UI Utilities API
Official

See:
Description

UI Utilities API

org.netbeans.api.actions	Context Interfaces are a design pattern used to add behaviors to existing objects or to separate implementation from the main object.
org.netbeans.spi.actions	Contains support classes for easier implementation of Context Interfaces.
org.openide.awt	A set of utility classes pertaining to the visual appearance of NetBeans.

API/SPI for UI related aspects of application.

What is New (see all changes)?

• May 16 '12 Support for Check for Updates feature

  A service provider of UI for Check for Updates feature, for example in About dialog. The instance of the provider should be installed in default lookup using ServiceProvider.

• Mar 8 '12 QuickSearch class that allows to attach quick search field to an arbitratry component.

  QuickSearch class is added. It can be used to attach a quick search functionality to an arbitrary component.

• Jan 6 '12 Added Actions.forID

  Added a utility method Actions.forID. Also moved AcceleratorBinding down into the org.openide.awt module (keeping the same FQN and signature).

• Dec 14 '11 Added lazy attribute to ActionRegistration

  Added attribute explicitly controlling whether an action registration uses a lazy factory method or not.

• Sep 14 '11 Close Button API

  New close button factory to a create close button or a big close button.

Use Cases

XXX no answer for arch-usecases

Exported Interfaces

This table lists all of the module exported APIs with defined stability classifications. It is generated based on answers to questions about the architecture of the module. Read them all...

Group of java interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
org.openide.awt	Exported	Official	.../org/openide/awt/package-summary.html

Group of property interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
menuText	Exported	Stable	org/openide/awt/Actions.html
popupText	Exported	Stable	org/openide/awt/Actions.html

Group of branding interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
USE_MNEMONICS	Exported	Stable	There is a way to enable mnemonics in popup menu items created via Actions factory methods in your own application build on top of NetBeans Platform. Just provide branding for org/openide/awt/Bundle.properties file and modify USE_MNEMONICS=always. Other possible values of this key include default, never or always.

Group of logger interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
org.netbeans.ui.actions.UI_ACTION_BUTTON_PRESS	Exported	Friend	There is a special support for notifying when an action wrapped by Actions bridge is invoked and how. The support is using Logger.getLogger("org.netbeans.ui.actions") and sents a LogRecord with message UI_ACTION_BUTTON_PRESS, FINER level and paramerters: {0} instance of the button {1} class of the button {2} instance of the action {3} class of the action {4} display name of the action whenever such action is invoked. This message can then be consumed by enhanced UI logger that track what the user is going.

Group of systemproperty interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
org.openide.awt.StatusDisplayer.DISPLAY_TIME	Exported	Friend	Status text set in StatusDisplayer is by default shown in status line of NetBeans and is hidden after specified timeout. If not overriden by this property it is done after 5000ms. O means that the last text will be shown and not removed.
org.openide.awt.ActionReference.completion	Exported	Under Development	If System.getProperty("org.openide.awt.ActionReference.completion") is specified, then the dedicated processor for ActionReference tries to load such class, casts it to Processor and asks it for additional completion items for its path attribute. By default, when running inside NetBeans IDE, apisupport.project registers such class and provides items representing valid paths in current project.

Group of lookup interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
ButtonActionConnectorSPI	Exported	Friend	Objects implementing ButtonActionConnector are looked up. Only the first instance found in the loookup is used to provide an alternative implementation of connection between Actions and GUI components. If there isn't one in the lookup the default implementation is used (it means there does not have to be one).

Group of layer interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
Actions.factories	Exported	Stable	org/openide/awt/Actions.html Many action factories (alwaysEnabled, context and callback, etc.) are ready to be called directly from layer XML file.

Implementation Details

Where are the sources for the module?

The sources for the module are in the NetBeans Mercurial repositories.

What do other modules need to do to declare a dependency on this one, in addition to or instead of a plain module dependency?

Nothing.

Read more about the implementation in the answers to architecture questions.