GuiInteraction

A library providing GUI interaction capabilities for Groovy applications, compatible with Gade.

Overview

GuiInteraction enables standalone Groovy applications to have the same user interaction capabilities as when running in Gade. Choose the implementation that fits your environment:

Module	UI Technology	JDK Requirements	Best For
gi-fx	JavaFX	JDK with JavaFX (e.g., BellSoft Liberica Full)	Rich desktop apps
gi-swing	Swing	Any JDK 21+	Cross-platform desktop apps
gi-console	Console/Text	Any JDK 21+	Terminal and Headless/CI environments

Features

• File and directory choosers
• User prompts (text, password, selections)
• Date and year-month pickers
• HTML and Markdown content viewing
• Table/Matrix display
• Clipboard operations
• Shell command execution with captured output and exit status
• Content type detection (via Apache Tika)
• Resource loading utilities

Quick Start

Gradle

dependencies {
    implementation 'se.alipsa.gi:gi-swing:0.4.1'  // or gi-fx, gi-console
}

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>se.alipsa.gi</groupId>
    <artifactId>gi-swing</artifactId>
    <version>0.4.1</version>
</dependency>

Groovy Script with Grape

@Grab('se.alipsa.gi:gi-swing:0.4.1')
import se.alipsa.gi.swing.InOut

def io = new InOut()
def file = io.chooseFile("Choose a file", ".", "Pick a file please!")
println("File chosen was $file")

Gade Compatibility

Scripts can run both in Gade and standalone by checking for the io variable. The dependency is loaded only when Gade has not already supplied io:

import static groovy.grape.Grape.grab

// This makes the code run equally in Gade and in a standalone Groovy script
if (!binding.hasVariable('io')) {
    grab(group: 'se.alipsa.gi', module: 'gi-swing', version: '0.4.1')
    def inOutClass = this.class.classLoader.loadClass('se.alipsa.gi.swing.InOut')
    binding.setVariable('io', inOutClass.newInstance())
}

def file = io.chooseFile("Choose a file", ".", "Pick a file please!")
println("File chosen was $file")

Documentation

• API Guide - Detailed usage examples
• gi-common - Core interfaces and utilities
• gi-fx - JavaFX implementation
• gi-swing - Swing implementation
• gi-console - Console implementation

Building from Source

Install a JDK 21 toolchain before building. Gradle uses that toolchain even if the Gradle daemon runs on a newer JDK.

./gradlew build

build runs tests, Spotless, and SpotBugs, including when Gradle's configuration cache is enabled. Before pushing, you can run the formatting-and-check wrapper:

./check.sh

check.sh tests the release helpers, then runs spotlessApply and check.

urlExists reports unsupported URL schemes and broken redirect chains as warnings. Connection and HTTP failures are logged at debug level. To see those details, set the matrix logger to DEBUG and enable FINE for the underlying Java Util Logging configuration.

Table views use Table as the window or tab title when neither a nonblank explicit title nor a matrix name is available.

CI builds all four modules on Linux and Windows. The full dependency CVE scan runs on the weekly schedule or by manual dispatch because its NVD database refresh needs an API key and can be rate limited; it is not a PR gate. Run ./checkCVE.sh with NVD_API_KEY set for a fresh scan before release.

Requirements

• Java 21 or later to use the published libraries; JDK 21 to build from source
• For gi-fx: JDK with JavaFX support (e.g., BellSoft Liberica Full JDK)

License

MIT License - see LICENSE