General
Easy and intuitive to use, powerful and productive
JFormDesigner provides an easy-to-use but powerful user interface. The complexity of Java layout managers is hidden behind an intuitive WYSIWYG designer, easy to understand dialogs and powerful tools like column and row headers. This helps you to design high quality GUIs without deep knowledge of layout managers. Even non-programmers can use it, which makes JFormDesigner also ideal for prototyping.
IDE plug-ins and stand-alone application
JFormDesigner is available as IDE plug-ins for Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA and JBuilder and as stand-alone application. This gives you the flexibility to use several IDEs in your team and the possibility to switch to another IDE. Use JFormDesigner in your favorite IDE. Plug-ins for NetBeans and JDeveloper are under development.
The stand-alone application makes it ideal for prototyping and non-programmers because no heavyweight IDE is necessary to design GUIs.
WYSIWYG designer
The state-of-the-art Design view is the central part of JFormDesigner. It lets you drag and drop components, resize components, etc. Design view features »
Standard and Open Source layout managers
JFormDesigner supports all standard layout managers (GroupLayout, GridBagLayout, BorderLayout, etc.) and the popular and powerful open-source layout managers JGoodies FormLayout and Clearthought's TableLayout. This gives you the choice to use your favorite layout manager.
Menu designer
The
menu designer makes it easy to create and
modify menu bars and popup menus. It supports in-place-editing menu texts and
drag-and-drop menu items. The component
palette category "Menus" contains all menu
components.
View a flash demo here.
Localization support
Localizing forms using properties files has never been easier. Specify a resource bundle and a prefix for keys when creating a new form and then forget about it. JFormDesigner automatically puts all strings into the specified resource bundle (auto-externalizing). It also updates resource keys when renaming components, copies resource strings when copying components and removes resource strings when deleting components. Modifications in properties files are done without loosing comments and without changing the order of keys.
You can also externalize and internalize strings, edit resource bundle strings, create locales, delete locales, switch locale used in Design view, in-place-edit text of current locale.
View a flash demo here.
Support for events
JFormDesigner supports adding and removing event handlers and generates empty handler methods. It shows events in the Structure view and event properties in the Properties view.
Based on JavaBeans standard
JFormDesigner is based on the JavaBeans standard. It supports and uses BeanInfos, BeanDescriptors, PropertyDescriptors, PropertyEditors (incl. custom and paintable editors), Introspector, etc.
Standard and custom Swing JavaBeans
You can use all components that follow the JavaBeans standard. This includes standard Swing components (JButton, JLabel, etc.) and custom components (3rd party or own beans).
Convert NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA and Abeille forms
JFormDesigner can convert NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA and Abeille forms to JFormDesigner forms.
Stand-alone: Either select File > Import from the main menu or drag .form files to the JFormDesigner window. IDE plug-ins: Right-click on the form file and select Convert to JFormDesigner Form from the popup menu.
Convert JBuilder jbInit() methods
JFDConverterOpenTool is a JBuilder X (or later) plugin to convert JBuilder forms (jbInit() methods) to JFormDesigner .jfd files. It analyzes the jbInit() method and converts as much as possible to a JFormDesigner form model and saves it to a .jfd file. Please download JFDConverterOpenTool here.
The JFormDesigner plug-in for JBuilder 2005 and 2006 also supports converting JBuilder forms (jbInit() methods) to JFormDesigner .jfd files.
Java code generator or runtime library
Either let JFormDesigner generate Java source code for your forms (the default) or use the open-source (BSD license) runtime library to load JFormDesigner XML files at runtime. Your choice.
Mac OS X support
JFormDesigner is available as real Mac OS X application. It uses the application menu, the Command key in keyboard shortcuts, native file choosing dialogs and swaps the OK and Cancel buttons.
