Lab 12: Graphical User Interfaces (GUI's) in Java
For most of the relevant Information on how to build GUIs in Java, see the following reference: Java GUI Programming Primer
The content below discusses material not explicitly covered in the above reference.
Basic structure of a simple GUI application:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*
import java.awt.event.*;
class MyGUIApp extends JFrame {
/**
* Constructor for the GUI.
*/
public MyGUIApp() {
// initialize fields here.
initGUI(); // initialize the GUI components
}
/**
* Actually start the GUI
*/
public void start() {
// Do any last second initializations, if needed.
setVisible(true); // Make the GUI visible
}
/**
* Initialize the GUI components
*/
private void initGUI() {
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); // Causes the application to end if the GUI frame is closed.
// instantiate, initialize and connect all the GUI's components here.
}
/**
* Main method that starts the app.
* In general, this would not be in this class but rather in a separate "controller" class
* with slightly different coding (as required for a true Model-View-Controller system).
* We put it here for now, for simplicity's sake only.
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyGUIApp view = new MyGUIApp(); // instantiate the GUI but don't show it yet.
// Model classes would be instantiated here plus any other required objects.
view.start(); // Start the application by making the GUI visible.
}
}