which GUI library to use for database app to simply making form?

M

Mladen Adamovic

Which GUI (preferably Swing) library do you suggest to me to use for making
database application?

I want to simply making forms (input to the database).
 
C

Chris Smith

Mladen said:
Which GUI (preferably Swing) library do you suggest to me to use for making
database application?

I want to simply making forms (input to the database).

Err, perhaps I don't exactly understand the question. If you want to
use Swing as you indicate above, then by all means use it! If you want
to use a different GUI library (or haven't yet decided whether to use
Swing or a different library), then you need to say more about your
requirements. In particular, what kinds of interactions do you expect
to use; how important is actual performance? How important is perceived
performance? How much time do you have to develop this? What prior
experience do you (or other members of your team) have in particular
technologies?

Incidentally, choosing a GUI library has little to do with whether your
application will be getting its information from a database or somewhere
else.

--
www.designacourse.com
The Easiest Way to Train Anyone... Anywhere.

Chris Smith - Lead Software Developer/Technical Trainer
MindIQ Corporation
 
K

Karsten Lentzsch

Mladen said:
Which GUI (preferably Swing) library do you suggest to me to use for making
database application?

I want to simply making forms (input to the database).

If you are looking for a way to easily bind a database
to Swing views, check out the JDNC and JClient/BC4J;
learn about form-oriented layout managers, take care of
the editor's micro design and care about validation.

Find below some references. Hope this helps,
Karsten Lentzsch

*JDNC - Sun's Java Desktop Network Components*
Learn about issues you likely have to address
and stay tuned with this interesting project:
http://www.javadesktop.org/articles/JDNC/index.html

*JClient - Oracle's client architecture*
The articles and presentations around JClient
provide useful information about client architectures:
http://otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/htdocs/JClient/forms_Client.html

*JGoodies Forms*
This is my free advanced form-oriented layout framework.
It makes simple things easy and the hard stuff possible,
the good design easy and the bad difficult:
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/forms/index.html

*JGoodies Looks*
My free Windows look&feel and Plastic look&feel family.
These l&fs have been optimized for readability, precise
micro design and usability - many find them elegant:
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/looks/index.html

*JGoodies Validation (commercial)*
My tiny validation library and a set of validation
result views that reduce the effort required for
integrating validation into a Swing application:
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/validationdemo/index.html

*JForm*
Will Boluyt's binding and validation library:
https://jform.dev.java.net/
 
M

Mladen Adamovic

Chris Smith said:
If you want to use Swing as you indicate above, then by all means use it!

Swing library is NOT good for database related products, becose it has
a lack of components. I'm searching for some GOOD Swing/DB components to
use for database application - forms.
In particular, what kinds of interactions do you expect
to use; how important is actual performance?

The most important think is
How important is perceived
performance?
How much time do you have to develop this?

I need library that allows me really fast develop of database app (using
Java and i.e. Jasperreport).
So I must be able to develop one simple form for a 2-3 hours (as I'm able to
do it with Oracle developer).
What prior experience do you (or other members of your team) have in particular
technologies?

Java, C, Oracle developer (forms & reports & PL/SQL).
Incidentally, choosing a GUI library has little to do with whether your
application will be getting its information from a database or somewhere
else.

You have right, my first question was ambiguous.
 
M

Mladen Adamovic

Karsten, first thanks for your reply.
Karsten Lentzsch said:
*JDNC - Sun's Java Desktop Network Components*

I seen nowhere Download it.
*JClient - Oracle's client architecture*

I had been looking to avoid use of Oracle products, becouse of its price and
hardware dependents.
I want to make cheap Java database products.
*JGoodies Forms*

This one seems OK, I would check it, but I prefer sourceforge hosted
projects, for some my reasons/opinions.
*JForm*
Will Boluyt's binding and validation library:
https://jform.dev.java.net/

I wasn't able to browse its directory due to user roles/restrictions.
 
K

Karsten Lentzsch

Mladen said:
Swing library is NOT good for database related products, becose it has
a lack of components. I'm searching for some GOOD Swing/DB components to
use for database application - forms.

I don't quite agree. Swing doesn't lack components,
it just doesn't ship with database-bound models.

For example, the Swing JTable can render many db tables;
but it requires a custom table model that binds the
persistent data to the UI. Add generic DB browsing
behavior and you're done. That's where the libraries
mentioned before come in.

Karsten
 
K

Karsten Lentzsch

Mladen Adamovic wrote:

The JDNC and JClient information can help you learn
about problems you likely need to address too.
There's no need to download or use the software.

The same applies to the JGoodies Forms. Even if
you don't want to use it or if you can't use it,
I'd say that reading the whitepaper will help you.
Find more information about the Forms and related
issues at http://www.jgoodies.com/articles/
This one seems OK, I would check it, but I prefer sourceforge hosted
projects, for some my reasons/opinions.

I prefer a Java-specific ad-free server.

Anyway, you can also download the project from
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/forms/

Best Regards,
Karsten
 
M

Mladen Adamovic

Karsten Lentzsch said:
For example, the Swing JTable can render many db tables;
but it requires a custom table model that binds the
persistent data to the UI.

JTable requires also a TableCellRenderer, TableCellEditor and often some
custom ActionPerformers for
validation, triggering, binding with other Swing elements etc.
Add generic DB browsing
behavior and you're done.

Is this meant to be "previous", "next" , "last record" and "commit" buttons
?

This is not all what I need.

I need also some "list of values (LOV)" like in Oracle developer (LOV)
component.
I'll explain this. Let's imagine we have database table ARTICLES with
columns id and name.
I want to have possibility to easy make components where application user
may search articles for names
and that components (we can name it LOV) may return value of article id.

I need that I could use that component for different purposes - not just for
articles, I want to use it
for employers, contracts, renters etc. - all usual DB purposes.
That's where the libraries
mentioned before come in.

Now I'm explain why I don't think so.
 
C

Chris Smith

Mladen said:
Swing library is NOT good for database related products, becose it has
a lack of components. I'm searching for some GOOD Swing/DB components to
use for database application - forms.

Mladen,

I'm trying to understand what you want here. Do you really mean that
Swing lacks components? That seems strange; it's one of the more
component-rish user interface libraries that I'm aware of. Or do you
want non-GUI functionality like database access provided for you?

One thing you should realize is that Java itself is not a "database
forms" kind of thing; it provides you with a flexible and logical way to
put different pieces together. Because of this, Java is *not* going to
give you a GUI component that can only display data from a database.
You've got a lot of GUI components available, though, and they all (with
the possible exception of the text components) provide a general and
abstract model interface that you can implement to display data from
your database.

In general, it's best to do this with knowledge of your own application,
so few people write generic models for data from databases. That's
because most sizable database applications will access the database via
some kind of generic interface that hides the details of where the data
comes from. Options there include O/R mappers, remote calls to
middleware, or just a plain set domain-specific data wrappers.

That's if you want to write an application in Java. On the other hand,
if you're looking for a canned product for generating and running
database forms, I'm not familiar with that product space. I don't know
if there are any major products of that variety that use Java in some
way (as I assume you're asking for, given your choice of newsgroups).
Hopefully, someone else will pop in and fill that void.

--
www.designacourse.com
The Easiest Way to Train Anyone... Anywhere.

Chris Smith - Lead Software Developer/Technical Trainer
MindIQ Corporation
 
M

Mladen Adamovic

Chris Smith said:
I'm trying to understand what you want here.

I'll try to exaplain my way of thinking about this issue,
and some recently messages in comp.lang.java.* and
some other newsgroups.

I want to use Java to FAST develop database application.
So that means that maybe I have to find some forms&report tools
for Java. I wanted to try to find FREE (or cheap) ones.

After some searching I deciede I could try to use JasperReport as
a report tool. I find good its concept of XML translating.

Then I tried to find free forms tool and some Eclipse plug-ins,
Netbeans, www.gestalt.com were potential to use.

But I like idea of XML processing tool.
I wonder if there any such XML translator for database tables
but none find yet. (I'm thinking of going to do some work: "XML database
translators as a Java form tool" at my Master studies).

I wonder if there is some Java library to easy making forms (for DB apps)
and asked for recommendation.

But all question about this thema were for some reason ambigous or unclear
to other
people, no mather how hard I try to explain. As English is not my native
language - it was just one
reason for harder communication.
Do you really mean that
Swing lacks components? That seems strange; it's one of the more
component-rish user interface libraries that I'm aware of.

I explained which component for example I'm looking for
and I'll say it again if you want to:

<cite>
I need also some "list of values (LOV)" like in Oracle developer (LOV)
component.
I'll explain this. Let's imagine we have database table ARTICLES with
columns id and name.
I want to have possibility to easy make components where application user
may search articles for names
and that components (we can name it LOV) may return value of article id.

I need that I could use that component for different purposes - not just for
articles, I want to use it
for employers, contracts, renters etc. - all usual DB purposes.
Or do you
want non-GUI functionality like database access provided for you?

I don't complain about non-GUI functionality.
One thing you should realize is that Java itself is not a "database
forms" kind of thing; it provides you with a flexible and logical way to
put different pieces together. Because of this, Java is *not* going to
give you a GUI component that can only display data from a database.

Two major database companies : Oracle and IBM use Java "like"
languages in their application frameworks. So if you said to me :
"Java is *not* going to give you a GUI component that can only display data
from a database. "
I couldn't REALLY understand you.
You've got a lot of GUI components available, though, and they all (with
the possible exception of the text components) provide a general and
abstract model interface that you can implement to display data from
your database.

OK. It seems I have to try to make components I want to.
In general, it's best to do this with knowledge of your own application,
so few people write generic models for data from databases. That's
because most sizable database applications will access the database via
some kind of generic interface that hides the details of where the data
comes from. Options there include O/R mappers, remote calls to
middleware, or just a plain set domain-specific data wrappers.

1. I don't know about that kind of generic interfaces but I worked at
database products with 300+ tables.
2. I have no expirience and don't know need for "remote calls to middleware"
and "just a plain set domain-specific data wrappers". If somebody have time
and will to explain me that, he are welcome :).
 
D

Dimitri Maziuk

Mladen Adamovic sez:
I want to use Java to FAST develop database application.
So that means that maybe I have to find some forms&report tools
for Java. I wanted to try to find FREE (or cheap) ones.

There is a free edition of JBuilder. DB-aware GUI components have
been Borland's claim to fame since Delphi 1, they are included in
every edition of JBuilder.

Dima
 
A

Alex Molochnikov

Have a look at STEP FORWARD. It can create database tables and forms from
GUI front-end, as well as reports, processes and many more. You can also
incorporate your own Java code in it.

For more info, and for download go to www.gestalt.com

HTH

Alex Molochnikov
Gestalt Corporation
 
T

Tony Morris

You've got a lot of GUI components available, though, and they all (with
the possible exception of the text components) provide a general and
abstract model interface that you can implement to display data from
your database.

The text components (subclasses of javax.swing.JTextComponent) provide a
means to model data.
@see javax.swing.text.Document

--
Tony Morris
(BInfTech, Cert 3 I.T.)
Software Engineer
IBM Australia - Tivoli Security Software
(2003 VTR1000F)
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform (1.4)
Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform
 
C

Chris Smith

Tony said:
The text components (subclasses of javax.swing.JTextComponent) provide a
means to model data.
@see javax.swing.text.Document

Yes, of course. I simply meant that JTextComponent's model is less than
general and probably not well suited to the kind of data you'd often
retrieve from a database.

--
www.designacourse.com
The Easiest Way to Train Anyone... Anywhere.

Chris Smith - Lead Software Developer/Technical Trainer
MindIQ Corporation
 
M

Mladen Adamovic

just me said:
http://www.hulmen.ch/admin

Does this really simply for you. Yo can use dynamic-form class to do it
on the fly or let Admin generate the code for you.

I try to set up it using both MySQL and Hypersonic SQL but failed.
If I connect to HSQLDB with

<cite>
public String hSQLdbDriverName="org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver";
public String hSQLdbURL="jdbc:hsqldb:/photo/photo";
public String hSQLdbUser="sa";
public String hSQLdbPass="";
Class.forName (hSQLdbDriverName);
con = DriverManager.getConnection (hSQLdbURL, hSQLdbUser, hSQLdbPass);
</cite>

So, I have 4 parameters in Java to connect. But Admin have 8 parameters:
1. host
2. user
3. password
4. JDBC-Driver
5. Database URL
6. Database port
7. Database
8. Shema

Please correct me:
1. localhost
2. sa
3. ""
4. jdbc:hsqldb:
5. jdbc:hsqldb:/photo/photo
6. ?!?!?
7. photo
8. photo

Thanks for help.
 

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