Visual Swing 4 Eclipse

You can find downloads for this open source project at http://code.google.com/p/visualswing4eclipse/

I have found that a safe installation process is as follows:

1. Download http://visualswing4eclipse.googlecode.com/files/vs4e_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.zip.
2. Find where you have installed Eclipse on your computer. For example, my Ganymede Eclipse installation is "C:\Program Files\Eclipse". Now within this directory you fill find a directory called "plugins".
3. Open the vs4e_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.zip file and you will see that the entries:
   

        0  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/
   566664  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/org.dyno.visual.swing_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.jar
    54306  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/org.dyno.visual.swing.borders_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.jar
   134107  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/org.dyno.visual.swing.grouplayouts_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.jar
    35809  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/org.dyno.visual.swing.layouts_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.jar
   298220  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/org.dyno.visual.swing.lnfs_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.jar
   108231  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/org.dyno.visual.swing.parser_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.jar
   171935  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/org.dyno.visual.swing.types_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.jar
   450681  05-06-09 22:25   plugins/org.dyno.visual.swing.widgets_0.9.12.I20090506-2220.jar
   	

   Simplest instructions are to unzip this zip file onto some new folder on your desktop and then manually move all of the org.dyno.visual.* JAR file into the plugins folder where you have installed Eclipse. For me, I moved these files to "C:\Program Files\Eclipse\plugins".
    
4. If you already have Eclipse running you must exit it and restart.

Now, how will you know when this new plugin is available for use?

Run eclipse and then try to use the plugin. To do this, go to a Java project you have (or create one new) and then within that project, right-click on the project and say you want to create a "new --> Other..." and you will be given a dialog box. Search for the folder "Visual Swing Class" and there will be some sub-options. Choose Panel or Frame and then continue, where you enter in the desired class name (make something up) and you will be presented with the GUI image and a split screen where below is the source code that is being generated.

Done.