Tutorial on Simple program which demonstrates Swing/AWT Grid layout

Simple program which demonstrates Swing/AWT Grid layout:

This post is intended to the beginners of swing/awt.

This below program creates a JFrame with 2 labels, 2 textfields and 2 buttons.

import java.awt.GridLayout;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPasswordField;
import javax.swing.JTextField;

/**
 * @author Nagasharath Kopalle
 *
 * Simple program to demontrate Gridlayout
 *
 */
public class GridLayoutDemo extends JFrame {

private JLabel labelName = null;

private JTextField textFieldName = null;

private JLabel labelPassword = null;

private JPasswordField passwordFieldPassword = null;

private JButton buttonSubmit = null;

private JButton buttonCancel = null;

/**
*
*/
public GridLayoutDemo() {
initComponents();
}

/**
* instantiates components and adds properties.
*/
void initComponents() {

this.setTitle("Grid Layout Demo");
this.setSize(300, 200);
GridLayout layout = new GridLayout(3, 2);
layout.setHgap(10);
layout.setVgap(5);
labelName = new JLabel("User Name: ");
textFieldName = new JTextField();

labelPassword = new JLabel("Password: ");
passwordFieldPassword = new JPasswordField();

buttonSubmit = new JButton("Submit");
buttonCancel = new JButton("Cancel");

this.setLayout(layout);
this.getContentPane().add(labelName);
this.getContentPane().add(textFieldName);

this.getContentPane().add(labelPassword);
this.getContentPane().add(passwordFieldPassword);

this.getContentPane().add(buttonSubmit);
this.getContentPane().add(buttonCancel);
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

GridLayoutDemo demo = new GridLayoutDemo();
demo.setVisible(true);
}
}

Output:

Tutorial on Eclipse Java Editor Shortcuts

Eclipse Java editor Shortcuts helps in editing source code more comfortably. Frequently used default shortcuts are listed below. 

Description	Shortcut
Delete Line	CTRL + D
Copy Line	CTRL + ALT + Down Arrow
Add method level, class level, member level Comments	SHIFT + ALT + J
Format Java Source code	CTRL + SHIFT + F
Make line commented	CTRL + /
Make multiple lines [block] commented	CTRL + SHIFT + /
Search selected similar word within the source document	CTRL + K
Select line from beginning to end	SHIFT + End key
Select line from end to beginning	SHIFT + Home key
Select Word by word in same line	CTRL + SHIFT + Right Arrow
Move line above	ALT + Up Arrow
Move line below	ALT + Down Arrow

Shortcuts can be customized and new shortcuts can be created through Keys Page in Preferences wizard.

1.  Window menu > Go To Preferences 
2.  Type Keys as the "filter text"
3.  Please find the image below for reference.

Example:

Add new Shortcut for cut whole line command.

1.  In Keys page type filter text -- Cut line
2.  Type your convenient key. In my case I added SHIFT + X
3.  Finally, Click Apply and Click Apply and Close.
4.  That's it. Now Test your new Shortcut. 

Happy Coding :)

Tutorial on launching Swing GUI always in a dedicated Thread

1. Since Swing is not thread safe, it is not at all a good practice to launch a UI Container like JFrame, JDialog etc in main Thread.
2. Doing so leads to incorrect behavior of java GUI.
3. To avoid this, Swing toolkit has predefined API as part of JFC.
4.    a. SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(Runnable r);
       b. SwingUtilities.invokeLater(Runnable r);

5. Which part of the code must be in UI Thread?
        a. setVisible(true);
        b. show(); [deprecated]
 and c. pack();
     

6. Call to these methods mentioned in 5(a), 5(b), and 5(c) must happen in one of the methods mentioned in point 4(a) and point 4(b). That's enough. :)
         Example :
             
         public static void main(String[] args){
                         
         JFrame frame = new JFrame();
         frame.setSize(100, 200);
         SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable(){
             public void run(){
                     frame.setVisible(true);
                     frame.pack();
             }//run
        });//
       }//main

  7. Difference between invokeAndWait() and invokeLater():
          a. invokeLater() is non blocking and asynchronous, where as invokeAndWait() is blocking and synchronous.
          b. Since invokeLater() is asynchronous, It is more flexible.
                                 
                                   

Tutorial on File Manager/File Explorer with Swing JTree Component

This post is intended to beginners of java swing toolkit programmers.
It is a simple java program which demonstrates the swing based File explorer GUI.

import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.io.File;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTree;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException;
import javax.swing.event.TreeModelListener;
import javax.swing.tree.TreeModel;
import javax.swing.tree.TreePath;

/**
 * @author NagasharathK
 *
 */
public class FileExplorer extends JFrame {

private JTree fileManagerTree = null;

public FileExplorer() {
initComponents();
}

/**
* Initializes components
*/
private void initComponents() {
this.getContentPane().add(new JScrollPane(createFileManagerTree()));
this.setSize(500, 500);
this.setResizable(true);
this.setTitle("File Manager..");
}

/**
* @return JPanel object which contains other comp...
*/
private JPanel createFileManagerTree() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new GridLayout());

fileManagerTree = new JTree();
fileManagerTree.setModel(new FilesContentProvider("C:\\"));
panel.add(fileManagerTree);
return panel;
}

class FilesContentProvider implements TreeModel {

private File node;

public FilesContentProvider(String path) {
node = new File(path);

}

@Override
public void addTreeModelListener(TreeModelListener l) {

}

@Override
public Object getChild(Object parent, int index) {
if (parent == null)
return null;
return ((File) parent).listFiles()[index];
}

@Override
public int getChildCount(Object parent) {
if (parent == null)
return 0;
return (((File) parent).listFiles() != null) ? ((File) parent).listFiles().length : 0;
}

@Override
public int getIndexOfChild(Object parent, Object child) {
List<File> list = Arrays.asList(((File) parent).listFiles());
return list.indexOf(child);
}

@Override
public Object getRoot() {
return node;
}

@Override
public boolean isLeaf(Object node) {
return ((File) node).isFile();
}

@Override
public void removeTreeModelListener(TreeModelListener l) {

}

@Override
public void valueForPathChanged(TreePath path, Object newValue) {

}

}

/**
* @param args
* @throws InvocationTargetException
* @throws InterruptedException
* @throws UnsupportedLookAndFeelException
* @throws IllegalAccessException
* @throws InstantiationException
* @throws ClassNotFoundException
*/
public static void main(String[] args) throws InvocationTargetException, InterruptedException,
ClassNotFoundException, InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException, UnsupportedLookAndFeelException {
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
FileExplorer explorerUI = new FileExplorer();
SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
explorerUI.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}
 

The above program has one inner class [FilesContentProvider] which serves as a model to the JTree.

The UI has 4 Components: JFrame, JScrollPane, JPanel and JTree.

To Do:

1. Add Context menu to node based upon the file type
2. Add Cell renderer to give proper names to the Nodes
3. Option to Expand whole tree or selected node etc..  

Tutorial on java GridLayout: fill the form with gridlayout

Swing controls are of two types they are Containers and components. components are arranged on a containers. example components are JLabel, JButton etc and example containers are JPanel, JFrame and JDialog etc.
these components are arranged on a container with the help of layout managers. Few layout managers available in swing toolkit are

1. FlowLayout [Jframe's Default layout manager]
2. GridLayout
3. BorderLayout [JPanel's Default layout manager]
4. GridBagLayout.
5. Custom Layout manager

The custom layout amanger is useful to design programmer's own layout manager. Usually this is useful when any of the available layout managers does not give the needy result.
apart of these above all layout managers, few third party libraries are also available they are

1. DesignGridLayout
2. Mig Layout etc

Design grid Layout

Gridlayout is one of the most simple and flexible layout managers. layout manager is used to arrange the components on a container with proper margins, gap etc.

Gridlayout is suitable when the number of components are even numbered in each row of the container.


Swing program without any layout manager:


import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class GridLayoutExample extends JFrame {

private JLabel label1 = null;
    private JLabel label2 = null;
    private JLabel label3 = null;
    private JTextField tf1 = null;
    private JTextField tf2 = null;
    private JTextField tf3 = null;
    private JButton button1 = null;
    private JButton button2 = null;

    public GridLayoutExample() {
        initComponents();
    }

    private void initComponents() {

        label1 = new JLabel("Name: ");
        add(label1);
        tf1 = new JTextField();
        add(tf1);

        label2 = new JLabel("Qualification: ");
        add(label2);

        tf2 = new JTextField();
        add(tf2);
        label3 = new JLabel("Profile: ");
        add(label3);

        tf3 = new JTextField();
        add(tf3);

        button1 = new JButton("Submit");
        add(button1);
        button2 = new JButton("Cancel");
        add(button2);
        this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
       
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws InvocationTargetException, InterruptedException {

        GridLayoutExample ex = new GridLayoutExample();

        ex.setSize(300, 200);
        ex.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        
        SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                ex.setVisible(true);
            }
        });

    }
}

  Output:

Shown below is a Swing program after adding a GridLayout. 

Replace the initComponents() of the above program with the below method


   private void initComponents() {
    GridLayout gl = new GridLayout();
    gl.setColumns(2);
    gl.setRows(4);
    gl.setHgap(15);
    gl.setVgap(15);

    this.setLayout(gl);

    label1 = new JLabel("Name: ");
    add(label1);
    tf1 = new JTextField();
    add(tf1);

    label2 = new JLabel("Qualification: ");
    add(label2);

    tf2 = new JTextField();
    add(tf2);
    label3 = new JLabel("Profile: ");
    add(label3);

    tf3 = new JTextField();
    add(tf3);

    button1 = new JButton("Submit");
    add(button1);
    button2 = new JButton("Cancel");
    add(button2);
    this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
       
}


the output after applying layout manager.....

Tutorial on WMI - Windows Management Instrumentation

WMI is a windows Library used to get the information like no of processes running currently in the computer and their event notifications like process creation modification and deletion notifications, cumputer's name, version, Win32 processes list etc

The information above mentioned can be fetched not only from local PC but also the remote machine too..

WMI can be accessed through a query langauge in two ways they are:

1. WBEMTEST.exe [GUI Tool]
2  WMIC- stands for WMI Commandline tool
3. Programatically [using Powershell and VBScript]


1. wbemtest.exe:

      How to start

         1. go to start
     
         2.  go to Run
       
         3. Type wbemtest.exe
       
         4.  the following window opens up.



Queries that can be run with this tool

1. Usual queries
2. Notification queries

Usual queries are used to query the processes and other system information etc. the query fetches the information from repository and ends the task.

Example Query:

SELECT * From Win32_Process

the above syntax fetches the current running Win32 process.

Notification queries are those which runs continuously and gives the notification of Process creation, modification and deletion and returns the object through which process information can be fetched accordingly.

Example Query:

SELECT * FROM __InstanceDeletionEvent WITHIN 1 WHERE TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_Process'

the above query notifies us whenever an existing process is deleted. WITHIN clause checks the condition for every 1 second. this query needs to be executed in Notification Query window. please refer the above figure.

 SELECT * FROM __InstanceCreationEvent WITHIN 1 WHERE TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_Process'

This above query notifies when new process is created


2. WMIC.exe

The second approach for accessing WMI is WMIC.exe which is a command line tool.

1. goto start
2. goto Run
3. open the CMD.exe
4. type wmic.exe

the above steps opens up the wmic command line tool where we can fetch OS, Processes, memory information and many more :) details of a PC.



Example command

 Process List

the Process list command lists the all the processes running currently in local machine.


Apart of these tools we can access the WMI through programs too using VBScript and Powershell.

Happy Coding! :)

Tutorial on Apache Commons Exec API for executing exe files from java program

In my previous post http://java-gui.blogspot.in/2016/12/api-for-executing-exe-files-from-java.html    you have seen using traditional java API to execute exe files from java program.

but it is proved that it is not an ideal solution for  programs which handles IO operations and for async executables. you can find more advantages of Apache Commons Exec library over traditional API in the below link.

              http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-exec/index.html


Simple example that uses the Exec library:

// class to pass the command ex: cmd.exe and its arguments...

CommandLine command = new CommandLine("ping");

// arguments to the command object can be passed in 2 ways...

command.addArguments("localhost") ;
command.addArguments("-t") ;
command.addArguments("-count");

   or

command.addArguments(new String[]{"-t", "-count"});


//handling the IO operations gracefully using LogOutputStream abstract class


LogOutputStream in = new LogOutputStream() {

@Override
protected void processLine(String line, int exitvalue) {

                       //handle the output which was produced by the process....
                      System.out.println(line);
               }
};
PumpStreamHandler streamHandler = new PumpStreamHandler(in, in);

// Executing the command along with its arguments

DefaultExecutor executor = new DefaultExecutor();

//attaching the created shreamhandler to the executor...

executor.setStreamHandler(streamHandler);

// execution...
executor.execute(command);


the above program executes the ping command and displays the output using the standard out.

Executing the interactive executables can be found in the below link...


link