The FreeHEP Application Framework

The FreeHEP application framework provides a set of framework classes for building applications. The framework is organized into 4 layers, each building on the layer below.

Application - A framework for general purpose GUI applications.
MDIApplication - extends Application to provide support for "MDI style" applications.
Studio - Extends MDIApplication to provide support for plugins, which can be dynamically loaded and extend the functionality of the application.
Data Studio - Extends the functionality of studio to provide support for data analysis specific functionality, including Data Interface Modules's.

The entire package is still under development and should not be considered stable.

Application

The Application package (org.freehep.application) provides the following capabilities. In many cases the individual functions are provided by other parts of the freehep library, but the application package brings these capabilities all together in one place. The application package makes some assumptions about the application design, but provides many ways in which it can be customized.

Setting of properties via an "application properties" file
Maintenance of user preferences between sessions using a "user properties" file.
A services package which provides for writing applications which can run as standalone applications, trusted JNLP applications, or untrusted JNLP applications.
Use of XML to define menus and toolbars
Use of a command manager for dispatching commands to command targets.
Command line parsing
About dialog
Print Preview capabilities
Recent File menu(s) maintained between sessions
Reporting of errors to the user.
JDK compatibility testing.
Dynamic Look and Feel switching and persistency between sessions
Window size and position maintained between sessions
Splash Screen
Status bar with message area and progress meter - including support for canceling time consuming operations.
Help system using JavaHelp

As an alternative to customization by overriding methods, much of the application functionality can be controlled using the application property file.

Property	Purpose	Default	User overide	Legal values
version	Version #	1.0	no
fullVersion	Version description	{title} {version}	no
confirmQuit	Ask before quit?	maybe	yes	never\|maybe\|always
confirmQuitMessage	Confirm quit message	Do you really want to quit?	yes
confirmQuitTitle	Title for confirm quit dialog	Confirm Quit	yes
showSplash	Should splash screen appear at startup	true	yes	true\|false
splashTitle	Title for splash screen	{title}	yes
splashImage	Image for splash screen	{aboutImage}	yes
numberOfInitializationStages	Automatically set after first application invokation	10	yes
lookAndFeel	Look and Feel	System	yes	System\|Java\|<name>
title	Application title	{appName}	yes
icon	Application icon	null	yes
topLevelToolBar	Name of default tool bar in XML file	null	yes
topLevelMenuBar	Name of default menu bar in XML file	null	yes
topLevelPopupMenu	Name of default popup menu in XML file	null	yes
showToolBar	Is tool bar visible	true	yes	true\|false
showStatusBar	Is status bar visible	true	yes	true\|false
window	Position/size of top level window		yes
SAXParser	Class for XML parser	org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser	yes
menuXML	Name of XML file which defines menus	{appName}.menus	yes

For a demonstration of the application framework see the IconBrowser demo.

MDI Application

The MDI application package (org.freehep.application.mdi) provides support for:

pages, control(s) and console(s) areas.
dynamic switching of page managers to allow pages to be organized as tabbed panes, or as movable windows on a desktop.
multiple toolbars.

Studio

While MDI applications are typically customized by subclassing, Studio applications are typically extended by the use of one or more plugins.