ReflectionUI

Overview

ReflectionUI is a free (open source) Java GUI builder/generator library.

The generation of the GUI (graphical user interface) requires no other information that the object itself. Its structure is discovered at run-time through Java reflection.The generated GUI can be customized in a non-intrusive way by overriding some key methods of the generator objects.

CustomUI is a sub-project of ReflectionUI providing a GUI builder. It actually allows WYSIWYG advanced customizations of user interfaces generated by ReflectionUI.

Demonstration Video (More videos below)

Use Cases

Developing a project GUI by generating and customizing it
Prototyping a GUI
Exploring a library capabilities quickly through a generated GUI
…

Advantages

Instant prototyping
Reduced cost of user interface development and testing
Code injection simplified for cross-cutting concerns (logs, usage statistics, etc.)

Features

(ReflectionUI)

On the fly GUI generation
Controls generated for public fields, methods, get/set properties, …
Automatic undo/redo management
Automatic copy/cut/paste management
Dynamic menus
Field validation
On-line help management
Elegant display for exceptions
Non-intrusive customizations
Generator pluggable to any meta-data model

(CustomUI)

WYSIWYG GUI customization
Various configurable controls (forms, sliders, spinners, tables, trees, html panes, …)
Grouping and categorizing controls
Flexible layout management
Skinning
Icons
Menus (standard and custom items)
Extensible (control plugins)

Differences compared to classic GUI builders

	CustomUI (ReflectionUI)	Classical GUI builder
GUI structure	generated, customized	designed, connected to the data
GUI code	mostly interpreted (XML-based customizations)	generated and/or interpreted
Standard features (copy/cut/paste, undo/redo, open/save file, ...)	enabled/disabled	developed
GUI update	automatic	manual
GUI maintenance	optional	mandatory
GUI re-usability	reusable plugins can be developed	reusable controls can be developed

Requirements

Tested on Java 8 and 17.

Licensing

ReflectionUI and CustomUI libraries are distributed under this license.

Getting started

Use Maven (see below)
Or Get the archive (zip) file from the download area
- Extract it
- Add the jars from the 'bin' directory to your classpath
Run the class: xy.reflect.ui.control.swing.customizer.SwingCustomizer

Download

Use maven (see below)
Or Get the source code and the binaries↓

Maven Dependencies

ReflectionUI:

<dependency>
<groupId>com.github.dotxyteam</groupId>
<artifactId>reflection-ui</artifactId>
<version>5.2.10</version>
</dependency>

CustomUI:

<dependency>
<groupId>com.github.dotxyteam</groupId>
<artifactId>custom-ui</artifactId>
<version>5.2.10</version>
</dependency>

Documentation

Read the user guide (below)
Explore the examples ('examples' directory in the distribution folder)

User guide

Basic Usage

SwingCustomizer.getDefault().openObjectFrame(myObject);

Disable the design mode by setting this system property:

-Dxy.reflect.ui.infoCustomizationsToolsHidden=true

Default Operation

Only public fields and methods are considered.
A public getter (public (get|is|has)Something()) and its eventual associated public setter (public void setSomething( object)) are considered as a unique public field (public something).
A final field or a getter without an associated setter are considered as a "get-only" field that may not be editable (depends on the field type).
A field control (text component, list view, combo-box, ...) is generated for each field.
A button is generated for each method.
Field changes can be undone.
Method calls invalidate the modification stack and cannot be undone. Note that IMethodInfo.getNextInvocationUndoJob(...) or IMethodInfo.isReadOnly() can be overridden in order to make a method call undoable or harmless for the modification stack.

Architecture

The GUI is generated in 2 steps:

The class information of each object is read and interpreted by the ReflectionUI object. The result is an abstract GUI model: ITypeInfo. Then this abstract GUI model is passed to the engine that will create the various GUI controls displaying the object values: the SwingRenderer.

Class ----------(ReflectionUI)----------> ITypeInfo -----------(SwingRenderer)---------> GUI

Note that the SwingRenderer creates Swing-based GUIs. This is the default renderer but other renderers (JavaFX-based, SWT-based, ...) could be developed and plugged.

IMPORTANT: Swing is not (and will not be) obsolete even if JavaFX seems to be its replacement. Since 2020 we know that Swing might even survive longer than JavaFX. From the official Oracle Java Client Roadmap:

Oracle will continue developing Swing and AWT across all supported releases as a core Java SE technology.

...

Oracle will continue to support JavaFX with new fixes for Java SE 8 until at least March 2025.

The ReflectionUI interpretation algorithm is based on the Java language coding standards (ex: getter/setter interpreted as a unique property, ...).

Unfortunately, even when these standards are respected, there might not be enough information in every class definition to provide a GUI that looks and behaves exactly as expected. This is why the ReflectionUI interpretation process will often need to be customized. This is where the InfoProxyFactory comes into play. It is not essential to the ReflectionUI customization, but it makes it easier by allowing to specify conveniently a proxy for each ITypeInfo object.

CustomUI provides the customizations editor by using the following classes:

InfoCustomizations: declarative customizations persisted in XML.
InfoCustomizationsFactory: subclass of InfoProxyFactory generating proxies according to its InfoCustomizations instance.
CustomizedUI: ReflectionUI subclass compatible with InfoCustomizationsFactory
SwingCustomizer: subclass of SwingRenderer compatible with CustomizedUI

	(CustomizedUI)		(InfoCustomizationsFactory)		(SwingCustomizer)
	\|		\|		\|
	∇		∇		∇
	(ReflectionUI)		(InfoProxyFactory)		(SwingRenderer)
Class	——————–>	ITypeInfo	——————–>	ITypeInfo (proxy)	——————–>	GUI
			^
			\|_______	____\|

The GUI builder Online Documenation

Note that since the version 4.6.0 the GUI builder has an online documentation. To view it click on the question mark buttons available on any customization editor window.