How to use a Glade UI (.glade file) in a Java Gnome/GTK program?

Zignd picture Zignd · Jan 13, 2013 · Viewed 8.9k times · Source

I've did a research on the Internet looking for tutorials/documentations to explain me how to use a UI designed in Glade in a Java Gnome project, but no luck. I already know how to create a UI from the code using the Java Gnome/GTK. Anyway, I'd like to use a Glade UI that I've created in a Java Gnome/Gtk project, but I have no idea from where to start. Please tell me:

  • which packages I need to install;

  • how to integrate the UI I've create with Glade (the .glade file) with my Java Gnome/Gtk project (specifically in Eclipse);

  • and give an example.

Thanks in advance.

That's how my Glade UI looks (Just click the image to see it bigger):

enter image description here

This is the XML code of the UI above:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<interface>
  <!-- interface-requires gtk+ 3.0 -->
  <object class="GtkWindow" id="window1">
    <property name="can_focus">False</property>
    <property name="window_position">center</property>
    <child>
      <object class="GtkFixed" id="fixed1">
        <property name="visible">True</property>
        <property name="can_focus">False</property>
        <child>
          <object class="GtkEntry" id="entry1">
            <property name="width_request">162</property>
            <property name="height_request">25</property>
            <property name="visible">True</property>
            <property name="can_focus">True</property>
            <property name="halign">start</property>
            <property name="valign">end</property>
            <property name="invisible_char">•</property>
          </object>
          <packing>
            <property name="x">11</property>
            <property name="y">49</property>
          </packing>
        </child>
        <child>
          <object class="GtkEntry" id="entry2">
            <property name="width_request">162</property>
            <property name="height_request">25</property>
            <property name="visible">True</property>
            <property name="can_focus">True</property>
            <property name="halign">start</property>
            <property name="valign">end</property>
            <property name="invisible_char">•</property>
            <property name="invisible_char_set">True</property>
          </object>
          <packing>
            <property name="x">271</property>
            <property name="y">49</property>
          </packing>
        </child>
        <child>
          <object class="GtkLabel" id="label">
            <property name="height_request">25</property>
            <property name="visible">True</property>
            <property name="can_focus">False</property>
            <property name="label" translatable="yes">*</property>
          </object>
          <packing>
            <property name="x">216</property>
            <property name="y">49</property>
          </packing>
        </child>
        <child>
          <object class="GtkButton" id="button">
            <property name="label" translatable="yes">Calculate!!!</property>
            <property name="use_action_appearance">False</property>
            <property name="width_request">84</property>
            <property name="height_request">27</property>
            <property name="visible">True</property>
            <property name="can_focus">True</property>
            <property name="receives_default">True</property>
            <property name="use_action_appearance">False</property>
          </object>
          <packing>
            <property name="x">181</property>
            <property name="y">93</property>
          </packing>
        </child>
      </object>
    </child>
  </object>
</interface>

Answer

liberforce picture liberforce · Jan 15, 2013

You're supposed to use the Builder class (available since java-gnome 4.0.20). Create it, call the addFromFile method to give it your glade file. Then just call getObject with the name of the object as entered in the Glade UI to get that object. The only thing I see as missing is the signal connection stuff. The original GtkBuilder class (in C) provides much more, especially signals connection features (gtk_builder_connect_signals for example). So you may need to connect signals by hand if these features are not available in the Java bindings. This means setting in glade in the "signals" tab the signal you want to connect, and setting the name of the callback this signal will call. You can have a good guess of the basics by seeing how it's done in python:

http://python-gtk-3-tutorial.readthedocs.org/en/latest/builder.html

Just browse the web for "glade tutorial" or "glade gtkbuilder" for the rest.