With the IFRAME to keep up with the tide

An IFrame is an application window architecture that can have custom colors, custom borders, custom shapes, custom components, and even transparency. With JFrame, you don't always have to use boring, old Jfram in your application. In this article, it expert Michael Aberethy introduces the IFrame class and shows how to use it to instantly convert the standard JFrame application window to an advanced IFRAME.

Since Java 1.0, UI developers have been looking for ways to customize the application window. This issue has become more pronounced after the introduction of Swing, because developers can create stunning, more sophisticated, more advanced widgets, but are constrained by the Frame or JFrame they are in and their operating system-specific appearance. You can often see that the application looks good inside the frame border, but the blue title bar of Microsoft Windows is a great brake on the landscape. Worse, the application has a Motif appearance for the 70 's, but it uses the title bar of Microsoft Windows's color-smooth gradient.

The appearance of the JFrame problem

The appearance issues shown in Figure 1 show many of the problems that UI developers face: Applications look different on different platforms, because JFrame properties (title bar colors, borders, shapes, and so on) do not use the public appearance, they are specific to the operating system.

Figure 1. How the appearance of the JFrame is changing

Metal appearance

Motif appearance

Windows appearance