The Actionbutton-Dashboard Project

Abstract

Sick and tired of endlessly navigating through directories and bookmark inventories as part of your everyday-workflow? The Actionbutton-Dashboard-project enables you to set up an easy-to-configure array of JButtons, which can open local apps, folders, network drives as well as intranet and internet websites. The array is depicted as a graphical interface:

All buttons can be customized to your needs by using simple spreadsheet-based configuration tables. After you are done with defining button names, paths and colors, just double-click on the jar file (fat-jar) and the JButton-window will open up.

An optional field for logos gives you some space to place a company logo in order to give the panel a professional touch.

NOTE: Everything can be setup quite easily, you don't need to have programming skills at all to get some beautiful results. Just check out the step-by-step manual in the Getting Started section!

Table of Content

• The Actionbutton-Dashboard Project
• Abstract
• Table of Content
  • Getting Started
    • Manual For USERS
    • Manual For PROGRAMMERS
    • Inspirations & ToDo's
  • Folder structure
  • Configuration File (config.properties)
  • Spreadsheet Files
  • Requirements
  • License
  • Contributors & Acknowledgments
  • Sources
  • Contact

Getting Started

This section is subdivided into a Manual For USERS and a Manual For PROGRAMMERS.

Manual For USERS

This is a step-by-step manual for users. Everything you need to set up your Actionbutton-Dashboard can be found in the target folder. Please check out section Folder structure as reference for the following instructions:

• Copy the target folder (Folder structure: 1) into a local destination folder of your choice.
• Run the jar file named Actionbutton-Dashboard-jar-with-dependencies.jar (Folder structure: 2) placed in the root folder as a first test. If this doesn't work, check out if a Java Software Development Kit (SDK) is installed on your computer. Manuals can be found everywhere, e.g. on
  www.geeksforgeeks.org.
• Set up the configuration file config.properties (Folder structure: 3 and section ConfigFile) to define titles, colors, icons and logos.
• Complement the icons- and the images-folder (Folder structure: 4 & 5) with your individual layout figures used for the tabs (-> see config.properties) and the JButtons (-> see Folder structure: 6, spreadsheet files, tab "icons").
• Configure the spreadsheet files used for your dashboard (Folder structure: 6 and Spreadsheet). There are 5 sheets available in each workbook. IMPORTANT:
  • MAKE SURE THAT THE NUMBER OF WORKBOOKS STORED IN ./src/main/resources/spreadsheetFiles/ IS THE SAME AS THE NUMBER OF CATEGORY_TITLES, SPREADSHEET_NAMES AND TAB_ICON_NAME DEFINED IN THE config.properties-FILE STORED UNDER ./src/main/resources/ !!
  • CLOSE ALL WORKBOOKS AFTER SAVING BEFORE EXECUTING THE JAR-FILE AGAIN
• Re-run by double-clicking on the Actionbutton-Dashboard-jar-with-dependencies.jar-file in the root folder.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bio-century/Actionbutton-Dashboard/main/video_tutorial/github_demo_video.mp4

NOTE: If errors occure leading to the jar-file not being executed, review the template delivered by downloading the repo, which also serves as an example right away. Please pay attention to the proper setting of spaces in the config-file. Moreover, the following procedure might give you extra hints: - Open a shell in the jar-file directory (e.g. for Windows: cmd). - Type ```java -jar Actionbutton-Dashboard-jar-with-dependencies.jar```.

Manual For PROGRAMMERS

First of all: Your contributions, ideas and feedback are very welcome. Also please be patient if merge requests are pending due to a limited amount of time. This work is structured due to my (yet rudimentary) knowledge of Java practises:

• (i) : The pom.xml file generated with the help of Maven, which defines dependencies, importing packages and copy the resources into the target folder.
• (ii) : The Main.java where the config.properties-parameters are imported and the dashboard is built.
• (iii) : Class used in main to build the dashboard for each tab.
• (iv) : Classes used for scaling and converting icons and logos for the panel and the JButtons.
• (v) : Class to set up the action events (listener) for each JButton.
• (vi) : Classes reads in spreadsheet data and determines column and row numbers.
• (vii) : Plain-text file to configuration titles, colors, icons and logos.
• (viii): Place to put all icon-files (e.g. as .png) used for the individual JButtons. Don't forget to reference them in the config. properties- or the icon-tab of the corresponding spreadsheet-workbook accordingly.
• (ix) : Place to put your identity or company logo. Don't forget to reference them in the config.properties-file
• (x) : Spreadsheet files used to define JButton names, paths, colors, icons and positions within the array. Please use the given template for formatting support.
  

NOTE: The fatjar-file of the target folder was generated by running the Maven-command mvn clean package.

Inspirations & ToDo's

To all you software developer out there, this is a section where ideas can be placed :). Please keep in mind, that the general focus of this project is to have an Actionbutton-Dashboard with maximum accessibility, so that it can be configured by anyone in an easy manner...Thanks for your inspirations!

• Wrap config-file parameters of the main into structures, perhaps by writing a load-method
• Eliminate the Cleaning up unclosed ZipFile for archive-Warning
• Add a custom-icon-option for the jar-starter to the fat-jar
• Add modifyable-tabcolors-option
• Next Idea 1
• Next Idea 2
• ...

Folder structure

|   LICENSE
|   pom.xml                                                     <--- (i)                : Maven-based pom.xml-file to define dependencies and copy 
|                                                                                         the resources into the target folder
|   README.md
|
+---.idea +++                                                   (COLLAPSED)
+---META-INF +++                                                (COLLAPSED)
+---README_Images +++                                           (COLLAPSED)
|
+---src
|   |
|   \---main
|       +---java
|       |   |   Main.java                                       <--- (ii) Main 
|       |   |
|       |   +---packageBuildDashboard +++                       <--- (iii), (COLLAPSED) : used in main to build the dashboard for each tab
|       |   |
|       |   +---packageIconEditing +++                          <--- (iv), (COLLAPSED)  : scales and converts icons and logos used for the panel and
|       |   |                                                                             the JButtons 
|       |   |
|       |   +---packageJButtons +++                             <--- (v), (COLLAPSED)   : sets up the action events (listener) for each JButton   
|       |   |
|       |   \---packageSpreadsheet +++                          <--- (vi), (COLLAPSED)  : reads in spreadsheet data and determines column and row 
|       |                                                                                 numbers
|       |
|       \---resources
|           |   config.properties                               <--- (vii)              : Configuration file defining titles, colors, icons and logos
|           |
|           +---icons +++                                       <--- (viii), (COLLAPSED): icons used for the individual JButtons
|           +---images +++                                      <--- (ix), (COLLAPSED)  : image used to place your identity or company logo
|           |
|           \---spreadsheetFiles                                <--- (x)                : spreadsheet files used to define JButton names, 
|                   Internet.xlsx                                                         paths, colors, icons and positions within the array
|                   SSD local.xlsx
|                   Starttab.xlsx
|
\---target                                                      <--- (1) Target path to be copied to your the local folder of your choice
    |   Actionbutton-Dashboard-jar-with-dependencies.jar        <--- (2) Executable JAR, will be updated when modifying the Spreadsheet
    |   Actionbutton-Dashboard.jar
    |
    +---classes +++                                             (COLLAPSED)
    +---generated-sources +++                                   (COLLAPSED)
    +---maven-archiver +++                                      (COLLAPSED)
    +---maven-status +++                                        (COLLAPSED)
    \---src
        |   config.properties                                   <--- (3)                : Configuration file defining titles, colors, icons and logos
        |
        \---main
            +---java +++                                        (COLLAPSED)
            |
            \---resources
                +---icons +++                                   <--- (4), (COLLAPSED)   : icons used for the individual JButtons
                +---images ++++                                 <--- (5), (COLLAPSED)   : image used to place your identity or company logo
                |
                \---spreadsheetFiles                            <--- (6)                : spreadsheet-workbooks used to define JButton names, 
                        Internet.xlsx                                                     paths, colors, icons and positions within the array
                        SSD local.xlsx
                        Starttab.xlsx

Configuration File (config.properties)

tab	explanation	input values
USER_DIR_JAVA	dir of main file	single string
USER_DIR_SPREADSHEETS	dir of spreadsheet-workbooks	single string
USER_DIR_ICONS	dir of icons for tabs and buttons	single string
USER_DIR_IMAGES	dir of company logo	single string
FRAME_TITLE	title of the dashboard window	single string
CATEGORY_TITLES	titles (in order) of the categories	string array separated by ,
MOUSEOVER_TEXT	explanatory text showing up on mouse-over	(longer) text as string
SPREADSHEET_NAMES	file names (in order) of all spreadsheet files	string array separated by ,
FONTNAME	font name for all labels used (example: Arial)	single string
NUMBER_OF_ROWS_WINDOW_EXPANSION_FACTOR	scales the window height with respect to amount of rows	number
NUMBER_OF_COLUMNS_WINDOW_EXPANSION_FACTOR	scales the window height with respect to amount of columns	number
MY_COLOR_*	multiple colors defining tab background colors etc.	3 integers from 0-255 separated by ,
TAB_ICON_NAME	file names (in order) of the icons used for the tabs panel	string array separated by ,
IMAGE_LOGO	file name of company logo	single string
IMAGE_LOGO_WIDTH	company logo dimensions: width	single string
IMAGE_LOGO_HEIGHT	company logo dimensions: height	single string

Spreadsheet Files

tab	explanation	input values
fieldnames	Strings that are imprinted onto the button	String (limited space)
URL	link, that the button is going to open. It can be a file path, a file or a website	URLs and local paths as Strings
color	RGB-code that defines the individual color of each button (text and button frame)	Three Numbers from 0-255 seperated by ,
comments	text that shows up on mouse-over the JButton. If empty, the field will be ignored	Strings with extended space
icons	filename of icon-image for each JButton. If empty, the field will be ignored	Filenames of Images stored in the icons-folder

Requirements

java 19.0.1 2022-10-18
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 19.0.1+10-21)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 19.0.1+10-21, mixed mode, sharing)

Apache Maven 3.9.1
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8

License

This work is published under the GPL-2.0 license.

Contributors & Acknowledgments

Many thanks to the comber.io admin for inspirations, code reviews and for initializing the bio-century.net website.

Sources

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4871051/how-to-get-the-current-working-directory-in-java
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13438871/log4j2-configuring
https://mkyong.com/java/apache-poi-reading-and-writing-excel-file-in-java/
https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.poi/poi-ooxml/3.9
https://www.javatpoint.com/how-to-read-excel-file-in-java
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2194284/how-to-get-the-last-column-index-reading-excel-file
https://poi.apache.org/apidocs/dev/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFRow.html#getLastCellNum--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=816wduoH9eY
https://coderanch.com/t/657887/java/Pausing-loop-wait-response-actionListener
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/layout/gridbag.html
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/layout/visual.html
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57075145/what-element-controls-the-color-of-the-thin-strip-between-jpanel-and-jtabbedpane
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15694107/how-to-layout-multiple-panels-on-a-jframe-java

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2194284/how-to-get-the-last-column-index-reading-excel-file
https://poi.apache.org/apidocs/dev/org/apache/poi/hssf/usermodel/HSSFRow.html#getLastCellNum--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=816wduoH9eY
https://coderanch.com/t/657887/java/Pausing-loop-wait-response-actionListener

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS0GOFx7KEQ
(How to Read Excel File in Java by Programming Guru)
https://getbootstrap.com/

Contact

info@bio-century.net