Champak's Blog: Creating and entering a new Bean into Net Beans

This article will create and enter a TimerLabel into a Palette inside NetBeans from where we can use it in any Project. The Timer label will simply display the current date and time.

Starting the Project: Create a File called TimerLabel.java with the following Contents.

TimerLabel.java

/*
* To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
* and open the template in the editor.
*/

package timerbeansproject;

import java.util.Date;
import javax.swing.JLabel;

/**
*
* @author Champak */
public class TimerLabel extends JLabel {

    public TimerLabel()
    {
        TimerThread t=new TimerThread();
        t.start();
    }
    private class TimerThread extends Thread
    {
        @Override
        public void run()
        {
            while(true)
            {
                try
                {
Date d=new Date();
TimerLabel.this.setText("" + d);
Thread.sleep(1000);
                }
                catch(Exception ex)
                {
                    System.out.println(ex);
                }
            }
        }
    }

}

TimerFrame.java

/*
* To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
* and open the template in the editor.
*/

/*
* TimerFrame.java
*
* Created on Nov 9, 2010, 1:09:28 PM
*/

package timerbeansproject;

/**
*
* @author Champak */
public class TimerFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    /** Creates new form TimerFrame */
    public TimerFrame() {
        initComponents();
    }

    /** This method is called from within the constructor to
     * initialize the form.
     * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
     * always regenerated by the Form Editor.
     */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Generated Code">
    private void initComponents() {

        timerLabel1 = new timerbeansproject.TimerLabel();

        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
        getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
        layout.setHorizontalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addGap(102, 102, 102)
                .addComponent(timerLabel1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                .addContainerGap(150, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );
        layout.setVerticalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addContainerGap()
                .addComponent(timerLabel1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                .addContainerGap(275, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );

        pack();
    }// </editor-fold>

    /**
    * @param args the command line arguments
    */
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new TimerFrame().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    private timerbeansproject.TimerLabel timerLabel1;
    // End of variables declaration

}

The series of Steps