Learn Java GUI Applications: A JFC Swing Tutorial

1285 Pages·2017·12.03 MB·English

by  Philip Conrod, Lou Tylee

Learn Java™

GUI Applications

A JFC Swing NetBeans Tutorial

8th Edition

Philip Conrod & Lou Tylee

KIDWARE SOFTWARE, LLC

PO Box 701

Maple Valley, WA 98038

www.computerscienceforkids.com

www.kidwaresoftware.com

Copyright © 2015 by Kidware Software LLC. All rights reserved Published by:

Kidware Software, LLC

PO Box 701

Maple Valley, Washington 98038

1.425.413.1185

www.kidwaresoftware.com

www.computerscienceforkids.com

All Rights Reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America ISBN-13 978-1-937161-13-2 (Print Edition) ISBN-13 978-1-

937161-26-2 (Electronic Edition) Cover Illustration by Kevin Brockschmidt Copy Editors: Stephanie

Conrod & Jessica Conrod Compositor: Michael Rogers

Previous edition published as “Learn Java GUI Applications – 7th Edition” by Kidware Software LLC

This copy of the Learn Java GUI Applications Tutorial and the associated software is licensed to a single
user. Copies of the course are not to be distributed or provided to any other user. Multiple copy licenses are
available for educational institutions. Please contact Kidware Software for school site license information.

This guide was developed for the course, “Learn Java GUI Applications,” produced by Kidware Software
LLC, Maple Valley, Washington. It is not intended to be a complete reference to the Java language. Please
consult the Oracle website for detailed reference information. This guide refers to several software and
hardware products by their trade names. These references are for informational purposes only and all
trademarks are the property of their respective companies and owners. Oracle and Java are registered
trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. JCreator is a trademark product of XINOX Software.
Microsoft Word, Excel, and Windows are all trademark products of the Microsoft Corporation. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners, and Kidware Software makes no claim of ownership
by the mention of products that contain these marks. Kidware Software is not associated with any products
or vendors mentioned in this book. Kidware Software cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places,
and events depicted are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain
name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred.

This book expresses the author’s views and opinions. The information in this book is distributed on an "as
is" basis, without and expresses, statutory, or implied warranties. Neither the author(s) nor Kidware
Software LLC shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss nor damage caused or
alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

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About The Authors Philip Conrod holds a BS in Computer
Information Systems and a Master's certificate in the Essentials of Business
Development from Regis University. Philip has been programming computers
since 1978. He has authored, coauthored and edited numerous beginning
computer programming books for kids, teens and adults. Philip has also held
various Information Technology leadership roles in companies like Sundstrand
Aerospace, Safeco Insurance Companies, FamilyLife, Kenworth Truck
Company, and PACCAR. Today, Philip serves as the Chief Information Officer
for a large manufacturing company based in Seattle, Washington. In his spare
time, Philip serves as the President of Kidware Software LLC. He makes his
home with his lovely family in Maple Valley, Washington.

Lou Tylee holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in
Electrical Engineering. Lou has been programming computers since 1969 when
he took his first Fortran course in college. He has written software to control
suspensions for high speed ground vehicles, monitor nuclear power plants, lower
noise levels in commercial jetliners, compute takeoff speeds for jetliners, locate
and identify air and ground traffic and to let kids count bunnies, learn how to
spell and do math problems. He has written several online texts teaching Visual
Basic, Visual C# and Java to thousands of people. He taught a beginning Visual
Basic course for over 15 years at a major university. Currently, Lou works as an
engineer at a major Seattle aerospace firm. He is the proud father of five children
and proud husband of his special wife. Lou and his family live in Seattle,
Washington.

Acknowledgements

I want to thank my three wonderful daughters - Stephanie, Jessica and Chloe,
who helped with various aspects of the book publishing process including
software testing, book editing, creative design and many other more tedious
tasks like finding all our typos. I could not have accomplished this without all
your hard work, love and support. I also want to thank by best friend Jesus who
is always stands by my side.

Last but definitely not least, I want to thank my multi-talented co-author, Lou
Tylee, for doing all the real hard work necessary to develop, test, debug, and
keep current all the ‘kid-friendly’ applications, games and base tutorial text
found in this book. Lou has tirelessly poured his heart and soul into so many
previous versions of this tutorial and there are so many beginners who have
benefited from his work over the years. Lou is by far one of the best application
developers and tutorial writers I have ever worked with. Thanks Lou for
collaborating with me on this book project.

Table of Contents

Course Description

Course Prerequisites

System Requirements

Installing and Using the Downloadable Solution Files

Installing Learn Java

How To Take the Course

Forward by Alan Payne, A Computer Science Teacher

1. Introduction to Java

Preview

Course Objectives

What is Java?

What is a GUI Application?

A Brief Look at Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

Downloading and Installing Java and NetBeans

Testing the Installation

Getting Help with a Java Program

Structure of a Java Program

Structure of a Java GUI Application

Swing Controls

Creating a Java Project with Netbeans

Create a Frame

Saving Java Projects with Netbeans

Netbeans and Java Files

Create the User Interface

Example 1-1: Stopwatch Application - Adding Controls

Adding Event Methods

Variables

Java Data Types

Variable Declaration

Arrays

Constants

Variable Initialization

Example 1-2: Stopwatch Application - Writing Code

Class Review

Practice Problems 1

Problem 1-1. Beep Problem

Problem 1-2. Caption Problem

Problem 1-3. Enabled Problem

Problem 1-4. Date Problem

Exercise 1: Calendar/Time Display

2. The Java Language

Review and Preview

A Brief History of Java

Rules of Java Programming

Java Statements and Expressions

Type Casting

Java Arithmetic Operators

Comparison and Logical Operators

Concatenation Operators

Strings to Numbers to Strings

Java String Methods

Dates and Times

Random Number Generator

Math Functions

Example 2-1: Savings Account

Focus Traversal

Example 2-2: Savings Accounts – Setting Focus

Improving a Java Application

Java Decisions - if Statements

Switch Statement - Another Way to Branch

Control Focus

Input Validation

Example 2-3: Savings Account – Input Validation

Java Looping

Java Counting

Example 2-4: Savings Account - Decisions

Class Review

Practice Problems 2

Problem 2-1. Random Number Problem

Problem 2-2. Price Problem

Problem 2-3. Odd Integers Problem

Problem 2-4. Pennies Problem

Problem 2-5. Code Problem

Exercise 2-1: Computing a Mean and Standard Deviation

Exercise 2-2: Flash Card Addition Problems

3. Java Swing Controls

Review and Preview

Function Overloading

Confirm Dialog (JOptionPane)

Font Object

Color Object

JFrame Object

Frame Layout and Centering

JButton Control

JLabel Control

JTextField Control

JTextArea Control

Example 3-1: Password Validation

JCheckBox Control

JRadioButton Control

JPanel Control

Handling Multiple Events in a Single Procedure

Control Arrays

Example 3-2: Pizza Order

JList Control

JScrollPane Control

JComboBox Control

Example 3-3: Flight Planner

Class Review

Practice Problems 3

Problem 3-1. Message Box Problem

Problem 3-2. Tray Problem

Problem 3-3. List Box Problem

Problem 3-4. Combo Box Problem

Exercise 3: Customer Database Input Screen

4. More Java Swing Controls

Review and Preview

JSpinner Control

Example 4-1: Date Input Device

JScrollBar Control

JSlider Control

Example 4-2: Temperature Conversion

JLabel Control (Revisited)

Example 4-3: “Find the Burger” Game

JFileChooser Control (Open Files)

Example 4-4: Image Viewer

Class Review

Practice Problems 4

Problem 4-1. Number Guess Problem

Problem 4-2. RGB Color Problem

Problem 4-3. Tic-Tac-Toe Problem

Problem 4-4. File Times Problem

Exercise 4: Student Database Input Screen

5. Java GUI Application Design and Distribution

Review and Preview

Application Design Considerations

JTabbedPane Control

Example 5-1: Shopping Cart

Using General Methods in Applications

Example 5-2: Average Value

Returning Multiple Values from General Methods

Example 5-3: Circle Geometry

Adding Menus to Java Applications

Example 5-4: Note Editor

Distribution of a Java GUI Application

Executable (jar) Files

Creating a Manifest File in NetBeans

Creating a jar File in Netbeans

Application Icons

Using IconEdit

Running a Project on Another Computer

Class Review

Practice Problems 5

Problem 5-1 Tabbed Pane Problem

Problem 5-2 Note Editor About Box Problem

Problem 5-3 Normal Numbers Problem

Exercise 5: US/World Capitals Quiz

6. Exception Handling, Debugging and Sequential
Files

Review and Preview

Program Errors

Exception Handling

Debugging Java Programs

Simple Debugging

Example 6-1: Debugging Example

Using the Java Debugger

Using the Debugging Tools

Debugging Strategies

Sequential Files

Sequential File Output (Variables)

Example 6-2: Writing Variables to Sequential Files

Sequential File Input (Variables)

Example 6-3: Reading Variables from Sequential Files

Parsing Data Lines

Example 6-4. Parsing Data Lines

Reading Tokenized Lines

Example 6-5. Reading Tokenized Data Lines

Building Data Lines

Example 6-6: Building Data Lines

Configuration Files

Example 6-7: Configuration Files

Writing and Reading Text Using Sequential Files

JFileChooser Control (Save Files)

Example 6-8: Note Editor - Reading and Saving Text Files

Class Review

Practice Problems 6

Problem 6-1. Debugging Problem

Problem 6-2. Option Saving Problem

Problem 6-3. Text File Problem

Problem 6-4. Data File Problem

Exercise 6-1: Information Tracking

Exercise 6-2: ‘Recent Files’ Menu Option