Aug 12, 2007

Using classic Swing components with SwingXBuilder

Because they aren't core Java, the mileage really varies when it comes to how SwingX components will be drawn in different Look and Feels. For some components, like JXButton, I didn't find myself often using any of the SwingX capabilities anyway. Sometimes I really want just a JButton instead. Because the new Button Factory replaced the old one, I would have to use a combination of another SwingBuilder object and the widget node in a somewhat contrived manner:

def swing = new SwingBuilder()
def swingx = new SwingXBuilder()
def frame = swingx.frame(size:[300,300]...) {
    label(text:'Hi')
    widget(swing.button(text:'Click me'...))
}.show()

Add an actionPerformed closure and it makes for a very ugly and hacky line.

Enter the "classicSwing" attribute

The classicSwing attribute is new to SwingXBuilder and takes a boolean value. If it is set to true, SwingXBuilder attempts to create the node using a member instance of plain old SwingBuilder, otherwise it executes the createNode function using the updated factory map. The above Groovy code is now:

def swingx = new SwingXBuilder
def frame = swingx.frame(size:[300,300]...) {
    label(text:'Hi')
    swing.button(classicSwing:true, text:'Click me'...))
}.show()

Aaaah, much more clean and concise.