JAVA Swing MVC - Main Controller?

Question

I\'m having some troubles designing the architecture of an application I\'m trying to develop. I\'m working on JAVA, and I started working on this application because I want

Answer 1

When you have an application with a GUI, the GUI model becomes the application view. The application interacts with the GUI through the GUI model.

Or should I just couple the JFrame with the Controllers of the application, and communicate directly with them?

This is what I've done. I've packaged the controller classes together, but I've never created one main controller class.

I keep the GUI controller classes in a separate package from any other application controller classes, like the data access objects.

I usually put each JPanel in its own class, but I wouldn't call that a requirement. The JFrame has its own class, although the instance of the JFrame and the instance of the GUI model are passed to almost all of the GUI components. This makes menu actions possible.

This Traffic Signal GUI article goes over the basics of how to code a very simple GUI.

Edited to respond to the changes in the question.

The GUI controller is separate from the GUI model. The GUI model contains all of the data elements that make up your GUI. Strings for JTextFields, DefaultTableModels for JTables.

Based on your application design, I'd recommend that you create a Java class for every JPanel that you want to put in the center of your application. Your JFrame will control which JPanel is displayed, based on the menu. I'd also suggest that you look at the JTabbedPane which uses a different user interface to accomplish the task of choosing which panel to work with.

Assuming you're going with the menu on the left, each menu option (toggling JButton?) will have it's own controller method or class. These controllers have to have an instance of the JFrame so the controller can call the method in the JFrame class that puts the appropriate panel in the center of the display. The controller decides which method to call, but the methods themselves are a part of the JFrame class.

I've been talking about JFrame and JPanel classes. It's important that you use composition rather than inheritance to build these classes. The JFrame class contains a JFrame. It does not extend JFrame. The only time you extend a Swing component is when you want to override a component method.

Answer 2

As discussed here, Swing components use a separable model architecture with the model and view loosely coupled using the observer pattern. Not every GUI control has to be part of your application's controller. Using an ActionListener, such as Action, is particularly convenient for encapsulating application functionality.

Addendum: I'd use CardLayout, illustrated here to switch panels. Note how the Action handlers can be used with buttons, menus, combos, toolbars, etc. Each card's content can have it's own implementation of the MVC pattern, separate from the others. Use a PropertyChangeEvent, seen here, for communication between components.

In general, Swing components, e.g. buttons and tables, already listen to their respective models, leaving you to focus on your application's data model and its listening views. Conveniently, a Swing model, e.g. ComboBoxModel or TableModel`, can have more than one listener.