Is JGoodies a good framework to use?

Question

I've been looking into JGoodies for the last two hours and i don't seem to find a lot of good documentation on the subject. Not even on the JGoodies website. So it made me wondering of JGoodies is a good framework to use to model your gui? Is there some good documentation on how to get started I haven't found yet?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I'm just on a project that uses JGoodies for the UI and the only thing I can say is that it is very complicated and hard to use. I'm sure it's a powerful framework, but the documentation is not very well described and the framework complexity is just to hard to understand. I'm considering to switch to another framework...

It's just that it's not worth the pain, you wont get anything special from it, except headache..

Answer 2

Well, i don't think it is complicated at all, considering the Head Aches while using other standard layouts from swing.

Keep these tips in mind

1. JGoodies forms is a powerful layout, what you envision is what you get, unlike others

2. http://www.jgoodies.com/downloads/articles-and-presentations/ kindly read articles here, 2hours of your research isn't enough.

3. When using JGoodies forms enable debug mode, to see what exactly you are doing.

4. Learning curve for most foundation classes are steep it will take time change the gear.

Answer 3

I assume you're referring to JGoodies Binding (and optionally Validation). Yes, it's a good framework. However, there's definitely a learning curve, and it's more suited for larger projects where you need to keep your code modular.

To learn more:

1. Martin Fowler on the Presentation Model architecture.
2. Another article that's helpful for understanding Presentation Model.
3. Tutorial code samples in the older versions in the download archive (unzip, browse to src/tutorial). Documentation is also included in the packages.
4. Read the articles on the JGoodies site, as alfadx mentioned.

As for JGoodies FormLayout, it's better than the default layout managers, but I think MiG Layout is better. I recommend WindowBuilder for GUI work.