JGoodies Forms 1.6 API

This document describes the API of the JGoodies Forms, a framework that helps you lay out and implement elegant Swing panels quickly and consistently.

See:
Description

Packages

com.jgoodies.forms.builder	Contains optional builder classes of the Forms framework.
com.jgoodies.forms.debug	Consists of optional classes that help you find, understand and fix layout problems
com.jgoodies.forms.extras	Contains optional Forms framework classes that ship only with the JGoodies Forms source distribution and are not yet part of the binary Forms library.
com.jgoodies.forms.factories	Consists of optional Forms framework factory classes that assist you in building consistent forms quickly
com.jgoodies.forms.internal
com.jgoodies.forms.layout	Contains the core classes of the JGoodies Forms framework: layout manager, column and row specifications, sizes and cell constraints
com.jgoodies.forms.util	Consists of Forms framework helper classes for unit conversion and layout styles

This document describes the API of the JGoodies Forms, a framework that helps you lay out and implement elegant Swing panels quickly and consistently. Forms makes simple things easy and the hard stuff possible, the good design easy and the bad difficult.

Forms 1.5 requires Java 6 or later. Find Forms versions for older Java at here.

Getting Started

Forms ships with a tutorial and tutorial sources. The compiled tutorial is available as Forms Demo. And you can find more examples at www.JGoodies.com/freeware. As a next step you can study the JGoodies articles and presentations.

Open Issue

There's a weakness in the FormLayout that may require an API extension. Components that span multiple columns or rows do not affect the column width or row height resp., but can in some cases expand the container.
I'm looking for a means to let the layout grid honor these components that is both powerful and easy to understand. See item #3.5 in the accompanying FAQ for details and a workaround.