Re: SwiXML and FormLayout

 <Forum <at> carlsbadcubes.com> writes:

> 
> Hello
> 
> First of all .. thanks for swixml ..
> 
> I very much like the swixml-forms "hack".
> I am trying to rewrite it so it can be plugged in into swixml but I am
> afraid this will requires some changes to swixml. The current aproach I have
chosen is to create new classes
> for the LayoutConverter to support the the fromlayout and the
ConstraintsConverter to support 
> formlayout constraints and then registering them to swixml
> 
> my now working xml looks like this
> <panel layout="formlayout('pref,2dlu,pref,min','pref,2dlu,pref')">
>    <label labelfor="name" text="Date format"  constraints="xy(1,1)"/> 
>     ..shorted...
> </panel>
> 
> I have managed to overide the  LayoutConverter by registering it a as
LayoutManager converter.
> ConverterLibrary.getInstance().register(LayoutManager.class,new
FormLayoutConverter());
> 
> but for the ConstraintsConverter I can not do the same since that class is not
a real converter
> (doen't implement the interface and is not registered in the converters).
> Therefore I had to change the Parser.java so it uses my "overidden" 
ConstraintsConverter.
> Whould the swixml author accept a patch so that the 
> ConstraintsConverter can also be plugged in?
> 
> greetings
> 
> P.S. It looks like that when you use a frame as container it is not possible
to change the layoutmanager of the
> frame you eeded to put a panel in the frame.
> 

I would also very much like to see either the swixml-forms hack itself
(http://jroller.com/page/ozeebee/Weblog), or the more pluggable version worked
out by the author of this post, officially rolled into SwiXML. I just integrated
Ozeebee's original version with the latest SwiXML and JGoodies releases. This
involved adding approximately 60 lines of code to Parser.java, one line each to
SwingTagLibrary.java and ConverterLibrary.java, and adding two new converter
classes: CellConstraintsAlignmentConverter.java and FormBorder.java. The
JGoodies Forms jar had to be added as a third-party library. It was very
straightforward. Nice work on this enhancement, Ozeebee. It is a wonderful
addition to SwiXML. The forms you can build with FormLayout are so much more
refined and useable than anything you can do with standard Swing layouts. The
combination of these two well-designed and easy-to-use frameworks, SwiXML and
JGoodies Forms, is very powerful indeed. 

I greatly appreciate and respect the work you guys have done on SwiXML. If you
could find the time and the inclination to merge this FormLayout integration
into an official SwiXML release, you would be making many of us very happy.
Please let me know if you'd like me to send you the patch I just worked out,
along with instructions for how to integrate it with the latest dev.java.net
source. 

Keep up the great work Wolf, Ozeebee, and everyone else contributing to SwiXML.

-JP