How does NetBeans' Splash Screen feature work?

New to NetBeans and just noticed that in the File >> Project Properties >> App开发者_JS百科lication dialog there is a text field labeled Splash Screen that allows you to specify a path to an image that you would like displayed when your program is launching.

I want to customize the way my splash screen works (adding a progress bar, etc.) and would like to code it from the ground up but don't know where to start. What are the best practices for Java/Swing-based splash screens?

Thanks for any and all input!

The project properties -> Application -> Splash Screen allows you to add an image to an application. This property sets a value in the MANIFEST.MF called SplashScreen-Image: e.g. SplashScreen-Image: META-INF/GlassFish316x159.jpg This property will automatically cause the image to display as a splash screen. It does not work inside NetBeans, and must be run outside the IDE.

There is a tutorial Splash Screen Beginner Tutorial that details how to use it more detail. The tutorial was done for NetBeans 6.8, but will work on 7.2.1 which is the latest at the time of this post.

I'm not sure how NetBeans does it, but Splash Screens are supported by the JRE since version 6. See http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/Desktop/javase6/splashscreen/

Splash screen is just a instance of java.awt.Window or undecorated javax.swing.JFrame. To create window just say new Window(null), then set size and position (using tookit you can calculate where the screen center is) and then say window.setVisible(true)

Due to this is your own window you can do what you want: set layout, image, add process bar to the SOUTH etc.

You can also use JFrame: new JFrame().setUndecorated(true)`

There are a couple of ways to do this.

To do a simple splash screen (an image) you can specify this in the command line of you java application.

Here is a simple example

java -splash:<file name> <class name>

However, if you want a progress bar, you are going to have to do something a little more complicated, and write some code yourself. This is done in the following way.

1. Create a JWindow (or Window or undecorated JFrame) component with your splash screen elements
2. Set it to visible
3. Do the rest of your Swing GUI startup code
4. Set your JFrame to visible, then immediately follow with setting the JWindow to visible(false)

This should show the splash almost immediately, and then hide once the your application is fully loaded.

To see some splash screen code, take a look here. The implementation in the link only shows how to achieve what you can with the -splash command, but it will give you a good start to also include the progress bar that you requested.

I hope this helps you, it is a small example of how to create yourself a simple splash screen using a dummy Progress Bar:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

class SplashScreen extends JWindow
{

private static JProgressBar progressBar = new JProgressBar();
private static SplashScreen execute;
private static int count;   
private static Timer timer1;

public SplashScreen()
{                   
    Container container = getContentPane();
    container.setLayout(null);      

    JPanel panel = new JPanel();
    panel.setBorder(new javax.swing.border.EtchedBorder());
    panel.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
    panel.setBounds(10,10,348,150);
    panel.setLayout(null);
    container.add(panel);       

    JLabel label = new JLabel("Hello World!");
    label.setFont(new Font("Verdana",Font.BOLD,14));
    label.setBounds(85,25,280,30);
    panel.add(label);

    progressBar.setMaximum(50);
    progressBar.setBounds(55, 180, 250, 15);        
    container.add(progressBar);         
    loadProgressBar();                  
    setSize(370,215);
    setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    setVisible(true);
}
public void loadProgressBar()
{
    ActionListener al = new ActionListener()
    {
        public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt)
        {
            count++;
            progressBar.setValue(count);
            if (count == 50){
                timer1.stop();
                execute.setVisible(false);

                            //load the rest of your application

            }               
        }};         
    timer1 = new Timer(50, al);
    timer1.start();
}

public static void main (String args[]){    
     execute = new SplashScreen();      
   }
}

Cheers!

Also consider to build your application on top of the NetBeans Platform (a Swing-based RCP). One of the many benefits: it comes with a customizable splash screen with progress bar.

Sample progress bar: http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-paintapp.html#wrappingUp

Port a Swing application to the NetBeans Platform: http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/60/nbm-porting-basic.html

Further links:

http://netbeans.org/features/platform/index.html

http://netbeans.org/features/platform/all-docs.html

If your application is build using NetBeans Platform, then here's a tutorial about splash screen customisation: http://wiki.netbeans.org/Splash_Screen_Beginner_Tutorial

There is a sample Javafx equivalent of Splash screen. However this splash screen is basically a java swing applet that is called from javafx to be displayed to the user and simulates more or less eclipse and netbeans splash screen using progress bar and titles for the loaded contents. This is the link.

You must be able to get the code and separate out the splash screen code written in java swings and use it for yourself.

This is a custom java swings splash screen. and hence to center the splash screen it uses the traditional

Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
Dimension labelSize = l.getPreferredSize();
setLocation(screenSize.width / 2 - (labelSize.width / 2), 
                  screenSize.height / 2 - (labelSize.height / 2));