
http://groovy.codehaus.org/
Builders mentioned in this presentation
http://groovy.codehaus.org/Swing+Builder
http://groovy.codehaus.org/SwingXBuilder
http://groovy.codehaus.org/JideBuilder
http://groovy.codehaus.org/JideBuilder
Groovy Swing team blogs
http://jroller.com/aalmiray
http://www.jameswilliams.be/blog
http://www.shemnon.com/speling

Danno Ferrin, Intelligent Software Solutions, Inc. James Williams, Spatial Networks, Inc. BOF-5110 Speaker’s logo here (optional)

BOF-5110 Extending the Groovy SwingBuilder

by Danno Ferrin

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