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I am writing a Java application that takes a lot of parameters as input (~100). I am exposing some of the in the GUI, but of course it is impossible to show all of them at once.

I am curious if there is a shared way to let a user access a large amount of parameters like that. Right now, I have some buttons in the GUI, and each of them opens a JPanel which show a sub-set of the parameters. Is this a common solution? or are there more efficient solution from a human-interface point of view?

Thank you in advance for your advices, Simone

user299791
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3 Answers3

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I think it makes a lot of difference how that mass of information is best understood by the user. Is it something organized in categories, that the user will want to browse through? Are there salient parameters that the user is more likely to want to know, and so should be made more easily accessible? You could have a tabbed panel with tabs for groups of parameters, you can alphabetize them and color them and put them in different fonts, etc., but there isn't going to be one answer regardless of what the parameters are.

arcy
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I would suggest a wizard that guides the user through all parameters. All general information on user interface creating you can refer to ISO DIN 9241.

Lukas Eichler
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One way I've found effective is to have a single-selection JTree on the left side of the user interface. Whenever the user selects a tree node, a corresponding panel is shown on the right. I typically will place all the panels into a CardLayout to ensure the UI's preferred size accommodates all of them.

This has the advantage of allowing you organize your information hierarchically.

VGR
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