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Any window or screen panel that contains child components like labels or input fields is modeled as a hierarchical tree of components. A feature specific to SMaker is that even the layout managers are integrated into the hierarchy.
Developing a Java Client Application
To develop a Java Application with SMaker,
- The layout of frames, dialogs, content panes etc. is defined by SEditor and stored in one or
more XML files. In many cases the entire GUI definition for an application is stored in one XML file.
- In a second step, Java code must be written to load the layout definition (XML), and to display and use the GUI components.
In the Java application, the XML may be loaded (1) from the file system, (2) from an URL or (3) from a String.
Example layout tree of a simple application:
Example Java code that uses this layout.
SMaker is quite flexible, so it is not required to build the entire GUI in SEditor. For example
you could define just the layout of your main menu and the content pane of some dialogs by SEditor
and build the remaining GUI completely by your own code. This means, the xml file may contain
fragments of your GUI, for example menu bars, content panes together with their child components etc.
To build such an xml file, put a <p> target at the top of the layout tree and append the GUI fragments
as childs of this <p>.
In the Java code, load the xml file, obtain references to the GUI fragments and do the usual Swing programming
like adding ActionListeners etc.
Building Up the Component Tree
Multiple Layout Files
An XML file (or its Java equivalent) can contain the layout for any number of panels. If you want to have more than one layout in the file,
start with a <p> node as the root. This is a general element and its role is just to be a parent of other nodes.
Add the panels or frames for which the layout is specified as childs of this <p> node. However, if you need just one panel,
no top <p> is required and you can start for example with a JPanel or JFrame.
Identifying Nodes
As the application program will need a reference to some (but usually not all) of the components (see Package Guide – Accessing the Swing
and AWT Objects), an identifier should be set for these nodes. This is done by setting the "id" property in the Property Dialog.
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