GUI library for handling primitives and arrays/collections of primitives

Question

I have built many many GUI:s and I don't like to have dependencies to libraries so I end up doing much of the basics myself. One thing that I end up doing over and over again is mapping primitives to GUI components.

For example if it is a boolean I often use JCombobox with two options ("true", "false") and if it is int I use a JTextField. Much of the work is to go from and to text...

Some example mappings:

• int or Integer => JTextField or JSpinner
• boolean => JTextField, JComboBox or JCheckBox
• int[] => JList (with "add" field and "remove" buttons)
• Set<Byte> => probably the same as arrays

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So, to the questions:

• Is there already a library that have mappings like this or do I need to "invent" it again?
• I have seen jfg that uses refection and SWT as frontend (you can implement a new frontend using swing but that is exactly what I'm trying to avoid). Is there a simular library that uses swing and refection?

Answer 1

there are 2 binding libraries i've had some experience with:

1. glazed lists - this library absolutely shines when you want to map a Collection to a jtable (one item per row, columns are attributes of the object).
2. jgoodies binding - a more general-purpose library for mapping bean attributes to gui elements. its a bit more complex and difficult to pick up.

and why primitives? im assumming you store your model (the set of all values being displayed/edited by the gui) in one or more Objects no? if so, you could rely on autoboxing and work with object wrappers in the gui.