JDK-4614093 : Improve Swing beans and property editors
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Component: client-libs
  • Sub-Component: java.beans
  • Affected Version: 1.2.0,1.2.2,1.3.0,5.0
  • Priority: P3
  • Status: Closed
  • Resolution: Won't Fix
  • OS: generic,windows_95
  • CPU: generic,x86
  • Submitted: 2001-12-14
  • Updated: 2004-01-14
  • Resolved: 2004-01-14
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Description

Name: ca25432			Date: 12/14/2001


Improve swing beans property editors, customizer only allows serialized bean
output. Request way to store customizations and data set in the object and allow snapshots of Swing beans, ie if double buffering is enabled

Also beaninfo data missing on Mac platform. 
Provide XML based beaninfo document

=====================================================================

We will not be providing an XML Based BeanInfo document due to lack of resources. Instead, a JSR may be filed by IBM to drive this forward.

Much of the planning surrounding this feature is contained in the following document:
	
	http://cerebus.sfbay/beans/tiger/propeditors.html

The document describes related improvements to PropertyEditors that have been filed under separate bugs. The only items not covered under separate RFEs and Bug which are applicable to the scope of this work are:

Clarification of the JavaBeans Specification
--------------------------------------------
The specification should be ammended to clearly specify which property editors will be provided by J2SE.

The getJavaInitializationString() should return a valid expression that uses a fully qualified class name. This has been an ongoing concern with the tool vendors.

All changes in PropertyEditors should be accompanied by PropertyChangeEvents.

De-emphasis PropertyEditors/JavaBeans from its GUI roots
--------------------------------------------------------
JavaBeans is the component model for Java but it still has a lot of remnants left over from it's GUI/AWT lineage. JavaBeans patterns are used in EJBs and can be directly referenced within jsps.

There is still a lot of kruft in the PropertyEditor interface left over from the BeanBox specific implemenation. These methods include:

    * Component getCustomEditor() - Should return an Object. Check cast for Component for GUI builder.
    * String[] getTags() - Poor context free version of enumeration. Forces hardcoding and inflexibility.
    * boolean isPaintable()
* void paintValue(Graphics, Rectangle) - PropertyEditors shouldn't paint values. The custom editor should do this.


###@###.### 2002-12-03

Comments
EVALUATION Name: ca25432 Date: 12/14/2001 This feature has been added for Tiger release ====================================================================== Not sure why BeanInfo data is missing from the Mac platform. They would have to build dt.jar (currently located in $JAVA_HOME/lib/dt.jar). ###@###.### 2002-01-14 Improve the usefulness of the Swing BeanInfo attributes so that they are more relavent to tool vendors. Currently most tool vendors either create thier own BeanInfos or creat a post processing step. The chalege is to come up with a set of attributes for the properties that are agreed upon. For example, which properties should be classified as expert? Preferred? NetBeans has compiled a list of attributes in thier FormUtils class. Use this as a point of departure. http://form.netbeans.org/source/browse/form/src/org/netbeans/modules/form/FormUtils.java?rev=1.63&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup ###@###.### 2003-01-17 This is no longer a group driver for Tiger. There are a few fixes to PropertyEditor which have been fixed as part of other bugs. ###@###.### 2003-08-13 PropertyEditor RFEs have been put into Tiger. ###@###.### 2004-01-13
13-08-2003