What Is a Java Widget?
Java is an object-oriented programming language used by programmers to develop applications for Web and desktop environments. When developing desktop applications, the programmer often needs to provide a Graphical User Interface (GUI) with which the user can interact. This means creating windows containing different fields, buttons and functions. This will also mean the programmer will have to create "widgets," or a small functional item inside a Java GUI window.
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Widgets
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In Java programming, a "widget" represents a functional piece of a GUI with which a user can interact. This can take the form of a button or a text field. The important thing to understand about widgets is that they are placed by a program and persist in state, meaning the underlying Java program handles drawing and handling widgets. The programmer using the widget needs only to monitor how a user might interact with the widget. For example, a programmer using a button widget would probably write code to handle whenever a user clicks the button.
Widget Libraries
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Two common libraries are the Swing library and the SWT library. The Swing library originates from Sun, the developer who created Java, as a functional GUI builder complete with a library of widgets. However, Swing can be complex and hard to use for small projects, or without advanced knowledge of Java. The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) originates from an earlier widget toolkit provided with Java, and allows programs access to low-level GUI programming functions. This means programmers can extend the functionality of the host operating system's "natural" look for more integrated-looking applications.
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Handling Events
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Widgets also handle events, such as button clicks and mouse roll-overs. This allows programmers to write code that reacts to user actions involving the mouse cursor or keyboard. This way, programmers can either develop functions that allow users to change windows, enter information, manipulate data or disallow certain user interactions, such as resizing windows or clicking buttons before entering required data.
Cross-Platform Performance
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Because the underlying Java programming language remains independent of the operating system it operates on, any Java GUI widgets used are also platform-independent. This means a program written to use certain widgets as part of its interface will look the same regardless if the program executes on a Windows machine or a Unix machine. This is in contrast to other languages that include GUI development tools, such as Tkinter in Python, which will take the look of the host operating system.
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