gui-commands
Project home

• Writing a Large Application in the Real World Based on the JavaTM Foundation Classes/Swing ('JFC/Swing')
• Beyond Actions--A Semantically Rich Command Pattern for the JavaTM Foundation Classes ('JFC/Swing')

Download

README.TXT
CHANGES.TXT
gui-commands-1.1.43.jar
gui-commands-1.1.43-src.jar
gui-commands-1.1.43-docs.zip
gui-commands-1.1.43-all.zip (includes all of the above plus the DTD)

Documentation

User Guide
API
GUI Commands forum

Demo

Try the Web Start Demo. If you have any hassles please feel free to email me. I occasionally manage to break the build. (c:

Current Focus:

• Improving MAC OS support
• Supporting custom components in toolbars
• Documentation updates

Features

• Commands are decoupled from Swing in that they implement a standard public void execute() that can be called without the need of an ActionEvent. This facilitates the use of commands in macros and scripts.
• Commands are factories for the creation of buttons and menus. Eg myCommand.createButton()
• All attributes for buttons/menus are configured using xml.
• The same command can have a different appearance (face) depending on the context in which it is used, ie the button icon can be different from menu icon etc.
• CommandGroups allow the creation of menu items, popup menus, toolbars, toggle buttons (with drop down menus) consisting of other commands (and/or groups).
• Groups can add other groups either as sub menus, or as 'inline' members. Inline members are added at the current group level and not as a sub menu.
• Groups can be programatically modified at runtime with all buttons/menus being updated appropriately. Any changes made to the group can reset back to the default. This is useful for having dynamic menus build on top of a standard base menu.
• It is possible to specify the "expansion point" for groups. New members added at runtime will be added at the position of the expansion point.
• The expansion point intelligently includes separators as required.
• Toggle commands and toggle groups are implemented.
• Toggle commands produce JCheckboxes/JCheckboxMenuItems when used alone and JRadioButtons/JRadioButtonMenuItems when part of a group.
• Toggle commands can veto a selection/deselection request when standalone or part of a toggle group.
• A hint mechanism is provided to allow "once off" parameters to be passed to a command on execution. All hints are automatically cleared after execution.
• Commands are highly customizable and can control any aspect of the buttons it produces (for example commands have a visible property, setting it to false hides all buttons that the command creates).
• Standard faces are provided for button, menu, toolbar and html. Other faces can be defined at will.
• All buttons/menus etc are produced using Factories allowing the easy use of custom implementations.
• A simple CommandHyperlinkListener allows commands to be embeded in HTML (JEditorPane) and executed when clicked. The listener provides static method for producing the URL and allows for hints to be specified.

Features new to the 1.1.x releases:

• Faces can now extend another face. Eg <face name='button' extends='my-command[button]'>
• Faces can be defined in a global <face-defs> section and shared by multiple commands.
• Made it easy to create commands and faces programatically.
• Improved the internal design and made it easier to create custom implementations of GroupCommands and ExclusiveGroupCommands.
• Added more configuration support for faces. They now support all the icons that buttons support.
• Hover listeners allow easy integration of status bar messages.