SteelSeries Java Swing component library

Here we go again…

A few months ago i started a new project where i again focussed on gauges (i love that stuff). It took me some time because i only work on the project on my spare time (which is rare) but now i finished a first version of a little library that contains a lot of gauges for Java applications…

First of all i have to mention that this library was not meant to be a professional components library and should not be used on mission critical software. Means if you use the library it’s on your own risk !

I’ve never before created a component library and for me it was and is a great challenge to dive deeper into the Java universe…

But now let’s have some fun…

The library contains two general types of gauges, radial and linear ones and some little candy in the form of additional components like a Radar component etc.

I add some properties to the gauges that hopefuly will be useful for some of you.

Here is a short list of the most interesting features:

• frameDesign (metal, shiny metal, blackmetal)
• backgroundColor (dark gray, light gray, white, black, beige, red, green blue)
• pointer/bar color (red, green, blue, yellow, orange)
• a three colored track to visualize areas of special interest (e.g. a critical temperature range)
• thresholdIndicator
• blinking threshold led (red, green, blue, orange, yellow)
• adjustable tickmarks
• indicators for min. and max. measured values
• auto reset to zero feature

It should be possible for you to create your own components out of these library and  if you’ll take a look at the source you will find components like Radial1Lcd, Radial2Lcd and Radial3Lcd where i used Netbeans matisse gui builder to create the component from the FrameCircular and DisplaySingle components.

So you should be able to check read the sourcecode of these components and see how i did it (the easiest way would be to use Netbeans to check the source).

But to give you a impression, let pictures speak…Radial gauges…

Radial4 component

backgroundColor: beige

frameDesign: blackMetal

pointerColor: orange

ledColor: orange

Radial2Lcd component

backgroundColor: white

frameDesign: metal

pointerColor: red

ledColor: red

lcdColor: beige

digitalFont

Radial4 component

backgroundColor: black

frameDesign: shinyMetal

pointerColor: green

track: 70, 90, 100

Radial1Square component

backgroundColor: green

frameDesign: metal

pointerColor: red

ledColor: yellow

track: 0, 50, 100

Radial3Lcd component

backgroundColor: lightGray

frameDesign: blackMetal

pointerColor: blue

ledColor: blue

lcdColor: blueBlue

track: 40, 55, 70

Radial1Vertical component

backgroundColor: beige

frameDesign: metal

pointerColor: red

ledColor: red

Radial1Vertical component

backgroundColor: white

frameDesign: blackMetal

pointerColor: yellow

ledColor: orange

track: 0, 75, 100

threshold: 75

DigitalRadialLcd component

backgroundColor: black

frameDesign: blackMetal

lcdColor: green

DisplayCircular component

backgroundColor: blue

frameDesign: shinyMetal

digitalFont

---

Linear gauges…

Linear component

backgroundColor: darkGray

frameDesign: metal

ledColor: orange

valueColor: orange

track: 70, 85, 100

threshold: 50

vertical orientation

Linear component

backgroundColor: beige

frameDesign: blackMetal

ledColor: red

valueColor: red

lcdColor: green

digitalFont

minMeasuredValue: 0

maxMeasuredValue: 70

vertical orientation

Linear component

backgroundColor: white

frameDesign: shinyMetal

valueColor: green

ledColor: green

track 80, 90, 100

threshold: 80

orientation: horizontal

Linear component

backgroundColor: lightGray

frameDesign: blackMetal

valueColor: yellow

ledColor: yellow

lcdColor: standard

track: 0, 70, 100

---

The Candy stuff comes here…

Altimeter component

A component that behave like a altimeter that you might know from airplanes. It has three pointers

10 ft        :  the big fast pointer

100 ft      : the smaller slower pointer

1000 ft    : the pointer with the triangle at the end, moving very slow

Clock component

Just a simple analog clock component in the same look as the other gauges.

Compass component

A compass component that takes values in the range from -360…360 degrees.

Level component

A clinometer component that takes values in the range from -360…360 degrees.

Radar component

This is a little bit special component that like a lot. You could define a home position in the component which will then represent the center of the component.

Now you could add poi objects that represent locations defined by their latitude and longitude and the component will show these poi’s on the screen if they are in the range of the radar which could be defined.

This means if you read out data from a gps device and set the home position to the current position of the gps from time to time you could add some poi’s and they will appear and disappear on the radar screen when you move…

Download the library here…

I also create a project on Kenai where you could download the sourcecode or might want to participate…

There is a special blog that i created to present my Java Swing related stuff in more detail, please find it here. In that blog i will try to give you a more detailed view at the creation of these components.

Follow me on twitter if you like…