JGoodies FormLayout

JGoodies FormLayout is a powerful, flexible and precise general purpose layout manager. It aligns components vertically and horizontally in a dynamic rectangular grid of cells, with each component occupying one or more cells. A whitepaper about the FormLayout available online. To use FormLayout you first define the grid by specifying the columns and rows. In a second step you add components to the grid. You can specify columns and rows via human-readable String descriptions or via arrays of ColumnSpec and RowSpec instances. Each component managed by a FormLayout is associated with an instance of CellConstraints. The constraints object specifies where a component should be located on the form’s grid and how the component should be positioned. In addition to its constraints object the FormLayout also considers each component’s minimum and preferred sizes in order to determine a component’s size.

This layout also requires the use of the JGoodies FormLayout jar file (forms-1.0.6.jar or higher).

Main Features
Popup Header Menu
Graphical Feedback
Column & Row Editing
Preferences
Source Code Generation & Parsing

This feature is based on technology from the JGoodies Forms.
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/forms/
Copyright © 2002-2009 JGoodies Karsten Lentzsch

Main Features

Select JGoodies FormLayout from the Layouts palette and drop it on a JFrame or JPanel
The JGoodies FormLayout jar file (forms-1.1.0.jar) will automatically be added to your project and the classpath adjusted
Graphical feedback is provided for all column, row and cell interactions
Column and row properties may be changed via a popup menu or property dialog
Convert existing layouts (null, GridBagLayout, etc.) to JGoodies FormLayout with intelligent column, row and gap creation
Automatically add gaps when adding new columns or rows

Popup Header Menu

Right-click on the header area to access the popup header menu
Insert new columns or rows before the current column or row
Add a new column or row at the end of the current list
Delete entire columns or rows or just their widget contents
Set the column alignment to left, right, center or fill
Specify that the column or row should grow to fill the available space
Group or ungroup columns or rows
Set the sizing spec that should be used for the column or row (various column, row and gap types are available)
Edit the properties of the current column or row

Graphical Feedback

When moving a widget or adding a new widget, open cells are highlighted green while populated cells are highlighted red and insertion points are highlighted in yellow
Phantom drop point to the right and below the current cells will create new columns, rows and gaps as needed
The currently selected cell shows its column and row spanning handles and alignment handles
Set the alignment of a cell using its popup alignment menu or the toolbar
Right-click on a column to set its grow property
Grouped columns and rows are color highlighted to indicate which are in the same group
Column and row sizing handles make it easy to set the size of a column or row
Reorder columns and rows by dragging them (with their associated gap columns or rows)
Column and rows borders are indicated with gray lines
Interactive column and row spanning feedback is provided
Full keyboard support for quickly changing alignment values

Cell

D

default horizontal

Shift+D

default vertical

F

fill horizontal

Shift+F

fill vertical

L, C, R

left/center/right for horizontal

T, M, B

top/middle/bottom for vertical

Cell
D	default horizontal
Shift+D	default vertical
F	fill horizontal
Shift+F	fill vertical
L, C, R	left/center/right for horizontal
T, M, B	top/middle/bottom for vertical

Column & Row Editing

Double click on a column or row to access its property dialog
Switch between columns and rows using the arrow buttons
Select from any of the predefined column or gap templates
Set the column or row alignment
Specify the resize behavior and the relative weights of each column or row
Set the size of the column or row
- Specify a constant size in a variety of units
- Specify minimum and maximum sizes
Floating layout assistant for constraints
Open the Columns or Rows editing dialog from the Property Pane or the right-click context menu of the panel.
Insert or add new columns and rows
Open the property dialog for an individual column or row
Group and ungroup columns or rows
Rearrange the order of the columns or rows

Preferences

Control whether automatic grab is used for text widgets, comboboxes, tables, etc.
Control whether labels are automatically right-aligned when next to a text widget

Source Code Generation & Parsing

Intelligently convert existing layouts (null, GridBagLayout, etc.) to JGoodies FormLayout with column, row and gap creation
Generated code will use predefined FormFactory constants as necessary
Parser can understand reused CellConstraint objects

Parser supports all CellConstraint styles

Creation methods intended for use by humans

CellConstraints cc = new CellConstraints();
cc.xy(2, 1); // second col, first row
cc.xy(2, 1, "right, bottom"); // aligned to right and bottom
cc.xy(2, 1, "r, b"); // abbreviated alignment
cc.xywh(2, 1, 4, 3); // spans 4 cols, 3 rows
cc.xywh(2, 1, 4, 3, "right, bottom");
cc.xywh(2, 1, 4, 3, "r, b");

Constructors intended for builders

new CellConstraints(); // first col, first row
new CellConstraints(2, 1);
new CellConstraints(2, 1, 4, 3);
new CellConstraints(2, 1, CellConstraints.RIGHT, CellConstraints.BOTTOM);

Constructors intended for building UIs from XML

CellConstraints cc = new CellConstraints();
new CellConstraints("2, 1");
new CellConstraints("2, 1, r, b");
new CellConstraints("2, 1, 4, 3");
new CellConstraints("2, 1, 4, 3, r, b");