[b]JDev Team: Problem regarding JDeveloper's UIEditor[/b]

Question

Hiii,
     I am using Jdeveloper 903 production release.When I develop a Swing Form using the UIEditor of JDeveloper, the code normally gets added to the jbInit() method of the source file. the code which is getting generated is something like :
public class SwingForm extends JPanel
XYLayout xYLayout1 = new XYLayout();
JCheckBox jCheckBox1 = new JCheckBox();
JTextField jTextField1 = new JTextField();
public SwingForm()
try
jbInit();
catch(Exception e)
e.printStackTrace();
private void jbInit() throws Exception
this.setLayout(xYLayout1);
jCheckBox1.setText("jCheckBox1");
jTextField1.setText("jTextField1");
this.add(jTextField1, new XYConstraints(170, 165, 59, 20));
this.add(jCheckBox1, new XYConstraints(160, 55, 82, 24));
But for the sake of modularity I want to rearrage the code something like this :
public class SwingForm extends JPanel
XYLayout xYLayout1 = new XYLayout();
JCheckBox jCheckBox1 = new JCheckBox();
JTextField jTextField1 = new JTextField();
public SwingForm()
try
jbInit();
catch(Exception e)
e.printStackTrace();
private void jbInit() throws Exception
this.setLayout(xYLayout1);
setProperties();
this.add(jTextField1, new XYConstraints(170, 165, 59, 20));
this.add(jCheckBox1, new XYConstraints(160, 55, 82, 24));
private void setProperties()
jCheckBox1.setText("jCheckBox1");
jTextField1.setText("jTextField1");
But if I rearrange the code like this, the properties which I am setting inside the method setProperties() doesn't get reflected on the UIEditor. I want to know, can I set the properties inside a different method or not? If not, is there a workaround for that?
Thanks in advance
Hemant

Answer 1

Hi,
No, you may not set the properties inside of a method other than jbInit. There is no workaround.
JDeveloper is not an interpreted environment. Thus, no runtime state is present during UI editing, meaning that no instance of your class is present upon which to invoke the other method. Similarly, conditional logic can not be executed. The UI Editor explicitly searches for the jbInit method and attempts to use simple reflection, to the best of its ability, to perform property sets on the member objects. Note that the member objects may be instantiated and used with reflection since they are instances of compiled classes, whereas the 'this' object is not yet compiled since you are still editing it