This document summarizes ways to extend the SwingBuilder in Groovy to build richer user interfaces. It discusses individual factory registration, builder suites, and the composite builder approach. It also provides an overview of FactoryBuilderSupport and delegates that can intercept factory lifecycles. Finally, it highlights the SwingXBuilder project as an example of extending SwingBuilder in Groovy.

1. 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)

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

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

4. Agenda Ways to Extend SwingBuilder FactoryBuilderSupport Overview Case Study: SwingXBuilder

5. 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

6. Agenda Ways to Extend SwingBuilder FactoryBuilderSupport Overview Case Study: SwingXBuilder

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. Individual Factory Registration 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

12. Individual Factory Registration Well behaved JavaBeans may use registerBeanFactory(…) All lifecycle methods are automated No fancy processing Child nodes added via JComponent.add(child [,constraints]) 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

13. Builder Suite Logical progression from creating factories Subclass SwingBuilder Do magic in the Constructor SwingBuilder factories can be over-ridden SwingBuilder factories can be renamed – getFactories().each {k, v -> registerFactory(&quot;j&quot; + k, v) }

14. 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….

15. 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(); } }

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

17. 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…

18. Agenda Ways to Extend SwingBuilder FactoryBuilderSupport Overview Case Study: SwingXBuilder

19. Factory Lifecycle

20. 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

21. Agenda Ways to Extend SwingBuilder FactoryBuilderSupport Overview Case Study: SwingXBuilder

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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/GraphicsBuilder Groovy Swing team blogs http://jroller.com/aalmiray http://www.jameswilliams.be/blog http://www.shemnon.com/speling

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