GUI creator for Java - netbeans alternative?

[SagaLore]

I have a school project where I need to create a gui/form for input, do some array handling, calculate and output,etc.

I've been struggling with netbeans. Its pretty easy to design the gui, but once I get back into the code, I'm having trouble making sense of it. I'd prefer something that was more intuitive on the actual logic integration - I don't care so much as the actual gui implementation.

Any suggestions?

 

[Borealis7]

is it an applet? is it a web application (running in a browser) or a "desktop application"?

the common Java gui is called SWING, but it takes time to learn and is not very intuitive, IMO.

 

[N4g4rok]

the common Java gui is called SWING, but it takes time to learn and is not very intuitive, IMO.

Swing is pretty basic for GUI's. It isn't exactly pretty, but it will definitely get the job done. It's also been around for a while, so you don't really have to worry about compatibility issues between platforms. That shouldn't be a problem with Java anyway, but you never know.

 

[Broheim]

I use eclipse and window builder.

but if you want to I can help you make sense of whatever code is generated by netbeans, and what you need to implement yourself inorder to make it work (like the actionlistener and such).

 

[Net]

use Miglayout http://www.miglayout.com/

look at the example at the bottom of their webpage. There are also tutorials on that site and here is a cheat sheet for more use http://migcalendar.com/miglayout/cheatsheet.html

 

[Aikouka]

SagaLore, I think the problem isn't with Netbeans, but it's with you. Java GUI code isn't terribly complex, but you're expecting to understand Java SWING without ever using it yourself.

Try going through a few of the starter tutorials from Oracle here:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/

The two biggest things that you want to get used to are how the Layout Manager defines the way something is laid out and how Panels are used extensively and also differently depending on the Layout Manager that's being implemented.

Also, I'm really not a fan of GUI builders in Java anyway. Unlike other things like HTML editors, they are not really WYSIWYG, because as you'll learn, Java layouts are relational not specified. Albeit, you can use spatial layouts where you specify exact coordinates (which is what I did when I used C# for GUIs), but it's kind of a Java faux pas.

 

[purbeast0]

using an actual GUI builder is probably the worst possible thing you can do, especially when you start having to add in custom controls. i can crank out swing guis faster doing it raw coding than most people can using a gui builder.

also GUI's built with the GUI bulder are much more of a pain in the ass to maintain.

and the whole point of using a GUI builder is so you don't have to go mess with the code that generates it. there really is no reason you should even be looking at the code produced by the GUI builder. and if you are looking at it because you want to learn how to do it by hand, that isn't a good idea, because it uses a buncha shit that is useless to do by hand since you could do it much easier in other ways.

EDIT:

i actually had to clean up 4 screens that new people at my job did with the GUI builder in netbeans because it was totally useless, since we use a lot of custom controls, and they just used common controls to make them look like our custom controls. i had to totally redo them from scratch. they also used names like 'combobox1, combobox2' etc, which the GUI builders do automatically.

 

[Markbnj]

WYSIWYG programming is teh evil.

 

[Aikouka]

WYSIWYG programming is teh evil.

In Java, I agree, but as I mentioned, I think they work rather well in Visual C#. I've never really fully depended on one though, but since C# uses direct placement (x, y, width, height), you can see exactly what everything will look like (at least ignoring any objects added during runtime).

 

[ninja098]

WindowBuilder (free Eclipse plugin) is excellent. Its bi-directional code/GUI generation is awesome.

http://code.google.com/javadevtools/wbpro/