:: Tutorial :: Introduction ::

This tutorial aquaints you with the Forms layout model and API. It introduces the basic and advanced layout features and explains how to specify, build and debug layouts using the Forms framework. You can find the accompanying sources for this tutorial in directory src/tutorial/.

It is recommended to have the JGoodies Forms Demo open on your screen!

Overview

FormLayout is a powerful, flexible and precise layout manager that aligns components vertically and horizontally in a dynamic rectangular grid of cells, with each component occupying one or more cells.

To define a form layout you specify the form’s columns, rows and optionally column groups and row groups. Everything that applies to columns applies to rows too - just with a different orientation. FormLayout uses the same API, algorithms and implementation for columns and rows.

Documentation Set

The Developer's Reference focuses on specifications and details. The API Docs describe the Forms API. And the Whitepaper provides background information around the Forms: it analyses weakness of other layout systems, presents the Forms design goals and concepts. Also it compares the Forms with other layout managers and mentiones some future improvements.

Online Presentations

You can find a bunch of presentations about layout and general Swing issues at http://www.jgoodies.com/articles/. These are available in English and German.