Netscape IFC in a Nutshell

• A "Pure Java" platform-independent, customizable look-and-feel, with a complete suite of GUI components
  
• Intra-application drag-and-drop
  
• Multi-font formatted text display, with a built-in HTML parser
  
• Pre-defined color, font, and file-selection dialog boxes
  
• Timer objects that simplify animation by replacing threads
  
• Constructor, an interface builder application freely available from Netscape

The Netscape IFC classes documented in this book will strongly influence the development of the Java Foundation Classes (JFC), under development by Sun, Netscape, IBM, and others. The JFC will reportedly merge IFC technology with Sun's AWT GUI toolkit. Although the JFC will eventually supersede the IFC, the IFC is a powerful class library, is available now, and is a very useful and stable predecessor to the JFC. Developers, particularly those targeting the Navigator 4.0 platform, should begin right away to take advantage of the advanced GUI features of the IFC, secure in the knowledge that Netscape will provide a migration path to the JFC, when it eventually becomes available. Experience now with the IFC will give programmers a head-start on the JFC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Part I. Introduction

Chapter 1--The Internet Foundation Classes

IFC Features

IFC Shortcomings

Other GUI Toolkits

An Overview of the IFC

Chapter 2--The Application Class

The Application Class

"Hello, World" with the IFC

Part II. The View Class

Chapter 3--An Introduction to Views

View Overview

To Subclass or Not to Subclass

Attributes

Chapter 4--The View Hierarchy

A Real, Not Virtual, Example

The Colors1 Example

The Colors2 Example

View Hierarchy Terminology

Other View Hierarchy Methods

A Realistic Hierarchy

Moving and Resizing Views

Layout Management

Chapter 5--Drawing in Views

Drawing in Views

The drawView( ) Method

The draw( ) Method

A Drawing Example

Drawing Buffers

Debugging Graphics

Asynchronous Drawing

Transparent Views

Background Images

Cursors

Chapter 6--Mouse and Keyboard Events

Handling Mouse Events

Handling Keyboard Events

Event Processing and the EventLoop

Part III. The User Interface

Chapter 7--Windows

The Window Interface

The ExternalWindow Class

The InternalWindow Class

The WindowOwner Interface

Chapter 8--The Target Interface

The Target Interface

The Keyboard User Interface

The ExtendedTarget Interface

The TargetChain Class

Chapter 9--Buttons

Button Basics

Button Attributes

Displaying Images

Enabling and Disabling Buttons

Button Types

The ContainerView Class

An Example

Advanced Buttons

Chapter 10--Lists

The ListItem Class

The ListView Class

Advanced ListView Features

Chapter 11--TextFields

The TextField Class

Copying, Cutting, and Pasting

Tabbing Between Text Fields

The TextFieldOwner Interface

The TextFilter Interface

An Example

Chapter 12--Scroll Bars and Scrolling

The ScrollGroup Class

The ScrollView Class

Sliders

Chapter 13--Borders

Border Basics

The Border Class

BezelBorder

LineBorder

Custom Borders

A Borders Example

Chapter 14--Menus

The Popup Class

Menus for Windows

Chapter 15--Layout Managers

Simple Layout Management

Resizing Rules

Layout Managers

Chapter 16--Color, Font, and File Choosers

ColorChooser

FontChooser

FileChooser

An Example

Chapter 17--Dialog Boxes

Some Terminology

Modal Dialog Boxes: The Alert Class

Modeless Dialog Boxes by Example

Chapter 18--Animation and Images

The Timer Class

The Image Class

The Bitmap Class

The DrawingSequence Class

The ImageSequence Class

Chapter 19--Drag-and-Drop

Drag-and-Drop Terminology

Drag Sources

The DragSession Class

Drag Destinations

An Example: A Drag-and-Drop ListView

The DragWell Class

The ColorWell Class

Advanced Drag Sessions

Part IV. Advanced Topics

Chapter 20--TextView

Importing HTML

TextView Attributes

An Example

Changing Attributes Programmatically

HTML Links

Chapter 21--Archives

Archiving IFC Objects

Identifying Root Objects

The Codable Interface

Chapter 22--Constructor and Plan Files

Loading a Plan File

Making Multiple Copies of Objects

Target Proxies

A Short Example

Part V. Quick Reference

How to Use This Quick Reference

Chapter 23--The netscape.application Package

Chapter 24--The netscape.constructor Package

Chapter 25--The netscape.util Package

Class, Method, and Field Index

Index