Thursday November 05, 2009
Thursday November 05, 2009
Microsoft Office Look for NetBeans Platform Applications
On NetBeans Zone I mentioned the OfficeLAF that developers at Exie in Norway worked on, so that they could end up with a NetBeans Platform application that looks like a member of the Microsoft Office package.
Yesterday I received a set of screenshots from the abovementioned developers, showing their Exie Builder, which I discussed recently, to illustrate the result of the Microsoft Office look in the context of their NetBeans Platform application. Here they are, click to enlarge them.
Thanks Exie developers. Now there's more than 'just' blueMarine as proof that building applications on top of the NetBeans Platform doesn't mean that the result necessarily ends up resembling NetBeans IDE.
Nov 05 2009, 03:40:19 AM PST Permalink
6 Comments
Trackback URL: http://blogs.sun.com/geertjan/entry/microsoft_office_look_for_netbeans
Comments:
waiting for the "new substance RCP project" wizard ;)
Posted by michael bien on November 05, 2009 at 04:24 AM PST #
Indeed, it does look beautiful!
But they don't seem to use a number of NetBeans APIs (at least so it seems from the look and feel):
* Nodes API
* Explorer API (properties window looks different)
* Dialogs API (at least the bottom part with buttons isn't from Dialogs API -- I'm looking at that checkbox on the same line with the buttons; the wizard is also probably custom)
They are basically only using the Module System and the Window system (topcomponents and docking) -- which isn't wrong but I wonder if they are using the external libraries because they already had the code written (so it's a migration on top of the Platform) or because they found our APIs lacking.
Posted by Emilian Bold on November 05, 2009 at 04:32 AM PST #
Pretty nice, it looks brilliant. There is no reason that the NBP should look like an IDE, and this is a best proof.
Thanks for sharing this!
Posted by David on November 05, 2009 at 05:19 AM PST #
I was a little hesitant when I read the blog entry title, but from the screenshots, this is a very well done LAF! The ribbon appears flawless and all the icons pop and look amazing. This is a LAF I could sink my teeth into! I especially like the rounded corners, its a small addition, but it really adds to an overall look that makes you think that this is a professional application. They did a great job!
Posted by Chris Arthur on November 05, 2009 at 05:46 AM PST #
Nice look and feel! It's gonna be more difficult to recognize applications built on the NetBeans Platform now ! :-)
Posted by RunningTracker on November 05, 2009 at 07:38 AM PST #
too bad that they won't be able to sell it. Microsoft-like UI's must be registered with Microsoft at http://msdn.microsoft.com/officeui
Something similar happend with famous SWT ribbon widget: https://dev.eclipse.org/ipzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3187
Posted by jacek on November 06, 2009 at 09:40 AM PST #
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