Spring Rich Client With Spring Boot | Spring Rich Client

Introduction

The Spring Rich Client project provides a framework for building desktop applications that leverage the power of the Spring Framework. By combining Spring Rich Client with Spring Boot, developers can rapidly create rich client applications that are easy to configure and deploy.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed on your machine:

Java Development Kit (JDK) 8 or higher
Apache Maven
An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse

Setting Up Your Project

To create a Spring Boot application with Spring Rich Client, you can use Spring Initializr to generate a Maven project.

1. Go to Spring Initializr.

2. Choose the following options:

Project: Maven Project
Language: Java
Spring Boot: 2.5.0 or higher
Dependencies: Spring Web, Spring Boot DevTools

3. Click on "Generate".

Adding Spring Rich Client Dependencies

After generating the project, you need to add the Spring Rich Client dependencies to your pom.xml file:

Add the following dependencies:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.richclient</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-richclient-core</artifactId>
    <version>1.1.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

Creating the Rich Client Application

Next, create a simple application that displays a window with a button.

Create a class named RichClientApplication.java:

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.richclient.application.Application;
import org.springframework.richclient.application.ApplicationLauncher;

@SpringBootApplication
public class RichClientApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(RichClientApplication.class, args);
        ApplicationLauncher launcher = new ApplicationLauncher();
        launcher.launch();
    }
}

This class serves as the entry point for your application. It initializes the Spring Boot application and launches the Rich Client.

Creating the UI

You can use the Spring Rich Client framework to create various user interface components. Below is an example of creating a simple UI with a button that displays a message.

Create a class named MyApplicationWindow.java:

import org.springframework.richclient.application.ApplicationWindow;
import org.springframework.richclient.command.ActionCommand;

public class MyApplicationWindow extends ApplicationWindow {
    protected void configureWindow() {
        super.configureWindow();
        add(new ActionCommand("Click Me", event -> System.out.println("Button clicked!")));
    }
}

This class extends ApplicationWindow and adds a button. When the button is clicked, it prints a message to the console.

Running Your Application

To run your application, execute the following command in your terminal:

mvn spring-boot:run

Once the application is running, you should see a window with a button. Clicking the button will trigger the action you defined.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to create a simple Spring Rich Client application using Spring Boot. This powerful combination allows developers to build feature-rich desktop applications with ease. You can further expand this application by adding more UI components and integrating with backend services.

Spring Rich Client with Spring Boot Tutorial