Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 24 Hours

By Rogers Cadenhead

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • About the Technical Editor
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You!
  • Reader Services
  • Introduction
  • Hour 1. Becoming a Programmer
  • Hour 2. Writing Your First Program
  • Hour 3. Vacationing in Java
  • Hour 4. Understanding How Java Programs Work
  • Part II: Learning the Basics of Programming
  • Hour 5. Storing and Changing Information in a Program
  • Hour 6. Using Strings to Communicate
  • Hour 7. Using Conditional Tests to Make Decisions
  • Hour 8. Repeating an Action with Loops
  • Part III: Working with Information in New Ways
  • Hour 9. Storing Information with Arrays
  • Hour 10. Creating Your First Object
  • Hour 11. Describing What Your Object Is Like
  • Hour 12. Making the Most of Existing Objects
  • Part IV: Programming a Graphical User Interface
  • Hour 13. Building a Simple User Interface
  • Hour 14. Laying Out a User Interface
  • Hour 15. Responding to User Input
  • Hour 16. Building a Complex User Interface
    • Scroll Panes
    • Sliders
    • Change Listeners
    • Menus
    • Workshop: Using Image Icons and Toolbars
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Quiz
    • Questions
    • Activities
  • Part V: Creating Multimedia Programs
  • Hour 17. Creating Interactive Web Programs
  • Hour 18. Handling Errors in a Program
  • Hour 19. Creating a Threaded Program
  • Hour 20. Reading and Writing Files
  • Part VI: Creating Multimedia Programs
  • Hour 21. Using Fonts and Color
  • Hour 22. Playing Sound Files
  • Hour 23. Working with Graphics
  • Hour 24. Creating Animation
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Tackling New Features of Java 2 Version 1.4
  • Appendix B. Using the Java 2 Software Development Kit
  • Appendix C. Programming with the Java 2 Software Development Kit
  • Appendix D. Using Sun ONE Studio
  • Appendix E. Where to Go from Here: Java Resources
  • Appendix F. This Book's Web Site

Hour 16. Building a Complex User Interface

Creating a graphical user interface with Swing involves more than learning how to use the different interface components, layout managers, and event-handling methods. You also have to spend some time familiarizing yourself with everything that Swing offers.

In the current version of Java 2, there are more than 400 different classes in Swing's javax.swing library and other related libraries. Many of these classes can be implemented using the same techniques you have used in the preceding three hours—all Swing containers and components share superclasses with each other, which gives them common behavior.

During this hour, you will learn about some additional components that you can use in your Swing programs:

• Scroll panes—Containers that add support for vertical and horizontal scrolling to other components
• Sliders—Components that can be used to select a number within a range of numbers
• Change listeners—Objects that can monitor changes in sliders
• Image icons—Graphics that can be used on labels, buttons, and other components
• Toolbars—Containers that can be moved around to different parts of an interface
• Menu bars, menus, and menu items—Two containers and a component used to create pull-down menus

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