Glimmer DSL for Swing 0.0.5
Glimmer DSL for Swing enables building desktop applications with Java Swing, Java AWT, Java Foundation Classes and Java 2D via JRuby.
There has been a great divide between two big GUI toolkits in Java:
Glimmer intentionally avoided Swing-like GUI toolkits in the past because they produced non-native looking graphical user interfaces that not only looked out of place in various operating systems, but also degraded usability, user experience, and the professional look of applications significantly, especially given that unlike SWT, Swing performance is affected by Java Garbage Collection pauses. As such, Glimmer DSL for SWT was initially born as the premiere Glimmer DSL.
That said, from a balanced software engineering point of view, there are sometimes non-functional requirements that might target Swing as an appropriate GUI toolkit solution. Like in the case of extending legacy Swing applications or developing rare applications that require fully custom looking graphical user interfaces (typically not recommended), such as traffic control planning or diagramming applications. In the latter case, it would not matter whether to use SWT or Swing as they both provide support for building non-native components (in addition to native widgets in the case of SWT).
Glimmer DSL for Swing aims to supercharge productivity and maintainability in developing Swing applications by providing a DSL similar to Glimmer DSL for SWT having:
Hello, World!
jframe('Hello, World!') {
jlabel('Hello, World!')
}.show
NOTE: Glimmer DSL for Swing is currently in early alpha mode (incomplete proof-of-concept). Please help make better by contributing, adopting for small or low risk projects, and providing feedback. It is still an early alpha, so the more feedback and issues you report the better.
Other Glimmer DSL gems you might be interested in:
rvm install jruby-9.2.19.0; On Windows, find at https://www.jruby.org/download)Note: On the Mac, if you have Glimmer DSL for SWT installed, and it added export JRUBY_OPTS="$JRUBY_OPTS -J-XstartOnFirstThread" to your .zprofile, .zshrc, .bash_profile, or .bashrc, make sure to disable it before using Glimmer DSL for Swing. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with it and will hang its apps until disabled.
Run this command to install directly:
gem install glimmer-dsl-swing -v0.0.5
Add the following to Gemfile:
gem 'glimmer-dsl-swing', '0.0.5'
And, then run:
bundle
Require the library and mixin the Glimmer module to utilize the Glimmer GUI DSL for Swing:
require 'glimmer-dsl-swing'
include Glimmer
jframe('Hello, World!') {
jlabel('Hello, World!')
}.show
For actual application development outside of simple demos, mixin the Glimmer module into a custom application class instead:
require 'glimmer-dsl-swing'
class SomeApplication
include Glimmer
def launch
jframe('Hello, World!') {
jlabel('Hello, World!')
}.show
end
end
SomeApplication.new.launch
The Glimmer GUI DSL enables development of desktop graphical user interfaces in a manner similar to HTML, but in one language, Ruby, thus avoiding the multi-language separation dissonance encountered on the web, especially given that Ruby looping/conditional constructs do not need scriptlets to be added around View code. This makes desktop development extremely productive.
1 - Keywords
You may declare any swing/awt component with its keyword, which is the underscored version of the class name. For example, jframe is the keyword for javax.swing.JFrame (j_frame is acceptable too)
Examples:
jframe
jbutton
jlabel
2 - Arguments
You may pass any arguments that a swing/awt component constructor accepts to its Glimmer keyword.
Example (JFrame, JButton, and JLabel have a constructor signature that accepts a string representing title or text):
jframe('Hello, World!')
jbutton('Push Me')
jlabel('Name')
The recommended style is to always wrap arguments with parentheses for component keywords.
3 - Content Block
You may pass a content block to any swing/awt component keyword, which contains properties and/or nested components.
Example:
jframe('Hello, World!') {
minimum_size 320, 240
jlabel('Hello, World!')
}
The recommended style for the content block is always curly braces {} to denote as View nesting code different from looping/conditional logic, which utilizes do;end instead.
Property arguments never have parentheses.
4 - Listeners
You may declare listeners with their on_-prefixed event method name on the swing/awt listener class (these are the classes in the signatures of AddXYZListener methods on swing/awt component classes).
For example, JButton has an AddXYZListener method called AddActionListener, which accepts an ActionListener class. That class has one event method: actionPerformed. In Glimmer, you simply underscore that and prefix with on_:
jframe('Hello, Button!') {
jbutton('Click') {
on_action_performed do
puts 'Clicked!'
end
}
}
The recommended style for listeners is always a do; end block.
5 - Component Proxy & Methods
When utilizing the Glimmer GUI DSL, you get back proxy objects that wrap swing/awt components. To access the original component wrapped by the proxy object, you may call the #original method.
Furthermore, you may invoke any method available on the component on the proxy object, like the #show method on JFrame.
frame1 = jframe('Hello, World!') {
# ...
}
frame1.show
Despite #show being deprecated in the Java API, it is recommended to use #show instead of visible= in the Glimmer GUI DSL because it has less awkward syntax (it calls visible= behind the scenes to avoid the deprecated API). #show also invokes pack automatically on first run, utilizing SwingUtilities.invokeLater.
6 - Observe Model Attributes
In Smalltalk-MVC (Model View Controller Architectural Pattern), the View is an active View that observes the Model for changes and updates itself.
This can be achieved with the Glimmer GUI DSL using the observe keyword, which takes a model (any object, including self) and attribute Symbol or String expression (e.g. :count or 'address.street').
The model is automatically enhanced as an Glimmer::DataBinding::ObservableModel / Glimmer::DataBinding::ObservableHash / Glimmer::DataBinding::ObservableArray depending on its type to support notifying observers of attribute changes (when performed using the attribute writer, which automatically calls added method notify_observers(attribute))
Note that it is usually recommended to observe external model objects (not self), but self is OK in very simple cases or presentation-related attributes only.
Example:
require 'glimmer-dsl-swing'
class Counter
attr_accessor :count
def initialize
self.count = 0
end
end
class HelloButton
include Glimmer
def initialize
@counter = Counter.new
observe(@counter, :count) do |new_count|
@button.text = "Click To Increment: #{new_count}"
end
end
def launch
jframe('Hello, Button!') {
@button = jbutton('Click To Increment: 0') {
on_action_performed do
@counter.count += 1
end
}
}.show
end
end
HelloButton.new.launch
Glimmer DSL for Swing might be the only Ruby Swing DSL out there that supports an additional Shape DSL.
This enables declarative painting of arbitrary shapes using Java 2D, which is similar to how SVG works on the web.
Simply utilize underscored shape names from the java.awt.geom package classes minus the 2D suffix, following the same general rules of the Glimmer GUI DSL.
For example, Arc2D becomes simply arc.
Glimmer utilizes the Double variation of shape classes.
Additionally, you can set these shape properties:
draw_paint (alias: draw_color): takes java.awt.Color rgba arguments to use color for drawingfill_paint (alias: fill_color): takes java.awt.Color rgba arguments to use color for fillingstroke: takes java.awt.BasicStroke line width and other arguments to use for drawingpath can have the following operations nested:
move_to x, y: move to pointline_to x2, y2: connect line to end pointcurve_to ctrl_x1, ctrl_y1, ctrl_x2, ctrl_y2, x2, y2: connect curve to control point 1, control point 2, and end pointclose_path: close path, reconnecting last shape/point back to first pointExample:
require 'glimmer-dsl-swing'
include Glimmer
jframe('Hello, Shapes!') {
minimum_size 400, 400
arc(40, 40, 90, 90, 30, 230, 0) {
fill_paint 255, 0, 0
draw_paint 0, 128, 255
stroke 3
}
arc(40, 140, 90, 90, 30, 230, 1) {
fill_paint 255, 0, 0
draw_paint 0, 128, 255
stroke 3
}
arc(40, 240, 90, 90, 30, 230, 2) {
fill_paint 255, 0, 0
draw_paint 0, 128, 255
stroke 3
}
rectangle(140, 40, 180, 90) {
fill_paint 255, 255, 0
draw_paint 255, 0, 0
stroke 3
}
round_rectangle(140, 140, 180, 90, 60, 40) {
fill_paint 255, 255, 0
draw_paint 255, 0, 0
stroke 3
}
ellipse(140, 240, 180, 90) {
fill_paint 255, 255, 0
draw_paint 255, 0, 0
stroke 3
}
line(180, 60, 280, 110) {
draw_paint 255, 0, 0
stroke 3
}
quad_curve(170, 60, 180, 90, 220, 100) {
draw_paint 0, 255, 0
stroke 3
}
cubic_curve(190, 60, 240, 40, 220, 80, 260, 70) {
draw_paint 0, 0, 255
stroke 3
}
path {
move_to 200, 150
line_to 270, 170
line_to 250, 220
line_to 220, 190
line_to 200, 200
line_to 180, 170
close_path
fill_paint 0, 255, 0
draw_paint 0, 0, 255
stroke 3
}
path {
move_to 160, 300
curve_to 190, 260, 200, 280, 210, 270
curve_to 240, 280, 250, 300, 260, 290
curve_to 290, 290, 300, 310, 310, 300
fill_paint 0, 255, 0
draw_paint 0, 0, 255
stroke 3
}
}.show
jframe automatically invokes pack on first run of show, and ensures utilizing SwingUtilities.invokeLater behind the scenes.You can run the girb command (bin/girb if you cloned the project locally):
girb
This gives you irb with the glimmer-dsl-swing gem loaded and the Glimmer module mixed into the main object for easy experimentation with GUI.
Run with gem installed:
jruby -r glimmer-dsl-swing -e "require 'samples/hello/hello_world'"
Or run from locally cloned project directory:
jruby -r ./lib/glimmer-dsl-swing samples/hello/hello_world.rb
require 'glimmer-dsl-swing'
include Glimmer
jframe('Hello, World!') {
jlabel('Hello, World!')
}.show
Run with gem installed:
jruby -r glimmer-dsl-swing -e "require 'samples/hello/hello_button'"
Or run from locally cloned project directory:
jruby -r ./lib/glimmer-dsl-swing samples/hello/hello_button.rb
Version 1 (without model) - samples/hello/hello_button.rb:
require 'glimmer-dsl-swing'
include Glimmer
jframe('Hello, Button!') {
@button = jbutton('Click To Increment: 0') {
on_action_performed do
button_text_match = @button.text.match(/(.*)(\d+)$/)
count = button_text_match[2].to_i + 1
@button.text = "#{button_text_match[1]}#{count}"
end
}
}.show
Version 2 (with model) - samples/hello/hello_button2.rb:
require 'glimmer-dsl-swing'
class Counter
attr_accessor :count
def initialize
self.count = 0
end
end
class HelloButton
include Glimmer
def initialize
@counter = Counter.new
observe(@counter, :count) do |new_count|
@button.text = "Click To Increment: #{new_count}"
end
end
def launch
jframe('Hello, Button!') {
@button = jbutton('Click To Increment: 0') {
on_action_performed do
@counter.count += 1
end
}
}.show
end
end
HelloButton.new.launch
Run with gem installed:
jruby -r glimmer-dsl-swing -e "require 'samples/hello/hello_shapes'"
Or run from locally cloned project directory:
jruby -r ./lib/glimmer-dsl-swing samples/hello/hello_shapes.rb
samples/hello/hello_shapes.rb:
require 'glimmer-dsl-swing'
include Glimmer
jframe('Hello, Shapes!') {
minimum_size 400, 400
arc(40, 40, 90, 90, 30, 230, 0) {
fill_paint 255, 0, 0
draw_paint 0, 128, 255
stroke 3
}
arc(40, 140, 90, 90, 30, 230, 1) {
fill_paint 255, 0, 0
draw_paint 0, 128, 255
stroke 3
}
arc(40, 240, 90, 90, 30, 230, 2) {
fill_paint 255, 0, 0
draw_paint 0, 128, 255
stroke 3
}
rectangle(140, 40, 180, 90) {
fill_paint 255, 255, 0
draw_paint 255, 0, 0
stroke 3
}
round_rectangle(140, 140, 180, 90, 60, 40) {
fill_paint 255, 255, 0
draw_paint 255, 0, 0
stroke 3
}
ellipse(140, 240, 180, 90) {
fill_paint 255, 255, 0
draw_paint 255, 0, 0
stroke 3
}
line(180, 60, 280, 110) {
draw_paint 255, 0, 0
stroke 3
}
quad_curve(170, 60, 180, 90, 220, 100) {
draw_paint 0, 255, 0
stroke 3
}
cubic_curve(190, 60, 240, 40, 220, 80, 260, 70) {
draw_paint 0, 0, 255
stroke 3
}
path {
move_to 200, 150
line_to 270, 170
line_to 250, 220
line_to 220, 190
line_to 200, 200
line_to 180, 170
close_path
fill_paint 0, 255, 0
draw_paint 0, 0, 255
stroke 3
}
path {
move_to 160, 300
curve_to 190, 260, 200, 280, 210, 270
curve_to 240, 280, 250, 300, 260, 290
curve_to 290, 290, 300, 310, 310, 300
fill_paint 0, 255, 0
draw_paint 0, 0, 255
stroke 3
}
}.show
If you encounter issues that are not reported, discover missing features that are not mentioned in TODO.md, or think up better ways to use Swing than what is possible with Glimmer DSL for Swing, you may submit an issue or pull request on GitHub. In the meantime while waiting for a fix, you may try older gem versions of Glimmer DSL for Swing in case you find one that does not have the issue and actually works.
If you need live help, try to
These features have been planned or suggested. You might see them in a future version of Glimmer DSL for Swing. You are welcome to contribute more feature suggestions.
Click here to view contributor commits.
Copyright (c) 2021 Andy Maleh.
--
Built for Glimmer (DSL Framework).
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We found that glimmer-dsl-swing demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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