UI Design with Java and XML Toolkits
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XML has revolutionized application UI design in recent years. With a cunning blend of XML and script languages such as JavaScript, rich, aesthetically pleasing applications can be quickly constructed with ease. We've looked at Widgets and XUL as two examples of this in the past and now, I'm going to take a look at some of the innovative Java UI toolkits that implement XML as an integral mechanism for application II design. Please note, this is the first part of a two-part article.
A quick trip to Google shows just how many Java XML UI toolkits there are around now. Many of these toolkits are open source, which is great news for developers, and for people that just want to get involved or to learn the basics of application design. There are also a growing number of full-fledged applications designed to give you an interface of your own in which to design and produce interfaces. The fact that these applications exist at all show that Java and XML GUIs are the answer that many developers have been looking for.
In addition to Java/XML UI toolkits, other specifications are also being developed to make use of XML in GUI development, like XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language), a language that defines UI objects in XML and renders them using the WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), which is the new presentation API in the .Net framework 3.0. So, there are quite a few different UI toolkits you can choose from. Whatever associated technologies you have experience with or want to gain experience in, there is bound to be a toolkit or IDE you can use. Make sure you've got the latest Java Development Kit (JDK) rather than just the standard Java Runtime Engine (JRE) before attempting to use any of the UI toolkits.
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