Package com.codename1.ui

package com.codename1.ui

Main widget package containing the component/container "composite" similar both in terminology and design to Swing/AWT.

Component/Container Relationship

Containers can be nested one within the other to form elaborate UI's. Containers use com.codename1.ui.layouts to arrange the components within. This is important as it allows a container can adapt to changing resolution, DPI, orientation, font size etc.

A container doesn't implicitly reflow its elements and in that regard follows the direction of AWT/Swing. As a result the layout can be animated to create a flowing effect for UI changes. This also provides improved performance as a bonus. See this sample of Container animation:

Form hi = new Form("Layout Animations", new BoxLayout(BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
Button fall = new Button("Fall");
fall.addActionListener((e) -> {
    for(int iter = 0 ; iter < 10 ; iter++) {
        Label b = new Label ("Label " + iter);
        b.setWidth(fall.getWidth());
        b.setHeight(fall.getHeight());
        b.setY(-fall.getHeight());
        hi.add(b);
    }
    hi.getContentPane().animateLayout(20000);
});
hi.add(fall);

You can learn more about layout managers com.codename1.ui.layouts and about event handling com.codename1.ui.events.

Component Gallery

The component gallery below isn't complete or exhaustive but it should give you a sense of the types of widgets available within Codename One in a glance.

AutoCompleteTextField

com.codename1.ui.AutoCompleteTextField provides suggestions as you type into the text field

BrowserComponent

com.codename1.ui.BrowserComponent allows us to embed an OS native browser into the app and connect to its JavaScript runtime!

Button

com.codename1.ui.Button allows us to bind events to a click

Link Button

com.codename1.ui.Button can also be used as a hyperlink

Calendar

com.codename1.ui.Calendar presents a visual date picker. Notice that we recommend using the com.codename1.ui.spinner.Picker class which is superior when running on the device for most use cases.

CheckBox

com.codename1.ui.CheckBox provides a check flag to tick on/off. com.codename1.ui.RadioButton provides an exclusive check marking that only applies to one radio within the group. Both can also appear as toggle buttons

ComboBox

com.codename1.ui.ComboBox is a list with a single visible entry that can popup the full list. Notice that we recommend using the com.codename1.ui.spinner.Picker class which is superior when running on the device for most use cases

Command

com.codename1.ui.Command & com.codename1.ui.Toolbar provide deep customization of the title area and allow us to place elements in the side menu (hamburger), overflow menu etc.

ComponentGroup

com.codename1.ui.ComponentGroup allows us to group components together in a a group and manipulate their UIID's.

Dialog

com.codename1.ui.Dialog allows us to notify/ask the user in a modal/modless way.

InfiniteContainer

com.codename1.ui.InfiniteContainer & com.codename1.components.InfiniteScrollAdapter implement a com.codename1.ui.Container that can dynamically fetch more data

Label

com.codename1.ui.Label displays text and/or icons to the user

List

com.codename1.ui.List a list of items, this is a rather elaborate component to work with! We often recommend just using com.codename1.ui.Container, com.codename1.ui.InfiniteContainer or com.codename1.components.InfiniteScrollAdapter

MultiList

com.codename1.ui.list.MultiList a list that is a bit simpler to work with than List com.codename1.ui.List although our recommendation to use something else still applies

Slider

com.codename1.ui.Slider allows us to indicate progress or allows the user to drag a bar to indicate volume (as in quantity)

SwipeableContainer

com.codename1.ui.SwipeableContainer enables side swipe gesture to expose additional functionality

Tabs

com.codename1.ui.Tabs places components/containers into tabbable entries, allows swiping between choices thru touch

Carousel

com.codename1.ui.Tabs can also be used as a swipe carousel

TextArea/Field

com.codename1.ui.TextArea & com.codename1.ui.TextField allow for user input via the keyboard (virtual or otherwise)

TextComponent

com.codename1.ui.TextComponent & com.codename1.ui.PickerComponent wrap the text field and picker respectively and adapt them better to iOS/Android conventions

Table

com.codename1.ui.table.Table displays optionally editable tabular data to the user

Tree

com.codename1.ui.tree.Tree displays data in a tree like hierarchy

ChartComponent

com.codename1.charts.ChartComponent can embed a wide range of visualization aids and animations into your app

ImageViewer

com.codename1.components.ImageViewer swipe, pinch to zoom and pan images

InfiniteProgress

com.codename1.components.InfiniteProgress provides a constantly spinning component

InteractionDialog

com.codename1.components.InteractionDialog an "always on top" com.codename1.ui.Dialog

MediaPlayer

com.codename1.components.MediaPlayer allows playing media including video coupled with the com.codename1.media.MediaManager

MultiButton

com.codename1.components.MultiButton is much more than a button

OnOffSwitch

com.codename1.components.OnOffSwitch allows us to toggle a state similar to the com.codename1.ui.CheckBox but with a more modern look

ShareButton

com.codename1.components.ShareButton provides native "social share" functionality

SpanLabel

com.codename1.components.SpanLabel a text label that "seamlessly" breaks lines

SpanButton

com.codename1.components.SpanButton a button that "seamlessly" breaks lines

Picker (Date)

com.codename1.ui.spinner.Picker allows us to show an OS native picker UI (Date Picker)

Picker (Time)

com.codename1.ui.spinner.Picker allows us to show an OS native picker UI (Time Picker)

ToastBar

com.codename1.components.ToastBar shows a non-obtrusive notice on the bottom of the Form

SignatureComponent

com.codename1.components.SignatureComponent shows a dialog that allows the user to "sign" using the touch screen

Accordion

com.codename1.components.Accordion displays collapsible content panels

FloatingHint

com.codename1.components.FloatingHint animates the text field hint into a label on top of the text field and visa versa

FloatingActionButton

com.codename1.components.FloatingActionButton hovers over the UI presenting a default action

Related Packages

Package	Description
com.codename1.ui.animations	All components are animatable by potential and additional animations (unrelated to a specific component) can be installed on the fly, transitions between forms are also handled as part of this package.
com.codename1.ui.events	Observable pattern event listeners in the spirit of AWT 1.1's event dispatching architecture, all events are dispatched on the EDT (Event Dispatch Thread).
com.codename1.ui.geom	Contains classes related to geometry locations and calculations such as rectangle and size
com.codename1.ui.html	This package is deprecated and used only for legacy support, use the WebBrowser component from the components package.
com.codename1.ui.layouts	Layout managers allow a com.codename1.ui.Container to arrange its components by a set of rules that adapt to specific densities (ppi - pixels per inch).
com.codename1.ui.list	Lists are highly customizable and serve as the basis for com.codename1.ui.ComboBox and other components (such as carousels etc) they employ a similar MVC approach to Swing including the renderer pattern, notice that we strongly discourage usage of lists...
com.codename1.ui.painter	com.codename1.ui.Painter allows us to draw arbitrary elements of graphics from plain/scaled/tiled images to gradients and pretty much any form of graphic drawing we can imagine.
com.codename1.ui.plaf	Look of the application can be fully customized via this package, it represents a rendering layer that can be plugged in separately in runtime and themed to provide any custom look.
com.codename1.ui.scene	This package provides a light-weight scene graph for Codename One.
com.codename1.ui.spinner	Spinners allows picking of simple sequential values similarly to combo boxes but of a much wider value set.
com.codename1.ui.table	Table component for editing and viewing tabular data and arranging Codename One components in a tabular form
com.codename1.ui.tree	Tree component for displaying hierarchy based information and its related classes
com.codename1.ui.util	Utility features that are either too domain specific or don't "fit" into any other packages including the Resource file format loading API.
com.codename1.ui.validation	The validation framework allows us to mark invalid input in text components and disable components in the case of invalid input

Class	Description
AnimationManager	Animation manager concentrates all of the animations for a given form into a single place that allows us to manage all mutations to a Form in a way the prevents collisions between mutations.
AutoCompleteTextComponent	A TextComponent version of com.codename1.ui.AutoCompleteTextField
AutoCompleteTextComponent.AutoCompleteFilter	Allows filtering the entries in the auto complete
AutoCompleteTextField	An editable com.codename1.ui.TextField with completion suggestions that show up in a drop down menu while the user types in text.
BlockingDisallowedException	Exception that is thrown if attempting to run invokeAndBlock while blocking is disabled.
BrowserComponent	The browser component is an interface to an embeddable native platform browser on platforms that support embedding the native browser in place, if you need wide compatibility and flexibility you should check out the HTMLComponent which provides a lightweight 100% cross platform web component.
BrowserComponent.JSExpression	A wrapper class for a literal javascript expression that can be passed as an arg in java.lang.Object[]).
BrowserComponent.JSRef	A wrapper class for a Javascript value that is returned via the com.codename1.util.Callback) method.
BrowserComponent.JSType	Enum with the possible types for a JSRef object.
BrowserWindow	Encapsulates a WebView that is contained in its own separate window when run on a Desktop (e.g. Simulator).
BrowserWindow.EvalRequest	A future that is returned from the eval() method.
Button	Button is the base class for several UI widgets allowing clickability.
ButtonGroup	This class is used to create a multiple-exclusion scope for com.codename1.ui.RadioButton.
Calendar	Date widget for selecting a date/time value.
CheckBox	CheckBox is a button that can be selected or deselected and displays its state to the user.
CN	This is a global context static class designed for static import, this class allows us to write more terse code.
CN1Constants	Common constants for Display and CN
ComboBox<T>	A ComboBox is a list that allows only one selection at a time, when a user clicks the ComboBox a popup button with the full list of elements allows the selection of a single element.
Command	The Command class provides a useful extension to the ActionListener interface in cases where the same functionality may be accessed by several controls.
CommonProgressAnimations	A collection of useful progress animations and utility methods.
CommonProgressAnimations.CircleProgress	A progress animation that shows an animated circle.
CommonProgressAnimations.EmptyAnimation	An empty progress animation.
CommonProgressAnimations.LoadingTextAnimation	A progress animation that shows a block of text being typed.
CommonProgressAnimations.ProgressAnimation	Base class for ProgressAnimations
Component	The component class is the basis of all UI widgets in Codename One, to arrange multiple components together we use the Container class which itself "IS A" Component subclass.
ComponentGroup	A component group is a container that applies the given UIID to a set of components within it and gives the same UIID with "First"/"Last" prepended to the first and last components.
ComponentImage	A utility wrapper that allows a Component to be used as an Image so that it can be set as the icon for a Label or button.
ComponentSelector	A tool to facilitate selection and manipulation of UI components as sets.
ComponentSelector.ComponentClosure	Interface used for providing callbacks that receive a Component as input.
ComponentSelector.ComponentMapper	Interface used by #map(com.codename1.ui.ComponentSelector.ComponentMapper) to form a new set of components based on the components in one set.
ComponentSelector.Filter	Interface used by #filter(com.codename1.ui.ComponentSelector.Filter) to form a new set of components based on the components in one set.
Container	A composite pattern with Component, allows nesting and arranging multiple components using a pluggable layout manager architecture.
Dialog	A dialog is a form that occupies a part of the screen and appears as a modal entity to the developer.
Display	Central class for the API that manages rendering/events and is used to place top level components (Form) on the "display".
DynamicImage	A base class for images that dynamically painted, just like a normal component.
Editable	An interface that can be implemented to provide editing capabilities for any component in the UI.
EncodedImage	EncodedImage is the workhorse of Codename One.
Font	Codename One currently supports 3 font types:
FontImage	FontImage allows using an icon font as if it was an image.
Form	Top level component that serves as the root for the UI, this Container subclass works in concert with the Toolbar to create menus.
Form.TabIterator	Iterates through the components on this form in traversal order.
Graphics	Abstracts the underlying platform graphics context thus allowing us to achieve portability between MIDP devices and CDC devices.
IconHolder	An interface implemented by Component classes that can display an icon.
Image	Abstracts the underlying platform images allowing us to treat them as a uniform object.
ImageFactory	A factory class for creating mutable images.
InfiniteContainer	This abstract Container can scroll indefinitely (or at least until we run out of data).
InputComponent	A base class for com.codename1.ui.TextComponent, com.codename1.ui.PickerComponent and potentially other components that wish to accept input in a dynamic way that matches iOS and Android native input guidelines.
InterFormContainer	A container that allows you to use the same component on multiple forms.
Label	Allows displaying a single line of text and icon (both optional) with different alignment options.
LinearGradientPaint	LinearGradientPaint provides a way to fill a Shape with a linear gradient.
List<T>	A set of elements that is rendered using a com.codename1.ui.list.ListCellRenderer and are extracted via the com.codename1.ui.list.ListModel, notice that we strongly discourage usage of lists.
MenuBar	This class represents the Form MenuBar.
MultipleGradientPaint	A base class for Paints that use multiple gradients.
MultipleGradientPaint.ColorSpaceType	Colors spaces for gradients.
MultipleGradientPaint.CycleMethod	Cycle methods for gradients.
NavigationCommand	The NavigationCommand is a Command that navigates to a given Form.
Paint	An interface for providing custom painting such as gradients.
Painter	Painter can be used to draw on components backgrounds.
PeerComponent	A peer component is essentially a "dummy" Codename One component used to calculate the position of the actual native platform specific component.
PickerComponent	A picker component similar to com.codename1.ui.TextComponent that adapts to native UI conventions and leverages the com.codename1.ui.spinner.Picker API.
RadioButton	RadioButton is a Button that maintains a selection state exclusively within a specific ButtonGroup.
ReleasableComponent	An Interface that any Component that could be released from the parent Form can implement.
RGBImage	An image that stores its data as an integer RGB array internally, this image cannot be manipulated via Graphics primitives however its array is accessible and modifiable programmatically.
SelectableIconHolder	An interface that is implemented by "selectable" components that hold icons, such as Button, SpanButton, MultiButton, etc...
Sheet	A light-weight dialog that slides up from the bottom of the screen on mobile devices.
SideMenuBar	This is Menu Bar that displays it's commands on a side bar navigation similar to Google+/Facbook apps navigation
Slider	The slider component serves both as a slider widget to allow users to select a value on a scale via touch/arrows and also to indicate progress.
Stroke	Encapsulates the stroke used for drawing paths.
SwipeableContainer	SwipeableContainer allows us to side swipe a component and expose underlying configuration within it.
Tabs	A component that lets the user switch between a group of components by clicking on a tab with a given title and/or icon.
TextArea	An optionally multi-line editable region that can display text and allow a user to edit it.
TextComponent	Encapsulates a text field and label into a single component.
TextComponentPassword	TextComponent extended to automatically add mask/unmask password button near the TextField; it acts like a normal TextComponent if the Constraint is not TextArea.PASSWORD
TextField	A specialized version of com.codename1.ui.TextArea with some minor deviations from the original specifically:
TextHolder	An interface implemented by Component classes that can support setting/getting text.
TextSelection	Text selection support for Codename One applications.
TextSelection.TextSelectionSupport	An interface that can be returned from any Component's Component#getTextSelectionSupport() method to provide text selection support on that component.
TextSelection.TextSelectionTrigger	Trigger types for text selection.
Toolbar	Toolbar replaces the default title area with a powerful abstraction that allows functionality ranging from side menus (hamburger) to title animations and any arbitrary component type.
Toolbar.BackCommandPolicy	The behavior of the back command in the title
TooltipManager	Central management for tooltips, this class can be derived/customized to override the default tooltip behavior.
Transform	Encapsulates a 3D transform that can be used in com.codename1.ui.Graphics contexts or with com.codename1.ui.geom.Shapes to transform in various ways.
Transform.NotInvertibleException
UIFragment	Encapsulates an XML or JSON template for a UI component hierarchy.
UIFragment.ComponentFactory	A factory for converting XML elements to Components.
UIFragment.DefaultComponentFactory	Default component factory that is used in templates.
URLImage	URLImage allows us to create an image from a URL.
URLImage.ErrorCallback	Invoked in a case of an error
URLImage.ImageAdapter	Allows applying resize logic to downloaded images you can use constant resize behaviors defined in this class.
VirtualInputDevice	Represents a virtual input device that may need to be closed/disposed, providing a way Widgets that require exclusive access to the user's input (but perhaps not all of the user interactions with the app) need to provide a way for the form to dispose of it when a new input device needs to be displayed.