General question on SWT Designer architecture requirements.

[tquinn]

I like SWT Designer a lot for getting something up and going quickly. What I am struggling with is that I end up with huge classes that are difficult to tweak and maintain. Is it possible to extract some of these things out into separate classes that would hopefully be more manageable?

For instance, I downloaded some example code from http://www.eclipse.org/swt/examples.php

When I bring up the ControlExample, SWTD recognizes that it is a GUI class, but the designer view shows an empty window, as opposed to what the application looks like when run. My coding style preference would tend to be similar.

Are there some guidelines on how one can modify the code that SWTD generates and maintain the design view?

Thanks in advance.

[Eric Clayberg]

What I am struggling with is that I end up with huge classes that are difficult to tweak and maintain

Why?

Is it possible to extract some of these things out into separate classes that would hopefully be more manageable?

Sure. The ideal approach would be to build your UI up out of Composites each representing a discreet piece of functionality. Each Composite is defined in its own class.

When I bring up the ControlExample, SWTD recognizes that it is a GUI class, but the designer view shows an empty window

All of its content is added dynamically at runtime. While that code can show you how to use specific controls, I think it is a horrible example of how to build an SWT app.

Are there some guidelines on how one can modify the code that SWTD generates and maintain the design view?

You can typically refactor the generated code any way that you like with few restrictions. You can split the generated code into smaller methods, use Composites, use Factories, etc.

[tquinn]

Thanks Eric, that was a huge help.

As a follow up question, if I build my skeleton application as a SWT application, how should I structure it so that I can later turn it into a RCP application should I decide to do so? I am getting your book; is it covered in there? Do you have a suggestion of what I should read? Do you know of a "best practices" for SWT?

I am not a very experienced coder, and the experience I do have is not in GUI development; I would prefer to keep it that way This is just code I use myself, and would like to keep it flexible as it evolves.

[Eric Clayberg]

As a follow up question, if I build my skeleton application as a SWT application, how should I structure it so that I can later turn it into a RCP application should I decide to do so?

SWT is just a subset of RCP, so your SWT app is already an RCP app. This would be a good question for the Eclipse RCP newsgroup.

is it covered in there?

Our book does cover SWT, but it is primarily focused on Eclipse plugin development. Most of the material can also be useful for building RCP apps although that is not the focus.

Do you have a suggestion of what I should read?

If you are interested in building an RCP app, I would recommend the McAffer Eclipse RCP book.

Do you know of a "best practices" for SWT?

A number of books have been written on SWT that cover SWT best practices. The Eclipse SWT newsgroup is also a good place to visit