Save the form containing components

Question

Hi All,
I am preparing an application which has some swing components on a form. I want to save that form and open it again for future use.
The saving action is similar to save VB or NetBeans form.
The opening action is similar to open VB or NetBeans form.
Can you help me in the same at the earliest.
Thanks and Regards,
Hitesh.

Answer 1

How do I do that ?1- I think, you would have to define your own format of the file. e.g. you can use XML to define the form:
<Form>
    <ContentPane>
        <class>javax.swing.JPanel</class>
        <background>#ffffff</background>
        <layout>java.awt.BorderLayout</layout>
        <Component>
             <class>javax.swing.JButton</class>
             <constraint>java.awt.BorderLayout.NORTH</constraint>
         </Component>
         <Component>
             <class>javax.swing.JTextField</class>
             <constraint>java.awt.BorderLayout.SOUTH</constraint>
         </Component>
    </ContentPane>
</Form>Note: I don't know XML, this is just an example ;-)
-- This would be program independent way i.e. other programs can also recreate the form if they know the format.
-- Also, there are good XML parsers available in java which you can use for parsing.
-- For this you would also need to create objects/form components dynamically and also invoke their methods dynamically.
2- You can directly write the Form object to the file using ObjectOutputStream if your object is Serializable. Then you can read the object back from that file.
Here is something about ObjectStreams: [http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/essential/io/objectstreams.html]
IMO, first one is better but harder to implement, however second method is very easy.
Thanks!
Note: I have not done this thing before, so, these are just my suggestions and I am not a professional developer (just a student). So, don't blame me if this doesn't work ;-)
Edit: My typing is slow..... but, seeing other suggestions now, I guess I was on the right track.... :)
Edited by: T.B.M on Apr 8, 2009 7:28 PM