MVC for Java Desktop App

Question

I want to create a desktop application using Java, but I'm new to desktop development and Swing. From web development I know I have to apply MVC to my project. Are there any tools or frameworks that simplify this task? Because I am a web developer I know such tools and frameworks exist for PHP. Are there any books that explain how to structure my project? My IDE of choice is Eclipse. So far I found this article http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/javase/mvc-136693.html

Undesirable

Answer 1

Java Swing components are already the "V" and "C" of the MVC approach. You have to add the models part. In fifteen years of Java I have never found any tools that are better than knowing the Swing components back-to-front. The Swing tutorials from Oracle are the best free way to start.

Hartley

Answer 2

The Eclipse Rich Client client platform (RCP). This PDF(http://wiki.eclipse.org/images/6/61/Frank_Gerhardt_Eclipse_Data_Binding.pdf) has a complete overview of applying MVC in RCP.

I know I read about people using the Spring framework for rich desktop applications. The Spring Rich Client Project (Spring-RCP) hasn't been updated since 2009, so I'm not sure how many people are doing this with Spring.

Josephina

Answer 3

Griffon ( http://griffon.codehaus.org/ ) is a framework specifically built to make desktop MVC easy to do. It's in Groovy, a dynamic, Ruby-like language built on the JVM, in which you typically write code in Groovy, but can also mix in Java code.

You can see an introduction with an example that I posted on my employer's blog at http://blog.chariotsolutions.com/2010/12/painless-java-desktop-application.html

Galata