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XWT Documentation
What it is?
XWT is a declarative UI designed for Eclipse. It is a powerful and lightweight framework. It uses XML as UI markup language.
XWT simplifies UI programming. You can create visible UI elements in the declarative XML markup with a physical separation of the UI definition from the run-time logic. An XML based declarative language is very intuitive for creating interfaces ranging from prototype to production, especially for people with a background in web design and technologies.
Doc: Overview
Tutorial: Hello, world!
Webdemo: Getting started!
Contents
Getting started
Here is a simple example.
<Shell xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt/presentation" xmlns:x="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt"> <Shell.layout> <FillLayout/> </Shell.layout> <Button text="Hello, world!"> </Button> </Shell>
The same UI can be developed in Java corresponding:
Shell parent = new Shell(); parent.setLayout(new FillLayout()); Button button = new Button(parent, SWT.NONE); button.setText("Hello, world!");
To load and start a simple application, we use the class XWT:
Shell shell = XWT.load(file).getShell(); shell.pack(); shell.open(); while (!shell.isDisposed()) { if (!shell.getDisplay().readAndDispatch()) { shell.getDisplay().sleep(); } }
It is possible to load a UI resource under a Composite:
XWT.load(parent, uri);
Event Handling
In the previous example, we just rewrite Java code in XML. This example illustrates the separation between UI and event handling.
The appearance is defined in XWT.
<Shell xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt/presentation" xmlns:x="http://www.eclipse.org/xwt" x:Class="ui.EventHandler"> <Shell.layout> <GridLayout/> </Shell.layout> <Button text="Click Me!" SelectionEvent="clickButton"> </Button> </Shell>
The extension attribute x:Class declares the Java class to handle all events. The Button event is handled by clickButton method in the class ui.EventHandler. The association is setup during the loading:
package ui; import org.eclipse.swt.Event; import org.eclipse.swt.Button; public class EventHandler { protected void clickButton(Event event) { Button button = (Button )event.widget; button.setText("Hello, world!"); } }
When the button gets selected, the method clickButton is invoked to change the Button text to "Hello, world!".
Integration with existing application
Binding and Data Binding
Reusable Component
This tutorial will shows how to develop a reusable UI component.