OpenJDK 27 · javax.swing · APIdia, the JavaDoc alternative

Provides a set of "lightweight" (all-Java language) components that, to the maximum degree possible, work the same on all platforms. For a programmer's guide to using these components, see Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing, a trail in The Java Tutorial. For other resources, see Related Documentation.

Swing's Threading Policy

In general Swing is not thread safe. All Swing components and related classes, unless otherwise documented, must be accessed on the event dispatching thread.

Typical Swing applications do processing in response to an event generated from a user gesture. For example, clicking on a JButton notifies all ActionListeners added to the JButton. As all events generated from a user gesture are dispatched on the event dispatching thread, most developers are not impacted by the restriction.

Where the impact lies, however, is in constructing and showing a Swing application. Calls to an application's main method, are not invoked on the event dispatching thread. As such, care must be taken to transfer control to the event dispatching thread when constructing and showing an application. The preferred way to transfer control and begin working with Swing is to use invokeLater. The invokeLater method schedules a Runnable to be processed on the event dispatching thread. The following two examples work equally well for transferring control and starting up a Swing application:

import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class MyApp implements Runnable {
    public void run() {
        // Invoked on the event dispatching thread.
        // Construct and show GUI.
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new MyApp());
    }
}

Or:

import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class MyApp {
    MyApp(String[] args) {
        // Invoked on the event dispatching thread.
        // Do any initialization here.
    }

    public void show() {
        // Show the UI.
    }

    public static void main(final String[] args) {
        // Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
        // creating and showing this application's GUI.
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new MyApp(args).show();
            }
        });
    }
}

This restriction also applies to models attached to Swing components. For example, if a TableModel is attached to a JTable, the TableModel should only be modified on the event dispatching thread. If you modify the model on a separate thread you run the risk of exceptions and possible display corruption.

Although it is generally safe to make updates to the UI immediately, when executing on the event dispatch thread, there is an exception : if a model listener tries to further change the UI before the UI has been updated to reflect a pending change then the UI may render incorrectly. This can happen if an application installed listener needs to update the UI in response to an event which will cause a change in the model structure. It is important to first allow component installed listeners to process this change, since there is no guarantee of the order in which listeners may be called. The solution is for the application listener to make the change using javax.swing.SwingUtilities#invokeLater(Runnable) so that any changes to UI rendering will be done post processing all the model listeners installed by the component.

As all events are delivered on the event dispatching thread, care must be taken in event processing. In particular, a long running task, such as network io or computational intensive processing, executed on the event dispatching thread blocks the event dispatching thread from dispatching any other events. While the event dispatching thread is blocked the application is completely unresponsive to user input. Refer to javax.swing.SwingWorker for the preferred way to do such processing when working with Swing.

More information on this topic can be found in the Swing tutorial, in particular the section on Concurrency in Swing.

Swing's Serialization policy

Warning

Serialized objects of any Swing class will not be compatible with future Swing releases. The current serialization support is appropriate for short term storage or RMI between applications running the same version of Swing. As of 1.4, support for long term storage of all JavaBeans has been added to the java.beans package.

Modifier and Type	Interface and Description
public interface	Action The `Action` interface provides a useful extension to the `ActionListener` interface in cases where the same functionality may be accessed by several controls.
public interface	BoundedRangeModel Defines the data model used by components like `Slider`s and `ProgressBar`s.
public interface	ButtonModel State model for buttons.
public interface	CellEditor This interface defines the methods any general editor should be able to implement.
public interface	ComboBoxEditor The editor component used for JComboBox components.
public interface	ComboBoxModel< the type of the elements of this model E> A data model for a combo box.
public interface	DesktopManager DesktopManager objects are owned by a JDesktopPane object.
pack-priv interface	GraphicsWrapper
public interface	Icon A small fixed size picture, typically used to decorate components.
public interface	ListCellRenderer< the type of values this renderer can be used for E> Identifies components that can be used as "rubber stamps" to paint the cells in a JList.
public interface	ListModel< the type of the elements of this model E> This interface defines the methods components like JList use to get the value of each cell in a list and the length of the list.
public interface	ListSelectionModel This interface represents the current state of the selection for any of the components that display a list of values with stable indices.
public interface	MenuElement Any component that can be placed into a menu should implement this interface.
public interface	MutableComboBoxModel< the type of the elements of this model E> A mutable version of `ComboBoxModel`.
public interface	Painter< type of the configuration parameter T> A painting delegate.
public interface	Renderer Defines the requirements for an object responsible for "rendering" (displaying) a value.
public interface	RootPaneContainer This interface is implemented by components that have a single JRootPane child: JDialog, JFrame, JWindow, JInternalFrame.
public interface	Scrollable An interface that provides information to a scrolling container like JScrollPane.
public interface	ScrollPaneConstants Constants used with the JScrollPane component.
public interface	SingleSelectionModel A model that supports at most one indexed selection.
public interface	SpinnerModel A model for a potentially unbounded sequence of object values.
public interface	SwingConstants A collection of constants generally used for positioning and orienting components on the screen.
pack-priv interface	SwingHeavyWeight An interface used to tag heavy weight components that we want processed by Swing's RepaintManager.
public interface	UIClientPropertyKey This interface is used only for tagging keys for client properties for `JComponent` set by UI which needs to be cleared on L&F; change and serialization.
public interface	WindowConstants Constants used to control the window-closing operation.

Modifier and Type	Annotation and Description
public @interface	SwingContainer An annotation used to specify some swing-related information for the automatically generated `BeanInfo` classes.

Class Summary

Modifier and Type	Class and Description
public abstract class	AbstractAction This class provides default implementations for the JFC `Action` interface.
public abstract class	AbstractButton Defines common behaviors for buttons and menu items.
public abstract class	AbstractCellEditor A base class for `CellEditors`, providing default implementations for the methods in the `CellEditor` interface except `getCellEditorValue()`.
public abstract class	AbstractListModel< the type of the elements of this model E> The abstract definition for the data model that provides a `List` with its contents.
public abstract class	AbstractSpinnerModel This class provides the ChangeListener part of the SpinnerModel interface that should be suitable for most concrete SpinnerModel implementations.
public class	ActionMap `ActionMap` provides mappings from `Object`s (called keys or `Action` names) to `Action`s.
pack-priv abstract class	ActionPropertyChangeListener< the type of JComponent the underlying Action is attached to T extends JComponent> A package-private PropertyChangeListener which listens for property changes on an Action and updates the properties of an ActionEvent source.
pack-priv class	AncestorNotifier
pack-priv class	ArrayTable
pack-priv class	Autoscroller Autoscroller is responsible for generating synthetic mouse dragged events.
public class	BorderFactory Factory class for vending standard `Border` objects.
public class	Box A lightweight container that uses a BoxLayout object as its layout manager.
public class	BoxLayout A layout manager that allows multiple components to be laid out either vertically or horizontally.
pack-priv class	BufferStrategyPaintManager A PaintManager implementation that uses a BufferStrategy for rendering.
public class	ButtonGroup This class is used to create a multiple-exclusion scope for a set of buttons.
public class	CellRendererPane This class is inserted in between cell renderers and the components that use them.
pack-priv class	ColorChooserDialog
pack-priv class	ColorTracker
pack-priv class	CompareTabOrderComparator
public class	ComponentInputMap A `ComponentInputMap` is an `InputMap` associated with a particular `JComponent`.
public class	DebugGraphics Graphics subclass supporting graphics debugging.
pack-priv class	DebugGraphicsFilter Color filter for DebugGraphics, used for images only.
pack-priv class	DebugGraphicsInfo Class used by DebugGraphics for maintaining information about how to render graphics calls.
pack-priv class	DebugGraphicsObserver ImageObserver for DebugGraphics, used for images only.
public class	DefaultBoundedRangeModel A generic implementation of BoundedRangeModel.
public class	DefaultButtonModel The default implementation of a `Button` component's data model.
public class	DefaultCellEditor The default editor for table and tree cells.
public class	DefaultComboBoxModel< the type of the elements of this model E> The default model for combo boxes.
public class	DefaultDesktopManager This is an implementation of the `DesktopManager`.
public class	DefaultFocusManager This class has been obsoleted by the 1.4 focus APIs.
public class	DefaultListCellRenderer Renders an item in a list.
public class	DefaultListModel< the type of the elements of this model E> This class loosely implements the `java.util.Vector` API, in that it implements the 1.1.x version of `java.util.Vector`, has no collection class support, and notifies the `ListDataListener`s when changes occur.
public class	DefaultListSelectionModel Default data model for list selections.
public abstract class	DefaultRowSorter< the type of the model M, the type of the identifier passed to the `RowFilter` I> An implementation of `RowSorter` that provides sorting and filtering around a grid-based data model.
public class	DefaultSingleSelectionModel A generic implementation of SingleSelectionModel.
pack-priv class	DelegatingDefaultFocusManager Provides a javax.swing.DefaultFocusManager view onto an arbitrary java.awt.KeyboardFocusManager.
public abstract class	FocusManager This class has been obsoleted by the 1.4 focus APIs.
public class	GrayFilter An image filter that "disables" an image by turning it into a grayscale image, and brightening the pixels in the image.
public class	GroupLayout `GroupLayout` is a `LayoutManager` that hierarchically groups components in order to position them in a `Container`.
public class	ImageIcon An implementation of the Icon interface that paints Icons from Images.
public class	InputMap `InputMap` provides a binding between an input event (currently only `KeyStroke`s are used) and an `Object`.
public abstract class	InputVerifier This class provides the validation mechanism for Swing components.
public abstract class	InternalFrameFocusTraversalPolicy A FocusTraversalPolicy which can optionally provide an algorithm for determining a JInternalFrame's initial Component.
public class	JButton An implementation of a "push" button.
public class	JCheckBox An implementation of a check box -- an item that can be selected or deselected, and which displays its state to the user.
public class	JCheckBoxMenuItem A menu item that can be selected or deselected.
public class	JColorChooser `JColorChooser` provides a pane of controls designed to allow a user to manipulate and select a color.
public class	JComboBox< the type of the elements of this combo box E> A component that combines a button or editable field and a drop-down list.
public abstract class	JComponent The base class for all Swing components except top-level containers.
public class	JDesktopPane A container used to create a multiple-document interface or a virtual desktop.
public class	JDialog The main class for creating a dialog window.
public class	JEditorPane A text component to edit various kinds of content.
public class	JFileChooser `JFileChooser` provides a simple mechanism for the user to choose a file.
public class	JFormattedTextField `JFormattedTextField` extends `JTextField` adding support for formatting arbitrary values, as well as retrieving a particular object once the user has edited the text.
public class	JFrame An extended version of `java.awt.Frame` that adds support for the JFC/Swing component architecture.
public class	JInternalFrame A lightweight object that provides many of the features of a native frame, including dragging, closing, becoming an icon, resizing, title display, and support for a menu bar.
public class	JLabel A display area for a short text string or an image, or both.
public class	JLayer< the type of `JLayer`'s view component V extends Component> `JLayer` is a universal decorator for Swing components which enables you to implement various advanced painting effects as well as receive notifications of all `AWTEvent`s generated within its borders.
public class	JLayeredPane `JLayeredPane` adds depth to a JFC/Swing container, allowing components to overlap each other when needed.
public class	JList< the type of the elements of this list E> A component that displays a list of objects and allows the user to select one or more items.
public class	JMenu An implementation of a menu -- a popup window containing `JMenuItem`s that is displayed when the user selects an item on the `JMenuBar`.
public class	JMenuBar An implementation of a menu bar.
public class	JMenuItem An implementation of an item in a menu.
public class	JOptionPane `JOptionPane` makes it easy to pop up a standard dialog box that prompts users for a value or informs them of something.
public class	JPanel `JPanel` is a generic lightweight container.
public class	JPasswordField `JPasswordField` is a lightweight component that allows the editing of a single line of text where the view indicates something was typed, but does not show the original characters.
public class	JPopupMenu An implementation of a popup menu -- a small window that pops up and displays a series of choices.
public class	JProgressBar A component that visually displays the progress of some task.
public class	JRadioButton An implementation of a radio button -- an item that can be selected or deselected, and which displays its state to the user.
public class	JRadioButtonMenuItem An implementation of a radio button menu item.
public class	JRootPane A lightweight container used behind the scenes by `JFrame`, `JDialog`, `JWindow`, and `JInternalFrame`.
public class	JScrollBar An implementation of a scrollbar.
public class	JScrollPane Provides a scrollable view of a lightweight component.
public class	JSeparator `JSeparator` provides a general purpose component for implementing divider lines - most commonly used as a divider between menu items that breaks them up into logical groupings.
public class	JSlider A component that lets the user graphically select a value by sliding a knob within a bounded interval.
public class	JSpinner A single line input field that lets the user select a number or an object value from an ordered sequence.
public class	JSplitPane `JSplitPane` is used to divide two (and only two) `Component`s.
public class	JTabbedPane A component that lets the user switch between a group of components by clicking on a tab with a given title and/or icon.
public class	JTable The `JTable` is used to display and edit regular two-dimensional tables of cells.
public class	JTextArea A `JTextArea` is a multi-line area that displays plain text.
public class	JTextField `JTextField` is a lightweight component that allows the editing of a single line of text.
public class	JTextPane A text component that can be marked up with attributes that are represented graphically.
public class	JToggleButton An implementation of a two-state button.
public class	JToolBar `JToolBar` provides a component that is useful for displaying commonly used `Action`s or controls.
public class	JToolTip Used to display a "Tip" for a Component.
public class	JTree A control that displays a set of hierarchical data as an outline.
public class	JViewport The "viewport" or "porthole" through which you see the underlying information.
public class	JWindow A `JWindow` is a container that can be displayed anywhere on the user's desktop.
pack-priv class	KeyboardManager The KeyboardManager class is used to help dispatch keyboard actions for the WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW style actions.
public class	KeyStroke A KeyStroke represents a key action on the keyboard, or equivalent input device.
pack-priv class	LayoutComparator Comparator which attempts to sort Components based on their size and position.
public class	LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy A SortingFocusTraversalPolicy which sorts Components based on their size, position, and orientation.
public abstract class	LayoutStyle `LayoutStyle` provides information about how to position components.
pack-priv class	LegacyGlueFocusTraversalPolicy A FocusTraversalPolicy which provides support for legacy applications which handle focus traversal via JComponent.setNextFocusableComponent or by installing a custom DefaultFocusManager.
pack-priv class	LegacyLayoutFocusTraversalPolicy
public abstract class	LookAndFeel `LookAndFeel`, as the name implies, encapsulates a look and feel.
public class	MenuSelectionManager A MenuSelectionManager owns the selection in menu hierarchy.
pack-priv class	MultiUIDefaults
public class	OverlayLayout A layout manager to arrange components over the top of each other.
public class	Popup Popups are used to display a `Component` to the user, typically on top of all the other `Component`s in a particular containment hierarchy.
public class	PopupFactory `PopupFactory`, as the name implies, is used to obtain instances of `Popup`s.
public class	ProgressMonitor A class to monitor the progress of some operation.
public class	ProgressMonitorInputStream Monitors the progress of reading from some InputStream.
public class	RepaintManager This class manages repaint requests, allowing the number of repaints to be minimized, for example by collapsing multiple requests into a single repaint for members of a component tree.
public abstract class	RowFilter< the type of the model; for example `PersonModel` M, the type of the identifier; when using `TableRowSorter` this will be `Integer` I> `RowFilter` is used to filter out entries from the model so that they are not shown in the view.
public abstract class	RowSorter< the type of the underlying model M> `RowSorter` provides the basis for sorting and filtering.
public class	ScrollPaneLayout The layout manager used by `JScrollPane`.
public class	SizeRequirements For the convenience of layout managers, calculates information about the size and position of components.
public class	SizeSequence A `SizeSequence` object efficiently maintains an ordered list of sizes and corresponding positions.
public class	SortingFocusTraversalPolicy A FocusTraversalPolicy that determines traversal order by sorting the Components of a focus traversal cycle based on a given Comparator.
public class	SpinnerDateModel A `SpinnerModel` for sequences of `Date`s.
public class	SpinnerListModel A simple implementation of `SpinnerModel` whose values are defined by an array or a `List`.
public class	SpinnerNumberModel A `SpinnerModel` for sequences of numbers.
public abstract class	Spring An instance of the `Spring` class holds three properties that characterize its behavior: the minimum, preferred, and maximum values.
public class	SpringLayout A `SpringLayout` lays out the children of its associated container according to a set of constraints.
pack-priv class	SwingContainerOrderFocusTraversalPolicy
pack-priv class	SwingDefaultFocusTraversalPolicy
pack-priv class	SwingPaintEventDispatcher Swing's PaintEventDispatcher.
public class	SwingUtilities A collection of utility methods for Swing.
public abstract class	SwingWorker< the result type returned by this `SwingWorker's` `doInBackground` and `get` methods T, the type used for carrying out intermediate results by this `SwingWorker's` `publish` and `process` methods V> An abstract class to perform lengthy GUI-interaction tasks in a background thread.
pack-priv class	TablePrintable An implementation of `Printable` for printing `JTable`s.
public class	Timer Fires one or more `ActionEvent`s at specified intervals.
pack-priv class	TimerQueue Internal class to manage all Timers using one thread.
public class	ToolTipManager Manages all the `ToolTips` in the system.
public class	TransferHandler This class is used to handle the transfer of a `Transferable` to and from Swing components.
public class	UIDefaults A table of defaults for Swing components.
public class	UIManager `UIManager` manages the current look and feel, the set of available look and feels, `PropertyChangeListeners` that are notified when the look and feel changes, look and feel defaults, and convenience methods for obtaining various default values.
public class	UnsupportedLookAndFeelException An exception that indicates the requested look & feel management classes are not present on the user's system.
public class	ViewportLayout The default layout manager for `JViewport`.

Modifier and Type	Enum and Description
pack-priv enum	ClientPropertyKey An enumeration for keys used as client properties within the Swing implementation.
public enum	DropMode Drop modes, used to determine the method by which a component tracks and indicates a drop location during drag and drop.
public enum	SortOrder SortOrder is an enumeration of the possible sort orderings.

Package javax.swing

Swing's Threading Policy

Swing's Serialization policy

Related Documentation

Interface Summary

Annotation Summary

Class Summary

Enum Summary