LinkLib:Java: Utilities

Building

Roxen Ant Utilities
Utilites to create installers and native envelopes around jar files.
License: GPL.
URL: www.roxes.com/produkte/rat.html
IzPack installer
Description: Free open-source installer for Java.
URL: www.izforge.com/izpack/
InstallAnywhere Now
Description: A Java program installer.
Comment: Haven't tried it.
License: Free, or two commercial levels up to $2000.
URL: www.zerog.com
Checkstyle
Description: Checks source for conformance to numerous configurable standards.
License: GPL
URL: checkstyle.sourceforge.net
CodeCompanion
Description: [From the CodeCompanion site] "CodeCompanion is a software analysis tool that checks that Java source code confirms to a set of coding convention rules. Coding conventions are important in order to create good quality code, but without a way of making sure that the coding conventions are followed, the value of them decreases significantly. It is common to realize late in a project that very little of the produced source code complies with the coding conventions stated early in the project. CodeCompanion helps you avoiding this situation."

CodeCompanion uses 30 coding convention rules that have been carefully selected in order to give good quality source code. If you don't like all of these rules they can be disabled, one by one - no rule is ever forced at you by CodeCompanion. The rules that regards naming standards are customizable, in order to be able to reflect the naming standards used by you."
License: The trial version checks only the first 100 lines.
Size: 1.2 MB
URL: www.jenssoft.com/
JavaNCSS
Description: JavaNCSS measures the non-commented Java Cyclomatic Complexity Number (McCabe metric).
License: Free
Size: 0.6MB
URL: www.kclee.com/clemens/java/javancss/
JFontChooser
Description: Open source Swing compatible font chooser widget.
URL: www.cruftworks.com/software/JFontChooser/

Testing

JUnit
Description: This is the testing tool build by Extreme Programming's Kent Beck and Pattern's Erich Gamma, and highly recommended by Martin Fowler. Looks great. This site has links to other interesting places.
License: Open source.
URL: www.junit.org
JCoverage
Code coverage tool like Clover. Both GPL and commercial versions.
URL: jcoverage.com/

GUI

Java GUI Builder
Description: " The Java Gui Builder program is designed to decouple the GUI building code from the rest of the application code, without hand-writing code. It allows one to describe the layout of windows and controls using an XML file. A full DTD was written to allow on-the-fly validation.

Using an XML file to describe GUI components allows users the flexibility to rewrite their windows so that they suit their needs, without opening up the innards of the program to the users"
URL: jgb.sourceforge.net
Buoy
Description: Buoy is a library for creating user interfaces in Java programs. It is built on top of Swing, but provides a completely new set of classes to represent graphical components.
URL: buoy.sourceforge.net
UICompiler
"The UICompiler is designed to be used as both a rapid prototyping tool for your GUIs as well as a superior approach to GUI building that well known players as NetBeans and JBuilder simply fail to address. You all know the problem; your client wants a good looking application that does just what he needs. And he wants just something different the week after. You also know that a client does not know *exactly* what he wants until he has seen the results on screen, and has played with the controls to see feedback he wants. Creating a rapid prototype is done easily in Qt Designer; its just point and click. Just like placing items on a null layout in JBuilder. Actually its easier then that since the defaults for the components are a lot more sane in Qt Designer. After your project is saved you implement your GUI handling code; which is not much more then implementing a method named like the button you placed in Qt Designer. Later modifying your GUI is easy; just open the designer file and start tweaking. No code changes needed."
URL: uic.sourceforge.net/