Embed Nimbus's look and feel to your Java programs using Netbeans

This one gave me a little headache, cause it shouldn't really be an issue, but it turned out to be a non trivial tweak.

What's the story?
I use Netbeans 6.5 and Java 1.6.0_11 and I wanted my gui programs to "wear" the nimbus look and feel.

How should I configure my netbeans gui builder to dress my program with the nimbus l&f?

First thing I needed to configure my current project to use the latest JDK, it used as a default a previous version (1.6.0_07) which doesn't support the nimbus l&f.

First thing was to add the latest jdk to the netbeans platform, go to Tools --> java platform and add the new jdk.

The next task is to add the new jdk to the specific project; project properties --> Libraries and under the Java platform pick the new JDK to run this program. 

Now that the JDK issue is set, it's time to set the actual L&F: 
Project properties --> Application --> Desktop app --> Look & Feel -->
com.sun.java.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel


That's it, compile and run your beatiful program, and pay special attention to those beautiful buttons, scroll bars and tabs.

Comments

Unknown said…
thats it :)
it works now
January 19, 2010 at 7:01 PM
Anonymous said…
Your post is useful for me. Thank a lots !
December 27, 2010 at 6:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Hello Sir,

I am using Netbeans 6.9, I cannot find the option Desktop app-> Look & Feel

I was able to change the L&F of the Netbeans itself by modifying netbeans.conf. However, the programs I have created still runs in metal L&F. Hope you can help me.

Rey
March 16, 2011 at 4:28 PM
Anonymous said…
Thanks your post was useful..But I have one question.. I have set up the Nimbus look and feel. When I run the created application the Nimbus L&F is not set for the first screen(JFrame) , but it is applying to other screens when I logged into the application. Thanks.
September 14, 2011 at 8:08 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Profiling Java @ 2019

A good profiler can really help you in your work while coding Java (I assume while coding any coding language but I am referring to Java here) It can find memory leaks (Which object and how many of it takes the most of your limited memory?), CPU bottlenecks and other surprising data like the time consumed by each network call / DB query etc. Thus it is not so surprising to find many different java profilers around. I will try to map here the Java profiling tools lying around My short list of requirements will include the following: Profiler Requirements Constantly updated profiler (how a profiler built to profile Java6 will behave with Java11?) Clear GUI - As I will want to dive into the profiling data - it will be much simpler using UI Free (With a big advantage to the open sourced ones) (Optional) Remote profiling List of Profilers Dead Profilers (At least 5 years without an update) JIP - Java Interactive Profiler  - Last update 2010 Profiler4J - Last U...
Read more

Ant Explorer graphical Ant build tool

Every serious java developer needs to create or edit some ant building script. Eclipse offers nice ant handling features which make the task much easier, eclipse's plugin (which is embeded into eclipse since version 3.1 or so) understands the ant scripting language thus enables not only syntax coloring but also nice mouse hovering which reveals values of properties, variable names which enables finding the source of each variable and also some nice debugging features. But, there is one field in which eclipse's ant handling lacks perfection, its in viewing the whole build file in one gaze graphically feature, that feature isn't supported by eclipse. Luckily enough, it is supported by YWorks, which created a nice and free util which loads an ant script file and shows it in a beautiful and so very useful way. I think that this util (which was released as a standalone as well as an eclipse and idea) is a must for any serious java developer. Unluckily, YWorks have remo...
Read more

Start Working with AutoIT

I have decided I needed a quick GUI creator which can create a small exe file displaying the GUI, with no system dependencies like a .NET framework or Java runtime. What options do I have for a Quick GUI Creator? Maybe there are many options I am not aware of, but after extensive searching I found these two: Auto Hot keys AutoIT (Saw some recommendations to try Delphi or Pascal for this task but I passed) Both tools began from the same code source, autohotkeys branched off and continued to be open source while AutoIT is more commercial. I have compared the two (well, not actually compared, just google'd out other's comparisons) and found out that the AutoHotKeys is slightly better and is more open sourced (which makes it the better solution) but lacks in one field which is crucial for me - the script syntax is awful!  That tipped the balance (as a programmer i couldn't stand AHK's syntax) so I chose AutoIT. How to get Started with AutoI...
Read more