Hardcore JFC: Conquering the Swing Architecture

Graphic Java 2, Volume 2: Swing (3rd Edition)

Head First Design Patterns

Swing, Second Edition

Awt

Professional Java Custom UI Components

Format: Paperback
Author: Kenneth F. Krutsch
ReleaseDate: August, 2001
Publisher: Peer Information
Rating:

Good for Advanced Java Programmers
First there's a guide to effective user interface design, including what to avoid, including examples of real software. This book provides an introduction to creating custom UI components using Java.

The book then goes through several example of custom UI components. The examples are done with the AWT instead of using Swing for better portability of the code. In the examples, the authors emphasis design principles along with the actual code. The examples are advanced and are written for experienced programmers. The authors then go through the design and development of the example, which is very helpful to understand their design consideration in coding the example. The book ends with an overall software development process and component maintenance.

This book is for Java developers seeking a detailed introduction to designing and implementing custom user-interface components and frameworks. After the user interface guide in the beginning, this book is a tutorial by example. I would recommend the book to anyone who needs to create a user interface beyond the components offered by the standard toolkit.

Get by without Swing
The majority of browser installations support Java 1. When developing client Java applets there is a problem which has no simple solution.1 only. If you intend to use Swing you will often have to force the user to download and install the upgrade. This can lose clients because it's too difficult, or limit the user base because 1. 2 is unavailable for their platform, etc. In addition, Swing can run quite slow on older hardware. A large part of this book deals with providing equivalent functionality using AWT alone.
This book covers the design and implementation of several components using AWT and then covers what you would do given access to Swing. In the end you have several components that give a good foundation to an alternative library to Swing. You could use the design concepts in this book to develop your own complete library to use when Swing isn't available.
One thing to note when comparing the components in the book to Swing is that Swing was developed in a non-production environment. In a way they had to invent the problems and then create the solution. This code was developed as a result of real problems. As a byproduct the components run very fast compared to regular Swing components.
The chapter on UI design (Chapter 2) is a must for any developer. It details common UI design mistakes that developers make and give practical solutions. I would suggest requiring developers to read this chapter before allowing them to do any UI development of any kind (note I didn't say UI design - I recommend that you don't allow developers to DESIGN UI at all). The chapter on code maintenance (Chapter 11) is very useful and is a skill that many developers lack. Again, this could be required reading for developers.
There are several things about this book that make unique from any other book I've read. The code base is the result of a real, shipping system (used by StorageTek). It's the result of a real, organic development cycle that is also well tested. The code isn't small snippets that were hand built for the book, thus forgetting the interaction with a full application. The code is a full product standing on its own.
The code and topic is advanced and is not for beginning programmers (the name of the book is PROFESSIONAL Java Custom UI components). Bring your thinking cap.

Professional Java Custom UI Components
Hints and tips are discussed, giving important insight for creating components. Professional Java Custom UI Components takes the reader through a planning, design, and implementation philosophy for creating custom user interface components. The authors concentrated on the basic principles of design without creating another reference book. Also, rather than laying out all the nitty gritty code detail, the most interesting portions are highlighted and discussed. A handful of custom components are built to demonstrate these principles. Both the source code and documentation can be downloaded from WROX, and are copyrighted by Krutsch Associates, Inc.

The book tour starts with a discussion of the user interface design, the importance of a good interface that is intuitive to use, and the attention to detail required for a UI component. The authors take the reader through the planning and implementation of a toggle switch and LED component, implementing the event model, specifying the parent container interaction, and rendering strategy. Many tips are provided so that the reader may avoid common pit falls. More complex components are discussed and implemented.

The book ends with an overall software development process and component maintenance. Until this point, the focus has been the "how" of building custom components, now the discussion shifts into a larger context. The authors stress the importance of both before and after the initial implementation.

I recommend reading this book for anyone designing and implementing custom UI components. (September 2001).