SWT GUI Builder User Guide
Installation
System requirements: eclipse 2.1 or newer, JDK 1.4 or newer.
Unzip plugin zip file into eclipse/plugins folder. Restart eclipse.
Create new SWT GUI
Select New, Other
Select SGB File Wizards, Shell with Menues.
Type fully qualified class name and press finish.
SWT GUI Builder should open up.
Note: before running/debugging generated source file in eclipse, make sure swt.jar is on the classpath, and required shared library is passed in. Figures below show typical setup on Windows:
Open existing SWT GUI
Open context menu for java file and select Open SWT GUI Builder
Common Tasks How-to
Add components to a GUI:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Select Component Group (Control, Composites, Complex, etc)
3. Click on interested Control to select it
4. Click on a composite in a tree view that will be a parent of new control
5. Using context menu (mouse right click) or Component menu select Insert Selected or press Alt-Insert on a keyboard
Add components to a GUI (2):
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Click on composite in a tree view that will be a parent of new control
3. Using context menu or Component menu select Insert Other
4. Select component from the submenu to be added
Remove component:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Select component to be removed by clicking on it in a tree view
3. Using Component menu or context menu select Delete, or press Alt-Delete on a keyboard
Change component property:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Click on Properties tab
3. Select component in a tree view
4. Change property in a properties view
Change component style:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Click on Style tab
3. Select component in a tree view
4. Select/deselect style
Add/remove event:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Click on Events tab
3. Select component in a tree view
4. Select/deselect event type
Rename component:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Select component in a tree view
3. Using Component menu or context menu select Rename, or press Alt-Enter on a keyboard
Rename component (2):
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Double click on a component in a tree view
Change ordering of components:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Select component in a tree view
3. Using Component menu or context menu select Move Up (Down), or press Alt-Up (Down) on a keyboard
Show component bounds:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Select component in a tree view
3. Using Component menu or context menu select Show
Show Dialog (Color, File, Print, etc.):
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Select dialog in a tree view
3. Using Component menu or context menu select Show
Create a sibling of a component:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Select component in a tree view
3. Using Component menu or context menu select Duplicate, or press Alt-d on a keyboard
Change text property:
1. Activate Multi View window
2. Click on Properties tab
3. Select component in a tree view
4. Type in text then press Enter
Note: to insert tabs and new line character type \n or \t
Example: first line\nsecond line\n\tthird line with tab
Move/resize control:
1. Select control in a tree view
2. Type in new values into Bounds property or press to change bounds using mouse. To move component drag it. To resize component move cursor to the right bottom corner of the component (cursor should change from hand to resize) and then drag it.
Note: if parent of the control has layout, bounds property will be disabled
Set/modify layout:
1. Select composite in a tree view
2. Change layout property by selecting appropriate layout from the drop down
3. Click on to open Layout Editor.
Backparsing
Overview
The SWT GUI Builder comes with recursive descent (top-down) parser. To make parser more efficient and to eliminate undesirable code changes, every file to be parsed must include special tags. The parser will only parse and modify content within those tags. Here is an example:
// beginning of source code
// START VISUALS_DECLARATION
private Shell Shell_1 = null;
private Display Display_1 = null;
// END VISUALS_DECLARATION
private void createControls()
{
// START VISUALS_INITIALIZATION
// init visuals
Display_1
= Display.getDefault();
Shell_1
= new Shell(Display_1, SWT.SHELL_TRIM);
//
set properties
Shell_1.setText("ABC");
Shell_1.setBounds(new
Rectangle(424, 246, 217, 164));
Shell_1.setVisible(true);
// END VISUALS_INITIALIZATION
// START EVENT_INITIALIZATION
Shell_1.addShellListener(new
org.eclipse.swt.events.ShellAdapter()
{
public
void shellClosed(org.eclipse.swt.events.ShellEvent e)
{
Shell_1_shellClosed(e);
}
});
// END EVENT_INITIALIZATION
}
// START EVENT_HANDLING
public void
Shell_1_shellClosed(org.eclipse.swt.events.ShellEvent e)
{
System.out.println("Shell_1_shellClosed:
" + e );
}
// END EVENT_HANDLING
// end of source code
Everything within
// START VISUALS_DECLARATION
// END VISUALS_DECLARATION
and
// START VISUALS_INITIALIZATION
// END VISUALS_INITIALIZATION
and
// START EVENT_INITIALIZATION
// END EVENT_INITIALIZATION
will be modified by SGB (red background on diagram). It is not recommended to put user code within those tags. Generated code within
// START EVENT_HANDLING
// END EVENT_HANDLING
will never be modified (green background on diagram). It is save to put user event handling there. Those functions will never be removed even if event handler itself is removed.
Accepted source file grammar:
[
<PackageDeclaration> ]
(
<ImportDeclaration> )*
...
"class
" <ID>
...
//
START VISUALS_DECLARATION
(<Declaration>)*
//
END VISUALS_DECLARATION
...
//
START VISUALS_INITIALIZATION
(<Statement>)*
//
END VISUALS_INITIALIZATION
...
//
START EVENT_INITIALIZATION
(
<EventInit> )*
//
END EVENT_INITIALIZATION
...
//
START EVENT_HANDLING
...
// END
EVENT_HANDLING
...
EOF
DECLARATION_BLOCK
:= ( <Declaration> )*
INITIALIZATION_BLOCK
:= ( <Statement> )*
EVENT_INIT_BLOCK
:= ( <EventInit> )*
Declaration
:= [ "public" | "private" | "protected" ]
<TYPE> <ID> [ "=" "null" ] ";"
Statement
:= <AnonymousInit> |
[<TYPE>]
<ID> "=" <Assignment> |
<SetMethod>
|
<FieldSet>
";"
Assignment
:= null | <AnonymousInit>
AnonymousInit
:= "new" <TYPE>
"(" <PARAMS> ")"
SetMethod
:= <ID> ".set"
<FUNC_NAME> "(" <PARAM> ")"
FieldSet
:= <ID> "." <FIELD_NAME>
"=" <PARAM>
MethodCall
:= <ID> "."
<FUNC_NAME> "(" ")"
PARAM
:= INTEGER |
FLOAT |
BOOLEAN |
STRING |
CHARACTER |
<ArrayInit>
|
<Assignment>
|
<MethodCall>
|
<OrParams>
Params
:= [ <Param> ( "," <Param> )* ]
OrParams
:= ( <STATIC_FIELD> ("+" | "|") <CHARACTER> )+
TYPE
:= <ID> ( "." <ID>)*
STATIC_FIELD
:= <TYPE> "." <FIELD_NAME>
EventInit
:= <ID> ".add"
<FUNC_NAME> "(" "new" <TYPE> "("
")"
"{"
(
"public"
"void" <FUNC_NAME> "(" <PARAMS> ")"
"{"
<FUNC_NAME>
"(" <PARAMS> ")" ";"
"}"
)+
"}"
")" ";"
ArrayInit
:= "new" <TYPE> "[" "]" "{"
<Params> "}"
FUNC_NAME := <ID>