Professional Java Custom UI Components [Illustrated] (Paperback)

The premise of this book is simple. It presents and explains some real-world code for a variety of actual Java-based projects to show how you can do more with custom components. First there's a guide to effective user interface design, including what to avoid. (Here the authors show ineffective or clumsy interfaces drawn from a variety of real software.)

With these ideas in place, the authors next walk through several of their controls borrowed from their production code, starting with a graphical "toggle switch" that resembles the real thing. Other standout controls here include an image-based movie banner display control, and nicely functional tree and table components. There's also a general-purpose sliding control (which can scroll other content). Along the way, there's coverage of the steps required to design and code a control from scratch with plenty of tips for bringing your designs to life.

Each of these controls uses AWT (for greater portability between today's browsers) though Swing versions are also presented, but in less detail. Later, the book presents the authors' custom "framework" for new controls. (Mixed in here is a rather dense introduction to the software process for designing user interface controls.) A final chapter on "refactoring" and software maintainability shows that good software never stands still and is always being refined.

While most Java developers today do most of their work on the server, this thought-provoking title shows that client-side Java is still an option for doing more for your users. This text shows you how to think "outside the box" when it comes to user-interface design in Java. While programmers in other languages (such as Visual Basic and C++) have long used custom controls, this intriguing book puts this approach back into play for client-side Java. --Richard Dragan

This book introduces custom component development by utilizing a simple example, which has been refined during its use within a college course. It then walks through the design and development of a number of examples derived from actual production code. The book is supported by a download containing thousands of lines of tested code along with comprehensive documentation. Visual design, user interface project management, and code maintenance are also discussed, putting the code details into perspective.

This book covers:
Visual design of user interfaces

Using AWT and Swing in custom components

Implementing design patterns

Browser interoperability

Building component frameworks

Detailed examination of tested production quality code

Code maintenance