On 2/8/06, Bruce Alspaugh <compulinklt..mail.com> wrote:
>
> I hope this is not too far off topic. I'm a new user wondering what
> people's experiences have been using a GUI builder with Cayenne
> DataView/Swing components. Which GUI builder did you use, and how well
> did they work together? I'm trying to find a Swing GUI builder that would
> work well with Cayenne.
>
> The new Matisse GUI builder in NetBeans 5.0 looks nice (www.netbeans.org),
> and it's hard to argue with the price: free. Of course, there are many
> other GUI builders that might work better with Cayenne.
>
> Bruce
>
I'm in the midst of a project exactly like the one you described. As you, I
was impressed by matisse - finaly, a usable java GUI editor! - and am
dedicated to see if java rich client application development is a viable
option for my company.
The stack I'm using is jdk 1.5.x/cayenne 1.2.xb/jgoodies binding framework
1.?/iReport /JasperReports ?/Netbeans 5.0/ RC1 (yes, yes, I've seen the
news, 'final' is out but I haven't had time to try it).
First impressions...it's hard tackling java rich client design if you've
never really tried it before and the standards (set by my collegues working
with .net) are fairly high: a very good ORM, very fast GUI design,
databinding capabilities, basic reporting, logging, automatic upgrading etc.
I can say now with some certainty that I've managed to surpass most of what
we've been able to do with .net. Obviously, we get a platform independent
(fairly, anyway) application, but aside from that:
* Matisse is the best GUI designer I've seen - if only the Netbeans crew
would make guarded code handling easier, it'd be perfect.
* Cayenne is a very good ORM. Handling keyless views and such is still not
very easy, but it does it's job well.
* jgoodies binding framework seems very good - it's the element that makes
the Cayenne - Matisse concept viable. It's even greater that there are a
number of other (Spring RCP binding, SwingLabs bindings etc.) projects with
similar aims.
* jasperreports with ireport make it so much more obvious how crippling and
complex working with CrystalReports.net was.
If the project is a complete succes, I plan to migrate the current MSSQL
database to Postgre, which I've used in the past and has performed
admirably. Don't know if the combination of cayenne and postgre will let me
capitalizeTheUsualWay.
Last, but not least, I'm reading up on using the netbeans platform: if it
holds to it's promise, that could be the last nail in the coffin.
What can I say: I'll have a lot more to write about in a couple of weeks.
Shame the deadlines are so close. :)
R.,
Tomislav
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0.0 : Wed Feb 08 2006 - 15:50:25 EST