Open-source improvements or replacements for Swing components

Question

I develop a number of desktop Java applications using Swing, and while Swing is quite powerful (once you get the hang of it), there are still a lot of cases where I wish some advanced component was available right out of the box.

For example, I'd really like to see easy-to-use components (without writing them myself, which I could do given enough time) like:

• Multi-line label
• Windows File Explorer-like Icons or Thumbnails view
• Drop-down button (like Firefox's old Back button)
• 5-star rating widget
• Combo box with automatic history (like the text field on Google)
• An Outlook-style accordion-style bar
• and so on

I know of a couple of sources of free Swing components, like SwingLabs, home of JXTable, JXDatePicker, and a few others.

Where do you go for Swing components beyond those included with Java itself?

Answer 1

The following are worth a look:

• swingX
• Glazed lists
• Substance look'n'feel
• Flamingo components
• Ken Orr's Mac Widgets
• Jide's open source components

Answer 2

As for: "Windows File Explorer-like Icons or Thumbnails view"

They are built in in swing.

File explorer icons are accessed through FileSystemView class ( it is used by JFileChooser ) when the L&F is Windows of course.

FileSystemView.getFileSystemView();
Icon driveIcon = fsv.getSystemIcon( new File("C:\\"));

And the Thumbnails icon can be retrieved with the sun.com class that are discouraged by Sun

sun.awt.shell.ShellFolder getIcon( boolean largeIcon )

But this one may not perform very well some times ( due to native resources handling I think ).

Answer 3

Hey There I know you can get an awesome wrapping labe and an accordion from javaswingcomponents, however they are not open source implementations.

Otherwise Jide and SwingX are great choices.