Bean Builder User Guide

The Bean Builder is a simple test container which allows for the wiring and execution of JavaBeans. The Builder differs from the original BeanBox in the following ways:

Text based persistance mechanism.
Uses the Java Proxy API for creating Event Adapters.
Contains a Palette of Swing Components.
Shows the how the BeanInfo meta information can provide more context for the Bean in a builder tool.

You must have JDK 1.3 Beta or later in order to run the Builder. This application uses features in JDK 1.3 that do not exist in 1.2.

The User Interface

The UI has been designed to highlight the use of the Swing components in a production application.

Action objects are used to create the ToolBar buttons and menu items. See the beanbox.actions package.
The containment hierarchy uses a custom TreeModel which allows the tree to display the containment hierarchy. All parent-child relationships are reflected in the containment hierarchy. See the beanbox.TreePanel class.
The table based property pane uses a PropertyTableModel which examines the PropertyDescriptors of the selected object. See the beanbox.property package.
All design is done on the Glass Pane of the JRootPane. See the beanbox.DesignPanel class.

The User interface is divided into several sections:

Actions

All the action in the application are classes that implement the javax.swing.Action interface

File Menu - Commands for the managment of designs and the application.

	New - Create a new Design. This command will clear the existing design and sets a new JPanel as the root object.
	Open - Opens an existing design. Currently supports XML and BeanScript design
	Save - Saves the existing design to a file. If the filename hasn't been selected, then a filename will be prompted.
	Load Jar File - Loads the Beans from a Jar file onto the User palette.
	Exit - Exits the application.

View Menu - Commands which effect the display and runtime behavior of the application.

Design Mode - Toggles the design or runtime state of the builder. When this item is checked, you may place and wire up beans. When unchecked, the state of the application is in runtime mode and you may test the behaviour of your design.

View Properties - Toggles the visibility of the property panel.

Icons Menu - Selection of the type of BeanInfo icon to display in the palette.

Help Menu - Invokes online help displays the About Box.

Palette

The Palette allows for the selection of the an object n which you can instantiate into the Design Panel.

Moving the mouse over the a palette item will display the BeanInfo short description attribute in the status bar. If the mouse is held over the palette item then a tool tip appears with the BeanInfo name attribute.

You can change the BeanInfo icon representation of the items using the Icons menu.

Selecting a palette item will change the cursor from an arrow to a crosshair. This indicates that the an object of the palette item can be instantiated on the Design panel.

Containment Hierarchy

Displays the containment hierarchy of the visual beans. The top level JPanel represents the root of the design. This hierarchy does not display non-visual beans.

Selecting a component in the hierarchy will make it the selected object for the application.

Property Panel

The property pane displays the introspected properties of the selected object. A small status bar is below the table of properties that displays the type of the current object.

The table portion of the property panel contains the list of introspected PropertyDescriptors. Holding the mouse over a cell in the Property column will display a tooltip with a short description of that property. The Value column contains a the value of the property represented as an object. If the type of the object has a defined PropertyEditor, the property editor is loaded into the cell and set to the value.

This pane contains a control bar which allows you to investigate the manipulate the current object.

	Up - Loads the parent of the current object into the Property Panel
	Down - Load the selected property into the Property Panel. You can also double click on the selected property.
	Add - Places the selected object into the Design Panel for interaction. This is useful for manipulating non-visual Beans.
	Customizer - If enabled, this button brings up the associated customizer for the selected object.

The Combo Box portion of the Property Control Panel allows you to filter the properties based on the PropertyDescriptor attributes. The selected item will only display properties that have the attribute. These properties are documented in java.beans.FeatureDescriptor and java.beans.PropertyDescriptor.

Design Panel

The Design Panel is the place in which applications are assembled. You can place visual Java Beans on the panel and set the location and size of the object by dragging the handles.

This panel is the place where you can set the property value of an object to be another object. i.e., obj1.setFoo(obj2);

This panel also allows the creation of event adapters between two objects.

Creating an Interaction

Select and drag the mouse cursor from the source object to the target object. The first object that the mouse down registers will be the source object. The object that the mouse has been released on will be the target object.

When both objects are valid, then an Interaction Wizard will be presented to define the methods and arguments of the interaction.

Creating a Property Association

Click and hold the mouse cursor on the source object which will be the property value.
Drag the mouse over to the target object in and release.
When the Interaction Wizard appears, select the target property setter method.
Press the Finish button on the Wizard.

Creating a Event Interaction

Click and hold the mouse cursor on the source object which will be the property value.
Drag the mouse over to the target object in and release.
When the Interaction Wizard appears, select the Event Adapter radio button. The Wizard reconfigures itself.
Select the Event Set and associated method which will trigger the event. Press the Next button to go to the next page.
Select the Target method that will be invoked on the target object. Press the Next button to go to the next page.
Select the argument method or argument value if the method requires argments.
Press the Finish button to create the adapter.