Rich Client Programming: Plugging into the NetBeans Platform

Chapter ElevenGraphical User Interfaces

11.1. Introduction

As we have already seen, the NetBeans Platform does much of the hard work of putting together a standalone application, providing everything from the windowing system to an extendable help system and options manipulation. But while you can save a great deal of work by extending these parts of the NetBeans Platform, you will inevitably have to code some graphic user interface (GUI) elements such as dialogs and wizard panels.

Creating GUIs has traditionally been more difficult than it needs to be. Standard layout managers such as BorderLayout aren’t easy to work with. While GridBagLayout provides for easier manipulation of forms, the use of absolute pixels to position components often leads ...