Our tool imports prepared images, which are used to visually define the appearance of components in different states, and then exports XML files. Via a framework API, Java applets or standalone programs open such XML files, load the images, and access and listen to the defined components.

Such user interface can be maintained and further customized into variants without need to change the application behind it: only the images and the XML file are affected.

The tool runs standalone as a Java application, or can be operated remotely as applet through a browser.

Example

Launch our tool with an example user interface to edit and experiment. Initially, a small popup window will present the image loading instructions: Click on Finish to proceed. After the user interface is complete, the tool workbench will appear.

The tool requires Java 1.3 or higher, please use the Java plugin from Sun Microsystems e.g. with Netscape 6.0, Opera or FireFox, otherwise the tool workbench will not appear:

  Download...

You can run the same user interface through any Java-enabled browser with our player written in Java 1.0. The GUI player published here does not offer the API to access or listen to the components. It has a small footprint of only 27 KB:

  Launch the player...

Features

Our tool allows editing while the simulation is actually running. Even if full operational logic has been provided by additional Java classes, user interface components can be manipulated on the fly. For usage in the Internet, the tool can specify how image loading is monitored. This enables an applet offering a basic functionality early on, while other features become enabled as more images are loaded.

Currently, the tool supports these components:

• Images
• Keys, buttons, switches, composed to rocker switches and joysticks
• Rotary knobs
• Checkboxes
• Labels with system or custom fonts, like raster or LCD segment fonts
• Progress bar
• Tool-tip

• Composition
• Clipping
• RGB filtering
• Scaling
• Blurring

Screenshot