Graphical Toolbox
Overview
The Graphical Toolbox, a set of UI tools, makes it easy to create custom user
interface panels in Java. You can incorporate the panels into your Java
applications, applets, or Operations
Navigator plug-ins. The panels may contain data obtained from the AS/400,
or data obtained from another source such as a file in the local file system or
a program on the network.
The GUI Builder is a WYSIWYG visual editor for creating Java
dialogs, property sheets and wizards. With the GUI Builder you can add,
arrange, or edit user interface controls on a panel, and then preview the panel
to verify the layout behaves the way you expected. The panel definitions
you create can be used in dialogs, inserted within property sheets and wizards,
or arranged into splitter, deck, and tabbed panes. The GUI Builder also allows
you to build menu bars, toolbars, and context menu definitions.
Incorporate
JavaHelp in your panels, including context sensitive help.
The Resource Script Converter converts Windows
resource scripts into an XML representation that is usable by Java
programs. With the Resource Script Converter you can process
Windows resource scripts (RC files) from your existing Windows
dialogs and menus. These converted files can then be edited with
the GUI Builder. Property sheets and wizards can be made from RC
files using the resource script converter along with the GUI
Builder.
Underlying these two tools is a new technology called the
Panel Definition Markup Language, or
PDML. PDML is based on the Extensible Markup
Language (XML) and defines a platform-independent language for
describing the layout of user interface elements. Once your
panels are defined in PDML, you can use the runtime API provided by
the Graphical Toolbox to display them. The API displays your
panels by interpreting the PDML and rendering your user interface
using the Java Foundation Classes.
Benefits of the Graphical Toolbox
- Write Less Code and Save Time
- With the Graphical Toolbox you have the ability to create
Java-based user interfaces quickly and easily. The GUI
Builder lets you have precise control over the layout of UI
elements on your panels. Because the layout is described in
PDML, you are not required to develop any Java code to define the
user interface, and you do not need to recompile code in order to
make changes. As a result, significantly less time is
required to create and maintain your Java applications. The
Resource Script Converter lets you migrate large numbers of Windows
panels to Java quickly and easily.
- Custom Help
- Defining user interfaces in PDML creates some additional
benefits. Because all of a panel's information is
consolidated in a formal markup language, the tools can be enhanced
to perform additional services on behalf of the developer.
For example, both the GUI Builder and the Resource Script Converter
are capable of generating HTML skeletons for the panel's online
help. You decide
which help topics are required and the help topics are
automatically built based on your requirements. Anchor tags for the help topics
are built right into the help skeleton, which frees the help writer
to focus on developing appropriate content. The Graphical
Toolbox runtime environment automatically displays the correct help
topic in response to a user's request.
- Automatic Panel to Code Integration
- In addition, PDML provides tags that associate each control on
a panel with an attribute on a Java bean. Once you have
identified the bean classes that will supply data to the panel and
have associated a attribute with each of the appropriate controls,
you can request that the tools generate Java source code skeletons
for the bean objects. At runtime, the Graphical Toolbox
automatically transfers data between the beans and the controls on
the panel that you identified.
- Platform Independent
- The Graphical Toolbox runtime environment provides support for
event handling, user data validation, and common types of
interaction among the elements of a panel. The correct
platform look and feel for your user interface is automatically set
based on the underlying operating system, and the GUI Builder lets
you toggle the look and feel so that you can evaluate how your
panels will look on different platforms.
Inside the Graphical Toolbox
The Graphical Toolbox provides you with two tools and, therefore,
two ways of automating the creation of your user interfaces. You
can use the GUI Builder to quickly and easily create new panels
from scratch, or you can use the Resource Script Converter to
convert existing Windows-based panels to Java. The converted files
can then be edited with GUI Builder. Both tools support
internationalization.
GUI Builder.
Two windows are displayed
when you invoke the GUI Builder for the first time, as shown
below.
Use the File Builder window, shown in Figure 1, to create and edit
your PDML files.
Figure 1. File Builder
window. |
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Use the Properties window, shown in Figure 2, to view or change the
properties of the currently selected control.
Figure 2. Properties
window. |
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Use the Panel Builder window to create and edit your graphical user
interface components. Select the desired component from the toolbar
and click on the panel to place it where ever you want. The toolbar
also facilities for aligning groups of controls, for previewing the
panel, and for requesting online help for a GUI Builder
function. See Explanation of the
Toolbox Widgets for a description of what each icon does.
Figure 3. Panel Builder
window. |
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The panel being edited is displayed in the Panel Builder window.
This example demonstrates how each window works together.

Resource Script
Converter.
The Resource Script Converter consists of a two-paned tabbed dialog
as shown in Figure 4. On the Convert pane
you specify the name of the Microsoft or VisualAge for Windows RC
file that is to be converted to PDML. You can specify the
name of the target PDML file and associated Java resource bundle
that will contain the translated strings for the panels. In
addition, you can request that online help skeletons be generated
for the panels, generate Java source code skeletons for the objects
that supply data to the panels, and serialize the panel definitions
for improved performance at runtime. The Converter's online
help provides a detailed description of each input field on the
Convert pane.
Figure 4. Resource Script
Converter. |
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After the conversion has run successfully, you can use the
View pane to view the contents of your
newly-created PDML file, and preview your new Java panels.
You can use the GUI Builder to make minor adjustments to a panel if
needed. The Converter always checks for an existing PDML file
before performing a conversion, and attempts to preserve any
changes in case you need to run the conversion again later.

Getting started with the Graphical Toolbox
Use
the following topics to to learn more about the Graphical Toolbox: