Reply

L2FProd: Conserve Navigation Real Estate with JTaskPaneGroups

At 11:17 PM on May 25, 2005, R.J. Lorimer wrote:

Those of you who are faithful readers will realize that this task sounds strikingly familiar to one I just wrote not two weeks ago: SwingX: Conserve Navigation Real Estate with JXScrollups . There is a reason for that - the JTaskPane and JTaskPaneGroup classes are an alternative implementation of the same control implemented by the JXScrollup . I thought it would be good to show the alternatives here so all of you can consider what works best for you.

JXScrollups and JTaskPaneGroups are very similar, although the current support for JTaskPaneGroups is arguably a little more robust. The design behind each is definitely different. JXScrollup objects are designed to be able to be placed into any parent component, as long as the parent component uses the ScrollupLayout. JTaskPaneGroups, however, are designed to be held in a JTaskPane - which brings with it an entire look-and-feel implementation (actually, set of implementations), which perform background color rendering, layout management, etc. all transparently. In reality you can use task pane groups in any container as well, but the task pane manages all of the complex layout and rendering concerns for you.

Similarly, JXScrollups allow for any child container to be placed in them for their content ( JXScrollup.setContentContainer() ), whereas a JTaskPaneGroup is, itself, the container. Strictly speaking, the JTaskPaneGroup should be able to hold any type of component - I have seen that it doesn't favor well with components more complicated than buttons. The *correct* behavior per the documentation is to use the add(Action) method - although that is a recommendation, not really a design requirement. In my example below I am using buttons, simply for consistency and simplicity.

Finally, it is important to note that L2FProd components are tightly integrated with a very richly defined look and feel system. Look and feel implementations for the various components (such as the JTaskPane and JTaskPaneGroup) are available for most of the common platforms. The SwingX components certainly haven't reached this level of maturity yet - this is probably the strongest advantage of the L2FProd components.

Here is a screenshot using the Windows XP look and feel:

Finally, here is the code from the JXScrollup example , reimplemented with JTaskPaneGroups.

package com.javalobby.tnt.l2fprod;
 
import javax.swing.*;
 
import com.l2fprod.common.swing.JTaskPane;
import com.l2fprod.common.swing.JTaskPaneGroup;
import com.l2fprod.common.swing.plaf.LookAndFeelAddons;
import com.l2fprod.common.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeelAddons;
 
public class JTaskPaneTest {
 
	private static final int NUM_TASK_PANE_GROUPS = 5;	
		
		public static void main(String[] args) {
			try {
				// Simply installing Windows XP look and feel - see LookAndFeelAddons documentation
				// for more information.
				UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
				LookAndFeelAddons.setAddon(WindowsLookAndFeelAddons.class);
			}
			catch(Exception e) { }
			
			// Create and set up the window.
			JFrame frame = new JFrame("JXScrollUpTest");
			frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
 
			// Create and set up the task pane.
			JTaskPane rootPanel = new JTaskPane();
			createTaskPaneGroups(rootPanel);
			frame.setContentPane(rootPanel);
			
			// Display the window.
			frame.pack();
			frame.setVisible(true);
			
		}
		
		private static void createTaskPaneGroups(JTaskPane rootPanel) {
			for (int i = 0; i < NUM_TASK_PANE_GROUPS; i++) {
				
				JTaskPaneGroup taskGroup = new JTaskPaneGroup();
				boolean isEven = i % 2 == 0;
				
				// Task Groups support the concept of being 'special', which 
				// means they may be rendered uniquely to stand out from others.
				taskGroup.setSpecial(isEven);
				taskGroup.setExpanded(!isEven);
				taskGroup.setText("Task Group: " + i);
				taskGroup.add(new JButton("Button on TaskPane: " + i + " #1"));
				taskGroup.add(new JButton("Button on TaskPane: " + i + " #2"));
				rootPanel.add(taskGroup);
			}
		}
}

Until next time,

R.J. Lorimer
rj -at- javalobby.org
http://www.coffee-bytes.com