Best Practice Guide: Swing

Question

Hi!

Does anybody know Swing related GUI guidelines - specifically on how to design Swing apps and which components I should use? I'm not looking for an official standard, but pragmatic tips I can use to set a good standard for my projects.

I haven't used too much of Swing by myself. Surely clicking a GUI with a GUI designer isn't a big deal. However I'd like to get some insights from people who have experience with Swing and know what to avoid. Swing lately (in Java 6- 10) got decent changes. So there isn't too much specific standardization out there currently.

Answer 1

There are many resources out there discussing good uses of Swing or showcasing good uses of Swing. Here are a few:

• Kirill Grouchnikov's Blog
• Pushing Pixels
• Swing FX (hasn't been updated in a while, but has lots of good stuff in the archives)

These resources aren't simple best practices lists, but I find that I'm constantly inspired by general design blogs and Swing design blogs in particular. On top of that, projects like swinglabs can show you what people can and are doing with Swing.

Answer 2

I've answered a similar question with my own list of tips here.

Answer 3

When attempting to select the right layout manager for placing components in a panel I tend to take a quick look through Sun's visual guide to layout managers.