Heman Robinson

Jakarta Struts provides a standard framework for Web applications, and JavaServer Faces offers a component-based framework for user interfaces. At the user interface, a common task in both frameworks is selecting items from lists. Over the years, standard design patterns have been developed for selection lists. For developers, the advantage of implementing these standard patterns is that they are readily available and offer a familiar user experience. This article describes the following patterns: One selection from few One selection from many Multiple selections from few Extended selections from many Multiple selections from many These are small idioms for simple UI controls, but it's not always obvious how to implement them to maximize usability. This article describes best practices recommended by usability experts for these patterns and compares their implementat... (more)

GUI Design Patterns

Long lists of data present a problem for GUI development. This occurs when choosing records from large database tables or recipients from a long list of e-mail addresses, or any time a subset of data must be chosen from a long list or table. Two issues arise when choosing from long lists of data. First, what is the best GUI for long lists so that the users understand how to navigate and manipulate their data? Second, if the list holds more than a few hundred items, performance become an issue. In this article, simple examples show how to optimize usability for this common GUI d... (more)

Java Feature — Jakarta Struts & JavaServer Faces

A previous article compared Jakarta Struts and JavaServer Faces implementations of five simple design patterns for list selection. (JDJ, Vol. 11, Issue 3). Long lists and ordered selections require a more complex design pattern. This pattern displays available items in one list and chosen items in another so the user's choices are always visible and easily modified. This design pattern is commonly called a Dual List or Dual Listbox selector. It is also known as the Selection Summary or List Builder pattern. In the Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines, it's called the Add-and-Remo... (more)

Java Design Patterns for Long Lists

In the late 1990s, a GUI design pattern emerged for choosing multiple objects from long lists. In GUI Design Essentials, Susan Weinschenk, Pamela Jamar, and Sarah Yeo called this the Selection Summary pattern. In "A Dual Listbox Selection Manager" by Steve Aube, it's also known as the Dual Listbox Selection interface. In The Java Look and Feel Guidelines, Advanced Topics, it is called the Add-and-Remove idiom. The Add-and-Remove design pattern (shown in Figure 1) has many variations. One common enhancement is to provide "Move Up" and "Move Down" buttons to reorder the chosen lis... (more)