Tutorials

These tutorials explain some basic notions for the framework.

Running the tutorials

To run the tutorials, unzip the MDIFramework-samples-<version>.zip file. You can either open the Netbeans project and execute one of the configurations:

• BasicTutorial for the basic tutorial
• ActionsTutorial for the actions tutorial
• AboutTutorial for the about tutorial
• DialogTutorial for the dialog tutorial
• MessageAreaTutorial for the message area tutorial
• MessageAreaTutorial2 for the second message area tutorial
• ConfigTutorial for the configuration tutorial
• SettingsTutorial for the settings tutorial
• CommandlineTutorial for the first command-line tutorial
• CommandlineTutorial2 for the second command-line tutorial

or directly double-click on one of the jars:

• BasicTutorial.jar for the basic tutorial
• ActionsTutorial.jar for the actions tutorial
• AboutTutorial.jar for the about tutorial
• DialogTutorial.jar for the dialog tutorial
• MessageAreaTutorial.jar for the message area tutorial
• MessageAreaTutorial2.jar for the second message area tutorial
• ConfigTutorial.jar for the configuration tutorial
• SettingsTutorial.jar for the settings tutorial
• CommandlineTutorial.jar for the first command-line tutorial
• CommandlineTutorial2.jar for the second command-line tutorial

Basic tutorial

The basic tutorial is a simple application to view any image files that can be handled by the JRE (as of jpg, for example), and get some properties about these files. We will use a Plugin to open the files, and the main application to get the informations about them. Remember that although it is a fully working example, it intends to be overly simple, so surely it could not be useful in the real life. With this example, we will learn to:

• Create an Application and its associated menus
• Load Plugins in the Application
• Create the Plugins and register their menus in the Application
• Use Actions
• Add a Splash Screen to the Application

Actions tutorial

With this actions tutorial, we will learn to:

• Use MetaDatas and filter menus according to them
• Use Other ways to register actions
• Associate toolbars with actions, both in the application and the Plugins

About tutorial

The about tutorial is an application which:

• Uses an application description for both the application and the Plugins
• Uses an About dialog

Message area tutorial

The message area tutorial is a simple application derived from the basic tutorial which uses the Message area. With this example, we will learn to:

• Remove the default text when performing an action
• Use the message area with simple text
• Use the message area with styled text

Second message area tutorial

The second message area tutorial is a simple application derived from the first message area tutorial where we use more complex capabilites of the Message area. With this example, we will learn to:

• Add an hypertext message in the area
• Add actions when left clicking or right-clicking in the area on the message

Configuration tutorial

With this configuration tutorial, we will learn to:

• Manage configuration settings in a homogenous way for the main Application and its Plugins
• Serialize the configuration

Settings tutorial

With this settings tutorial, we will learn to:

• Use the settings GUI component to show and set the settings

Command-line tutorial

With this command-line tutorial, we will learn to:

• Manage the command-line arguments in a main Application

Second command-line tutorial

With this second command-line tutorial, we will learn to:

• Manage the command-line arguments in a main Application and its Plugins