Swing tweaks for Mac OS X

Question

I remember having once seen a list of properties that could be set on Swing components to make them look more native on Mac OS X. This included ways to mark "dirty" documents with the "dot" in the window close button, open dialogs as sheets (not sure about that, but sure would be nice) etc.

I know Apple has let Java down as a "primary" programming language, but as they recently updated Java and even offer Java 6, I wonder if there is a comprehensive and current list - ideally with examples - on what you can do to make Swing apps look better without much effort on the Mac.

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After receiving some answers, I put this into community wiki mode and started the following list to be expanded if need be:

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• Technical Notes: Java - User Experience: Overview page on Apple's developer connection reference library (index page).

• New Control Styles available within J2SE 5.0 on Mac OS X 10.5: Examples for Button styles etc. specific to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

• Java Runtime System Properties: Information on System properties that help you enable the Apple-style menubar at the top of the screen, give rendering hints for text anti-aliasing etc.

• Mac OS X Integration for Java: Information on Menubar and Application menu, context menus, keyboard shortcuts and AppleScript
• PDF "Java 1.3.1 Development for Mac OS X (Legacy)": 80 pages of information on various topics such as packaging applications. This is somewhat outdated.

Answer 1

You can check this PDF at Apple, but it's marked as legacy.

On some applications, I'm still using com.apple.macos.useScreenMenuBar to have the Java application use the Mac OS X menu bar, and it still works in Leopard.

Answer 2

The Java Development Guide for Mac OS X has a Mac OS X Integration for Java section that is probably what you're looking for.

Answer 3

My personal link collection:

• From developer.apple.com:
  • Java Runtime Properties for Mac OS X (don't get scared by the "not recommended" popup, some of the information is still useful)
  • Apple Java Extensions
  • OS X Runtime Configuration Guidelines (not directly related to Java, but an interesting read anyway)
• From Sun:
  • Bringing your Java Application to Mac OS X Part Three

When clicking on some old links I'd been redirected to Java Design Guidelines and Java Guides, seems as though I have to update my links...

Answer 4

The Quaqua site may be interesting as well. From the site:

"The Quaqua Look and Feel (Quaqua) is a user interface library for Java applications which wish to closely adhere to the Apple Human Interface Guidelines for Mac OS X. ... It runs on top of Apple's Aqua Look and Feel, and provides fixes and enhancements for it."

It has a fairly good user guide with examples as well.

Answer 5

If you use the Macify Maven plugin to build your app, it will take care of several of these tweaks.