DJ Native Swing 0.9.8 - Web Browser, Flash Player and More
DJ Native Swing allows to easily integrate some native components into Swing applications, and provides some native utilities to enhance Swing's APIs.
The main focus is the integration of a native Web Browser and Flash Player using a Swing-like API. Nevertheless, it also offers other useful components like a multimedia player (based on VLC), an HTML editor (using FCKeditor or TinyMCE) and a Syntax Highlighter.
All the threading issues and general integration headaches are handled automatically. It also allows to mix lightweight and heavyweight components without major visual problems.
Native Swing: http://djproject.sourceforge.net/ns
Screenshots: http://djproject.sourceforge.net/ns/screenshots
Webstart Demo: http://djproject.sourceforge.net/ns/DJNativeSwing-SWTDemo.jnlp
The Webstart demo is configured to work on Windows. It also works on Linux (GTK, x86/i386) where XULRunner is installed. Note that this demo is part of the release distribution.
It uses SWT under the hood, and thus should work everywhere SWT allows to be placed inside a Swing component. To get the web browser to work on Linux, follow the FAQ on SWT's website (XULRunner may be required).
DJ Native Swing is licensed under LGPL and requires Java 5 or later.
Note that it is a sub-project of the DJ Project ( http://djproject.sourceforge.net ), which is a set of tools and libraries to enhance the user experience of Java on the Desktop.
This release adds cookie management to the JWebBrowser, updates the JVLCPlayer API and fixes many bugs.
-Christopher
(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)
Comments
anigart replied on Wed, 2009/03/25 - 4:51am
Christopher,
This is some really great stuff. I have some questions:
1) Are there major changes in the media player? I understand that the current version utilizes the Windows media player on Windows rather than VLC, at least the one in the DJ Project.
2) Is there any support for MacOS?
3) Will the license be LGPL, as it is with DJ?
Thanks,
Martin
Christopher Deckers replied on Wed, 2009/03/25 - 7:45am
in response to: anigart
Hi Martin,
1. There are 2 media players: JWMediaPlayer (for Windows only) and the JVCPlayer (Windows and Linux). I made some changes to the JVLCPlayer because the player was no longer working with more recent VLC versions. I think I added a few methods to the JWMediaPlayer as well, but these are minor.
2. Not yet: I first need an SWT bug to be fixed, and then some simple things may already be working. I would then need to implement some more advanced capabilities onto which I have no visibility about the complexity.
3. License is LGPL indeed.
-Christopher
anigart replied on Wed, 2009/03/25 - 1:21pm
Thanks for your reply and all the great work you are doing. This is all good news!
As a minor comment, the function that I miss with the media player is to set the playback on "loop". I have come around that by setting play count to Integer.MAX_VALUE, but that seems like a hack.
Best,
Martin
Christopher Deckers replied on Wed, 2009/03/25 - 4:50pm
in response to: anigart
> As a minor comment, the function that I miss with the media player is to set the playback on "loop".
If I remember correctly, this is a limitation from the media player. If the native media player has the capability, then I can easily expose the API. This is true for any missing API that you may find and that is actually supported by the native media player.
-Christopher
Jeff Stano replied on Fri, 2009/03/27 - 5:19pm
Is there a way to embed Adobe Acrobat Reader on Windows?
I'm using now to embed the browser. Works great!
Jeff
Bora Ertung replied on Sat, 2009/03/28 - 1:17am
Christopher Deckers replied on Sat, 2009/03/28 - 6:15am
in response to: js12492
Hi Jeff,
If you have the Acrobat plugin for your browser (most people do I guess), then you can simply open it in the JWebBrowser.
The reason I do not provide a Swing-like component to support it is that there does not seem to be a Javascript API that would allow me to control it.
-Christopher
Christopher Deckers replied on Sat, 2009/03/28 - 6:21am
in response to: boraert
> Do you plan to support WebKit
I use SWT under the hood so if SWT one day supports WebKit, then I would definitely add it.
On theother hand, if what you are looking for is a cross platform browser, then you can use XULRunner.
> Can javascript communicate back to Java
Yes, by using what I call the "command channel". Check the demo application to see how a web browser or a flash application can communicate with the Java container.
-Christopher
rkriitr replied on Sat, 2009/04/04 - 1:20am
Christopher Deckers replied on Sat, 2009/04/04 - 4:27am
in response to: rkriitr
Hi,
Yes it should because it is a native web browser (IE, XULRunner/Firefox) that is integrated.
-Christopher
rkriitr replied on Mon, 2009/04/06 - 10:08am
kguptajavalobby replied on Thu, 2009/08/27 - 7:39am