Book Image

LWUIT 1.1 for Java ME Developers

By : Biswajit Sarkar
Book Image

LWUIT 1.1 for Java ME Developers

By: Biswajit Sarkar

Overview of this book

<p>Writing appealing cross-device applications today in Java ME is challenging as implementation differences in fonts, layout, and menus can make your application look and behave very differently on different devices. So far, the only way out has been low-level programming with its associated complexity.<br /><br />The Lightweight UI Toolkit (LWUIT), an open source Java library, offers Java ME developers an easy-to-use API for creating impressive user interfaces with a device-independent look and feel. The LWUIT library contains many components and tools for bringing consistency and visual gloss to the user interface of your applications, and this book will take you through all of this, to help you get the user interfaces you want.<br /><br />Java ME allows us to write applications that are, generally speaking, portable across a wide range of small devices that support the platform. While the basic functionalities usually work well on all supported devices, the area that does pose problems for developers is the User Interface. Native implementations of javax.microedition.lcdui &ndash; the primary API for UIs in Java ME &ndash; differ so widely from one device to another that maintaining a device-independent and uniform look and feel is virtually impossible. Another problem with the javax.microedition.lcdui package is that it does not support components and capabilities that can fully satisfy present day user expectations. The Lightweight UI Toolkit is the solution to these problems. LWUIT offers a wide range of components with a device-independent look and feel for building UIs. While some of these widgets are also available under lcdui, there are a number of new ones too. These additions enable application developers to design UIs that can come very close to their desktop counterparts in terms of visual sophistication and LWUIT is not just about new components either. The API supports a whole range of new functionalities (like Theming and Transitions) too.<br /><br />This book takes Java ME developers through the library, with examples showing how to use the main components and functionalities. It also goes beyond a description of what is available by showing how to extend the library by plugging in custom-built classes.</p>

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LWUIT 1.1 for Java ME Developers
Biswajit Sarkar
Aug, 2009 | 364 pages
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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
LWUIT 1.1 for Java ME Developers
LWUIT 1.1 for Java ME Developers
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to LWUIT
Introduction to LWUIT
Why we need the LWUIT
LWUIT overview
Widgets
The underlying support elements
Functionalities
The Basic architecture
LWUITImplementation—the foundation of LWUIT
The Display class
Summary
2
Components
Components
The LWUIT bundle
Getting equipped
Hello LWUIT!
Deploying an application
The Component class
The Graphics class
Summary
3
The Container Family
The Container Family
The Container
The form
The Dialog
The Calendar
The TabbedPane
Style for the future
Summary
4
The Label Family
The Label Family
The Border class
The Label
The Button class
The CheckBox
The RadioButton and ButtonGroup
Summary
5
List and ComboBox
List and ComboBox
The list
The ComboBox
Summary
6
TextArea and TextField
TextArea and TextField
The TextArea
The TextField class
Summary
7
Arranging Widgets with Layout Managers
Arranging Widgets with Layout Managers
Layout class
The LayoutStyle class
BorderLayout
BoxLayout
CoordinateLayout
FlowLayout
GridLayout
GroupLayout
Summary
8
Creating a Custom Component
Creating a Custom Component
The making of a component
Enhancements
Summary
9
Resources Class, Resource File and LWUIT Designer
Resources Class, Resource File and LWUIT Designer
The LWUIT Designer
The Resources class
The SampleResource demo
Summary
10
Using Themes
Using Themes
Working with theme files
Theming custom components
Manual styling versus theming
Theming on the fly
New version of the LWUIT Designer
Summary
11
Adding Animations and Transitions
Adding Animations and Transitions
Animations
Transition
Authoring transitions
Summary
12
Painters
Painters
The Painter interface
The DemoPainter application
Drawing a multi-layered background
Using a glass pane
Summary
13
Effects and Logging— Useful Utilities
Effects and Logging— Useful Utilities
Using Effects
Logging with LWUIT
Customizing Log
Summary

About the Author

Biswajit Sarkar is an electrical engineer with a specialization in Programmable Industrial Automation. He has had extensive experience across the entire spectrum of Industrial Automation—from hardware and firmware designing for general and special purpose Programmable Controllers, to marketing and project management. He also leads a team of a young and highly talented group of engineers engaged in product (both hardware and software) development. He has been associated with a wide variety of automation projects, including controls for special purpose machines, blast furnace charge control, large air pollution control systems, controls for cogeneration plants in sugar factories, supervisory control for small hydel plants, turbine governors, and substation automation including associated SCADA.

Currently Biswajit consults on Industrial Automation and Java ME based applications. He has written extensively for Java.net on Java Native Interface, Java ME and LWUIT. He has taught courses on mathematics and analytical reasoning at a number of leading institutes in India. Biswajit has also taught a specially designed course on Java for MS and Ph.D. students as well as post doctoral fellows at the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia (USA).

Biswajit, originally from Calcutta, now lives in Nashik, India with his wife.

This book would never have seen daylight had it not been for the excellent support that I received from the editorial team at Packt Publishing. I must express my grateful appreciation of the roles played by Douglas Paterson at the critical formative stage of the book, and, later by Dhiraj Chandiramani. Lata Basantani and Zainab Bagasrawala made sure that the project remained on schedule, while Shadab Khan and his team deftly guided the completion process. I am grateful for the comments of the reviewers that helped me maintain clarity of thought, and ensured the technical integrity of the book. On the personal front, first and foremost, I am indebted to Dada who equipped me with the ability to undertake such an activity. The encouragement and unstinting support I received from my wife Jyoti were a great source of strength and helped me survive those difficult times when I was nearly swamped by my various commitments and the temptation to give up was great. Isaac, my son-in-law, has always encouraged me to write and was a great confidence booster. Finally, I must acknowledge the sacrifices made by my grandchildren Anunita and Ian who spent many unhappy days and evenings without my participation in their games.

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