Introduction to Swing classes

This section contains the Introduction to Swing classes in java.

Introduction to Swing classes

Swing library is an official Java GUI toolkit released by Sun Microsystems in1997 with JDK 1.2. Swing is a part of JFC, Java Foundation Classes. It is a collection of packages for creating full featured desktop applications. JFC consists of AWT, Swing, Accessibility, Java 2D, and Drag and Drop. The Java platform has Java2D library, which enables developers to create advanced 2D graphics and imaging.

Swing has :

• 100% Java implementation of components
• Pluggable Look & Feel
• Lightweight components
• Uses MVC Architecture
  Model represents the data
  View as a visual representation of the data
  Controller takes input and translates it to changes in data
• Three parts
  Component set (subclasses of JComponent)
  Support classes
  Interfaces

The main characteristics of the Swing toolkit

• platform independent
• customizable
• extensible
• configurable
• lightweight

The design of the Swing component classes is loosely based on the Model-View-Controller architecture, or MVC.

1. The model stores the data.
2. The view creates the visual representation from the data in the model.
3. The controller deals with user interaction and modifies the model and/or the view.

Class hierarchy of Swing

Swing contains components that you?ll use to build a GUI. The class JComponent, descended directly from Container, is the root class for most of Swing?s user interface components.

Swing Component class description

Some of the main Swing component classes are given below :