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Do you know any decent framework for creating Swing screens? I need to extend my application for implementors that will have to add their own screens.

Possible options:

  1. Netbeans platform with Matisse editor

  2. Bean builder (very old and unsupported)

  3. Eclipse VEP (beta)

Any other option?

Update: I am not looking for design time tool to build my screens. I am looking for an addon or a platform to allow implementors (users of my application) to build custom screens for different clients. The screens have to be saved in some format (say xml) and will be displayed by another (view-only) application.

Because of that, solutions like Matisse4MyEclipse don't fit, because I can't bundle their proprietary plugin with my application.

Update 2:

I am asking for a framework, not a design-time tool. I want some kind of component to embed in my application, so that users will be able to create screens by themselves.

m_vitaly
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    How would you wire those screens with the application? I assume those custom-made screens need some functionality as well? – Erich Kitzmueller Jun 25 '09 at 05:11
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    If you say that Bean builder is very old and unsupported, forget this option ;) – ivan_ivanovich_ivanoff Jun 25 '09 at 05:57
  • +1 @ammoQ - building application is not just UI... – David Rabinowitz Jun 25 '09 at 06:05
  • @ammoQ, @David Rabinowitz: actually you can write an application with just ui, look at what bean builder does... That's the whole idea of beans, you write some functionality enclosed in java class and the user can visually build an application by integrating those classes as building blocks. – m_vitaly Jun 25 '09 at 10:51

5 Answers5

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instantiations' WindowBuilder - a commercial product

David Rabinowitz
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I have used the JGoodies Form API in the past, and I liked the simplicity of it. (I dislike GUI builders...) I guess it could be made configurable using Spring.

Ben
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What do you mean by "screens"? JFrames? JPanels?

If you use the NetBeans JPanel Form, it's pretty easy to add/modify components. With one JPanel per "screen" you can put a bunch of screens together into a wizard, using tabs, etc NetBeans GUI forms can be copied, edited, combined pretty freely.

BobMcGee
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  • Yeah I mean putting JComponents on JPanel. I already know about netbeans, but I prefer eclipse plug-in or stand alone application framework for screens editing. – m_vitaly Jun 24 '09 at 19:26
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    So, what you want is just a good, stand-alone GUI builder for Swing? You don't have very many options for GUI builders, and Netbeans is the only good one I've seen that is free. You might be able to get some package to work with the Matisse .form files (they're just XML, after all), but NetBeans really IS the easiest way. I promise. – BobMcGee Jun 24 '09 at 20:14
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I haven't seen Matisse4MyEclipse mentioned yet. That said, it's part of MyEclipse, which isn't free, so it seems likely to me that there are potential licensing issues here.

As for having users implement screens for different clients, it sounds like your users are going to be tech savvy. Perhaps you could use Groovy's SwingBuilder to define these views in an editable form. I think this is perhaps more of what you're looking for than a design-time tool.

Paul Morie
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IntelliJ IDEA also has an GUI Designer.

Ilya Boyandin
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