> How do they actually handle the layouts, if they're not > generating code?
Voodoo. :) It's a black box... I visually created a .form in "XY space" (creates an XML file but "do not edit the file"), then you slap a "grid" on the components, bind the form to a class, add bindings for each component, create a Jframe and add the Form contentPane, and then during compile, et voila -- magic fairies create the UI bits. > Some kind of configuration file that gets interpreted at runtime? I recall seeing at JavaOne2003 a demo... and I thought they were doing some bytecode manipulation post-compile. But honestly, I'm ignorant of what is happening under the covers. Heres an example of a simple form, one label, one text field, one button, some spacers, seems like they have a Grid layout, perhaps custom: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <form xmlns="http://www.intellij.com/uidesigner/form/"; version="1" bind-to-class="com.cisco.hrit.Preferences"> <grid id="29ae7" row-count="3" column-count="3" same-size-horizontally="false" same-size-vertically="false" hgap="-1" vgap="-1"> <margin top="0" left="0" bottom="0" right="0"/> <constraints> <xy x="35" y="40" width="354" height="90"/> <grid row="0" column="0" row-span="1" col-span="1" vsize-policy="3" hsize-policy="3" anchor="0" fill="3"/> </constraints> <properties/> <border type="none"/> <children> <component id="65ed1" class="javax.swing.JTextField" binding="nametext"> <constraints> <xy x="62" y="0" width="186" height="21"/> <grid row="0" column="1" row-span="1" col-span="1" vsize-policy="0" hsize-policy="6" anchor="8" fill="1"> <preferred-size width="150" height="-1"/> </grid> </constraints> <properties/> </component> <component id="a0d38" class="javax.swing.JButton" binding="Apply"> <constraints> <xy x="258" y="66" width="96" height="24"/> <grid row="2" column="2" row-span="1" col-span="1" vsize-policy="0" hsize-policy="3" anchor="0" fill="1"/> </constraints> <properties> <text value="Apply"/> </properties> </component> <component id="2e73" class="javax.swing.JLabel"> <constraints> <xy x="0" y="3" width="52" height="14"/> <grid row="0" column="0" row-span="1" col-span="1" vsize-policy="0" hsize-policy="0" anchor="8" fill="0"/> </constraints> <properties> <text value="Item Name"/> </properties> </component> <hspacer id="64a7c"> <constraints> <xy x="258" y="5" width="96" height="11"/> <grid row="0" column="2" row-span="1" col-span="1" vsize-policy="1" hsize-policy="6" anchor="0" fill="1"/> </constraints> </hspacer> <vspacer id="535de"> <constraints> <xy x="300" y="26" width="11" height="40"/> <grid row="1" column="2" row-span="1" col-span="1" vsize-policy="6" hsize-policy="1" anchor="0" fill="2"/> </constraints> </vspacer> </children> </grid> </form> Cheers, Timo --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
