JFormDesigner

Features

• Easy and intuitive to use, powerful and productive: JFormDesigner provides an easy-to-use but powerful user interface. Even non-programmers can use it, which makes it 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. Plug-ins for JDeveloper and NetBeans are under development.
• GroupLayout support brings the 'Free Design' paradigm to JFormDesigner (as in NetBeans GUI Builder; formerly Project Matisse). You can lay out your forms by simply placing components where you want them. This makes it easy to design professional-looking GUIs.
• JGoodies FormLayout and Clearthought's TableLayout support: These well-known open-source layout managers allow you to design high quality forms. JFormDesigner provides excellent support for them.
• Advanced GridBagLayout support allows the specification of horizontal and vertical gaps (as in TableLayout). This makes it very easy to design forms with consistent gaps using GridBagLayout. No longer wrestling with GridBagConstraints.insets.
• Column and row headers (for grid-based layout managers) show the structure of the layout (including column/row indices, alignment, growing, grouping) and allow you to insert or delete columns/rows and change column/row properties. It's also possible to drag and drop columns/rows (incl. contained components and gaps). This allows you to swap columns or move rows in seconds.
• Localisation support: Localising forms using properties files has never been easier. Specify a resource bundle name 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-externalising).
• 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.
• Generation of nested classes: The Java code generator is able to generate and update nested classes. You can specify a class name for each component in your form. This allows you to organise your source code in an object-oriented way.