SpeedJG Introduction - Tool Bars

As mentioned before all the toolbar buttons will be activated/deactivated in dependency on the Component selected in the tree. That is to say, if a toolbar button is active it refers to the Component currently selected.

To give you a short overview of what these buttons mean and what functionality is associated with them, the events initiated by these buttons are explained below.

Edit Project Toolbar

Open ProjectOpen Project

Presents a file dialog you can select a SpeedJG project file from and visualizes the structure of this file within the tree panel.

At this point there is something to say about the structure of the XML meta data. As you can see on the first picture of this page, the root of this structure begins with SpeedGJ. Next to the root different projects can be made available, and not until you have opened a project element can you place your GUI components below them. So the project is the anchor of different GUIs and only a whole project can be saved to the file system; its file name becomes ProjectName.gpr.

Save ProjectSave Project

Stores the contents of the project currently selected on the hard disk. This button is activated only if the underlying meta data have been changed.

Exit ProjectExit Project

Removes the selected project from the tree. If the meta data of the project have been changed, you will be asked to save the contents before closing.

New ProjectNew Project

When pressed instantiates a new project editor on the Editors Tab.

Edit ProjectEdit Project

Opens a new editor for the Project currently selected on the Editors Tab.

Edit Component Toolbar

Cut ComponentCut Component

Removes the Java Component currently selected from the tree structure and stores the contents of this Component (and all of its sub-components) into a separate copy buffer. In addition there is a cut history buffer where up to the last 50 cut components will be stored and from where they can be restored if required.

Copy ComponentCopy Component

Stores the contents of this Component (and all of its sub-components) into a seperate copy buffer.

Paste ComponentPaste Component

Fetches the component structure currently located in the copy buffer and adds this structure to the component structure currently selected in the tree.

Move Up ComponentMove Up Component

Changes the order of Components at the same structure level by placing the Component currently selected before the preceding one.

Move Down ComponentMove Down Component

Changes the order of Components at the same structure level by placing the Component currently selected after the following one.

Open Cut-HistoryOpen Cut-History

Opens a dialog from where a previously cut component structure can be selected. This structure is than stored into the copy buffer from where it can be pasted to any place of the current tree structure.

Edit ComponentEdit Component

Opens a new editor for the Component currently selected on the Editors Tab.

Source-Code Toolbar

Generate View-CodeGenerate View-Code

Following the model-view controller pattern the view and controller-code generation is separated (the model code is up to you because it is not GUI specific). When you create this code you see that the controller is given a GUIObject representing the view. So the controller only sees those components he's interested in and we have a rigid separation of the view and the controller.

Generate Controller-CodeGenerate Controller-Code

When activating this button you will first be asked within a little dialog which Listeners to implement for which components. Here you can select any combination of:

Controller code generation
  1. ActionListener and/or
  2. CaretListener and/or
  3. ChangeListener and/or
  4. ComponentListener and/or
  5. FocusListener and/or
  6. HyperlinkListener and/or
  7. InternalFrameListener and/or
  8. ItemListener and/or
  9. KeyListener and/or
  10. ListSelectionListener and/or
  11. MenuListener and/or
  12. MouseListener and/or
  13. MouseMotionListener and/or
  14. PopupMenuListener and/or
  15. TreeExplansionListener and/or
  16. TreeSelectionListener and/or
  17. TreeWillExpandListener and/or
  18. WindowListener

Generate XMLGenerate XML

Prints the readable and parseable structure of the Component currently selected on the XML Panel.

Check ComponentCheck Component

Instantiates a new Component from the selected XML meta-data structure on the fly. If this Component is a JFrame or JDialog it will be shown as a separate window. Otherwise it will be placed on the Check Panel.

Component Editor Buttons

The rest of the toolbar buttons are used to instanciate corresponding Component editors. These editors are customized with regard to the Component to be created. After editing this Component becomes part of the Component currently selected in the tree. So you are able to create the following GUI elements:

Upper Toolbar
JFrameJFrame JDialogJDialog JDesktopPaneJDesktopPane
JInternalFrameJInternalFrame JMenuBarJMenuBar JMenuJMenu
JMenuItemJMenuItem JSeparatorJSeparator JRadioButtonMenuItemJRadioButtonMenuItem
JCheckBoxMenuItemJCheckBoxMenuItem JPopupMenuJPopupMenu JToolBarJToolBar
JToolBar.SeparatorJToolBar.Separator JPanelJPanel JSplitPaneJSplitPane
JTabbedPaneJTabbedPane JScrollPaneJScrollPane BoxBox
JButtonJButton JToggleButtonJToggleButton JRadioButtonJRadioButton
JCheckBoxJCheckBox JLabelJLabel JTextFieldJTextField
JFormattedTextFieldJFormattedTextField JPasswordFieldJPasswordField JTextAreaJTextArea
JEditorPaneJEditorPane JComboBoxJComboBox JSpinnerJSpinner
JListJList JTableJTable JTreeJTree
JSliderJSlider JProgressBarJProgressBar  
Right Toolbar