How to make a window look like this in Java?

Question

How do I create a window which looks like this in Java:

I want that window layout, instead of the standard Windows-borders, and I don't know how this is called.

Edit: look and feel doesn't work for me:

Pepe

Are you using swing or awt? I know that Netbeans platform has good support for multiplatform look and feel design - its garanteed to look the same. – Magnetize

Answer 1

If you want your Look and Feel to draw the window decoration (that's what the "border" is called), then you need to call JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true) before creating your JFrame objects and JDialog.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true) before creating your JDialog objects.

Thinnish

Answer 2

that's called look and feel, you can find a detailed explanation here http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/lookandfeel/plaf.html

Annulus

does it chagne the window borders too? I knew that those existed, but I thought they only changed the button/text field/... layouts... – Pepe

Yes, it changes everything in the window t – Annulus

Answer 3

You will need to first set the look and feel to use the cross platform look and feel (As someone commented before it's called metal). Then before you create the Frame you need to request that the borders are drawn by the look and feel.

try
{
    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
        UIManager.getCrossPlatformLookAndFeelClassName());
}
catch (Exception e) { }

This will set the look and feel to the one you want. As the cross platform look and feel is metal in Sun's JRE.

// Get window decorations drawn by the look and feel.
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);

// Create the JFrame.
JFrame frame = new JFrame("A window");

And this will make the created JFrame have borders like you describe.

Gottwald

The Look And Feel in the question is the Metal look and feel. Motif would be the name of the Look And Feel (and toolkit) of old Unix UIs. – Thinnish

Yeah, I have meddeled with L&Fs in nearly 3 years, so I've forgotten the names. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll edit the answer to make it clearer. – Gottwald

Answer 4

Add this to your main() method:

try {
            for (javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo info : javax.swing.UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) {
                if ("Windows".equals(info.getName())) {
                    javax.swing.UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName());
                    break;
                }
            }
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(testjframe.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        } catch (InstantiationException ex) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(testjframe.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        } catch (IllegalAccessException ex) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(testjframe.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        } catch (javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(testjframe.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        }

Pedestrian

Answer 5

To set windows look and feel for swing write following code in main method.

public static void main(String args[]) {
try {

         for (javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo info : javax.swing.UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) {
            if ("windows".equalsIgnoreCase(info.getName())) {
                javax.swing.UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName());
                break;
            }
        }

    } catch (Exception ex) {
         System.out.println(e);
    } 


    java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            MainFrame mainFrame = new MainFrame();
            mainFrame.setExtendedState(MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
            mainFrame.setVisible(true);

            InitDatabaseDialog initDatabaseDialog = new InitDatabaseDialog(mainFrame, true);
            initDatabaseDialog.setVisible(true); 
        }
    });
}

Brierwood