Using the JFC/Swing Packages

The Java Foundation Classes (JFC) include many ready-to-use components. This section tells you how to use these components, which are nicknamed Swing components.

This is a work in progress! We're constantly updating the files in this section of the tutorial. Keep an eye on this section of the tutorial and The Swing Connection for the latest information on the Swing project. This lesson was last updated March 20, 1998.
This lesson reflects the JFC 1.1 (Swing 1.0) release.

Getting Started with Swing

To write programs using the Swing components, you must first download the appropriate JDK and JFC releases. Then you can compile and run the "Hello Swing" application that we provide. Next, take a tour of the "Hello Swing" program to learn how a Swing program works.

Overview of the Swing Components

This section shows you each Swing component and then links to where you'll learn how to use the component. Here's a preview of what you'll see:

Using Each Swing Component

The Swing components conform to the Swing architecture, which means that they are lightweight, have a pluggable look and feel, conform to the requirements of JavaBeans, and so on. Despite the plethora of features, the components are easy to use.
This section first gives you an overview of code that you might use when using any Swing component. Then each component has a subsection that tells you all about using that component.

Writing Lightweight Components Using the Swing Release

This section will tell you how to write simple components, using subclasses of Swing components. (It's easy!) For now, you can look at a custom button in the Bingo example: NumberButton.

Using the JFC/Swing Packages