Advanced Synth

By Michael Abernethy
2005-04-16

Beauty's Only Skin Deep

Enter Synth, which Sun hopes will ease the process of personalizing an application's look. The goal for Synth is simple -- let developers create a new look and feel without writing one line of Java code. This seems like a good solution. Programmers in general aren't known as the most artistic of people, and graphic artists aren't generally experts on Java coding. Synth provides a happy compromise by removing the entire description of the look from the code and placing it in an external XML file and image files. This type of look and feel, one that's described solely in external files, is called a skin.

Sun isn't breaking any new ground with the idea of a skin. Hundreds of skins exist for Winamp and dozens for Firefox, for example, because they're simple to create with only an XML file to change. Imagine creating a look and feel quickly and easily for a Java application by simply modifying an XML file. And then imagine the possible results -- hundreds of unique Swing look and feels. Java UI developers have reason to celebrate.

This article digs deeply into the Synth look and feel. I'll show you everything you need to know to create a complete look or skin. You'll examine a sample skinned application that uses all of Synth's important concepts. Then I'll break the skin down step-by-step to teach you Synth concepts as you build the XML file.

The article's last section attempts to answer many of the questions that developers have about Synth performance, bugs and defects, and the time savings that Synth offers. After reading this article, you should be willing to embrace Synth as a look and feel solution and be ready to use it to create your own skins for Swing in no time.

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First published by IBM DeveloperWorks

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