Procedure

Basic Visual Editor Test

This test will demonstrate the creation of a simple Swing graphical application using the Visual Editor.

Creating Project

First create a new Java Project by pressing the New button on the toolbar.
Select Java from the list on the left, and Java Project on the right.
Click Next, and name the project VE Demo and click Finish.


Creating Visual Class

Once the project is created, select it in the Package Explorer, then mouse button 2 and from the New menu, select Visual Class.


In the wizard, name the new class SayHello, ensure the Frame and Swing buttons are checked and click Finish.

The Visual Editor will now launch with a JFrame on the canvas.

Initial Editing

Select the JFrame by clicking on it on the canvas. A black border will indicate it's selected.
Move the mouse to the lower-right of the JFrame and click and drag the edge to a larger size, as the picture shows.

Once the JFrame is resized properly, click on it again to Direct Edit the title of the frame. Enter "Say Hello"

into the white box that pops up, and press enter when done.


The title of the frame will change to reflect the new text.

Adding the Control Panel

On the palate (gray bar on the left of the canvas) click on the Swing Containers drawer. Select JPanel
from that drawer then move the cursor over the lower portion JFrame on the canvas.  When the South area
becomes highlighted, click to drop the JPanel.



Next, open the Swing Components drawer again on the palate and select JLabel.  Move the cursor to the narrow
box at the bottom of the JFrame and click.  The JLabel will be dropped into the panel at the bottom of the frame.  
Click on the JLabel on the canvas again to bring up the Direct Edit box.  Change the text to say "Enter your name:".

In the Swing Containers drawer on the palate, choose the JTextField bean.  Move the cursor back over to the canvas
to the right of the JLabel.  A vertical black line indicates where the new bean will be dropped.  Click to drop the text field.  
The new text field is very small on the canvas.  To make it bigger, while the text area is selected go to the Properties view
on the far right and click on the columns property.  Enter the number 10 and press enter.  The text field on the canvas
will be a more respectable size.


Next, select JButton on the palate and drop it to the right of the text field.  Bring up Direct Edit on the button and change
its text to "Say Hello"

Creating Greeting Text

Choose another JLabel from the palate.  Move the cursor over the center of the JFrame until the center region is
highlighted and click to drop.  The greeting should be centered on the window.  With the label selected, go to the
property sheet and change the horizontalAlignment property to CENTER.


Next the font size should be increased to make it show up better.  Select the font property on the property sheet,
and press the gray ... button on the right to bring up the font property editor.  Change the size of the font to 36 by
selecting the number from the size list and press OK.


To change the label text's color, select the foreground property on the property sheet, then press the gray ... button
to launch the color property editor.  Select the Named Colors tab at the top of the editor, then choose blue from the
basic colors list and press OK.

Next the initial label text has to be changed from "JLabel" to nothing (so the program will start out without a greeting.)  
Select the text property on the property sheet, then push the "Restore Default Value" button at the top of the property
sheet.  This will clear the label's text value.


Adding Event

To make the program actually do something, an event needs to be added.  Select the "Say Hello" button on the canvas.  
Mouse button two to bring up the context menu, go down to Events, and select "actionPerformed".  This will add an
event which will occur when the button is clicked.  

In the source code pane, look for the line of code:
System.out.println("actionPerformed()"); // TODO Auto-generated stub actionPerformed()
Remove that line from the source, and replace it with the following line:
jLabel1.setText("Hello " + getJTextField().getText());

When you are finished, your applicaton should look something like this:


Running the Application

That's all that is needed to create the application.  Save the file, then go to the Run menu, then go to the Run As
sub menu, and select Java Bean



Expected Results

The application will be launched.  Enter a name into the text field at the bottom and click the Say Hello button.
This simple application has been successfully created.