Title:	EASY DEVELOPMENT OF GUIS USING XML AND JAVA REFLECTION
Author(s):	Gil Moreira , João M. P. Cardoso
ISBN:	972-98947-3-6
Editors:	Nuno Guimarães and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2004
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Software Engineering, XML, Java, Swing, Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	1412
Last Page:	1419
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	This paper describes Xil, a Java™ package to easier the development of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) based on Java Swing components. The concept uses a markup language, based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language), to specify the structure and type of components of the GUI. The package interprets the specification and automatically generates the interface. The structural description also specifies the binding of actions, associated with some components of the GUI, with class methods to handle such actions and to connect the GUI structures to the rest of the application. Code for those classes and methods is the only code needed to be developed to generate the GUI. During program execution, the binding of GUI components to actions is performed using the Java reflection feature, which permits to instantiate a class and to invoke a method based on dynamically defined names. Some of those actions do not require to program additional code. The concept adds a layer between the programmer and the Java’s native interface Swing toolkit. Thus, the application’s development is abstracted from the Swing complexity and the concept truly helps the development of GUIs. The paper explains the concept, the package, and presents an example realized using the Xil package.
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