Desktop App Layout

Question

Hi,
Has anyone got a good basic structure for setting up the layout of a desktop application. What i want to create is a Swing layout structure simlilar to Eclipse (or numerous other desktop apps), so that there is a central desktop area and a number of other controller panels that can can be docked to the east, west and south as necessary. I wouldn't be particularly bothered about drag and drop at the minute.
Currently what i have is the code below, which works fine until the window is resized too small, then it messes around with the size of the controller panels and it all starts looking very amateurish.
If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or even better, some rock hard bullet proof industrial strength code that would be fantastic, Cheers,
Dave
// heres the code
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.beans.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import com.dessasystems.ui.docking.DockPanel;
public class WorkArea {
     private JPanel area = new JPanel();
     public DockPanel eastDock = new DockPanel("East");
     public DockPanel westDock = new DockPanel("West");
     public DockPanel southDock = new DockPanel("South");
     private JDesktopPane desktop;
     private JSplitPane sp1 = new JSplitPane(JSplitPane.HORIZONTAL_SPLIT);
     private JSplitPane sp2 = new JSplitPane(JSplitPane.HORIZONTAL_SPLIT);
     private JSplitPane sp3 = new JSplitPane(JSplitPane.VERTICAL_SPLIT);
     public WorkArea() {
          area.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
          desktop = new JDesktopPane(){
               public Dimension getMinimumSize(){
                    return new Dimension(1,1);
          sp1.setRightComponent(sp2);
          sp2.setLeftComponent(sp3);
          sp2.setResizeWeight(1);
          sp3.setTopComponent(desktop);
          sp3.setResizeWeight(1);
          sp1.setDividerSize(0);
          sp2.setDividerSize(0);
          sp3.setDividerSize(0);
          sp2.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
               public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent e) {
                    if (e.getPropertyName().equalsIgnoreCase("dividerLocation")){
                         if (eastDock.getComponentCount() > 0){
                              int newWidth = sp2.getWidth() - sp2.getDividerLocation() - sp2.getDividerSize();
                              eastDock.setComponentsPreferredWidth(newWidth);                              
          sp1.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
               public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent e) {
                    if (e.getPropertyName().equalsIgnoreCase("dividerLocation")){
                         if (westDock.getComponentCount() > 0){
                              int newWidth = sp1.getDividerLocation();
                              westDock.setComponentsPreferredWidth(newWidth);                              
          sp3.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
               public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent e) {
                    if (e.getPropertyName().equalsIgnoreCase("dividerLocation")){
                         if (southDock.getComponentCount() > 0){
                              int newHeight = sp3.getHeight() - sp3.getDividerLocation() - sp3.getDividerSize();
                              southDock.setComponentsPreferredHeight(newHeight);                              
          eastDock.addContainerListener(new ContainerAdapter() {
               public void componentAdded(ContainerEvent e) {
                    if (eastDock.getComponentCount() == 1) {
                         sp2.setRightComponent(eastDock);
                         sp2.setDividerSize(4);
               public void componentRemoved(ContainerEvent e) {
                    if (eastDock.getComponentCount() == 0) {
                         sp2.setRightComponent(null);
                         sp2.setDividerSize(0);
          westDock.addContainerListener(new ContainerAdapter() {
               public void componentAdded(ContainerEvent e) {
                    if (westDock.getComponentCount() == 1) {
                         sp1.setLeftComponent(westDock);
                         sp1.setDividerSize(4);
               public void componentRemoved(ContainerEvent e) {
                    if (westDock.getComponentCount() == 0) {
                         sp1.setLeftComponent(null);
                         sp1.setDividerSize(0);
          southDock.addContainerListener(new ContainerAdapter() {
               public void componentAdded(ContainerEvent e) {
                    if (southDock.getComponentCount() == 1) {
                         sp3.setBottomComponent(southDock);
                         sp3.setDividerSize(4);
               public void componentRemoved(ContainerEvent e) {
                    if (southDock.getComponentCount() == 0) {
                         sp3.setBottomComponent(null);
                         sp3.setDividerSize(0);
          area.add(sp1, BorderLayout.CENTER);
     public Component getArea() {
          return area;
// heres the relevant excerpt from DockPanel
     public void setComponentsPreferredWidth(int newWidth){
          if (docks == null)
               return;
          for (Iterator iter = docks.iterator(); iter.hasNext();) {
               Dockable element = (Dockable) iter.next();
               if (element.getDockableComponent() instanceof JComponent){
                    JComponent comp = (JComponent)element.getDockableComponent();
                    comp.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(newWidth, (int)comp.getPreferredSize().getHeight()));

Answer 1

www.novaworx.org. I am also looking to build a UI around my plugin engine, which the engine is very similar to the eclipse plugin engine in that it loads/unloads/reloads plugins at runtime, uses extension points and extensions, dependencies, etc. www.sourceforge.net/projects/genpluginengine if you are interested.