What is the best way to make a handsome GUI for a Java software

Question

I created a website that acts as a software.
Now i'm trying to do the exact same thing with Java.
is there a way to draw some objects like "div" in html, that i can change x and y position (absolute), background-image, background-color, and put other object into it, [...] with Java ?
I tried this code :

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import javax.accessibility.*;

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

/* 
 * LayeredPaneDemo.java requires
 * images/dukeWaveRed.gif. 
 */
public class Demo extends JPanel implements ActionListener, MouseMotionListener{
    private String[] layerStrings = { "Yellow (0)", "Magenta (1)",
                                      "Cyan (2)",   "Red (3)",
                                      "Green (4)" };
    private Color[] layerColors = { Color.yellow, Color.magenta,
                                    Color.cyan,   Color.red,
                                    Color.green };

    private JLayeredPane layeredPane;
    private JLabel dukeLabel;
    private JCheckBox onTop;
    private JComboBox layerList;

    //Action commands
    private static String ON_TOP_COMMAND = "ontop";
    private static String LAYER_COMMAND = "layer";

    //Adjustments to put Duke's toe at the cursor's tip.
    private static final int XFUDGE = 40;
    private static final int YFUDGE = 57;

    public Demo()    {
        setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));

        //Create and load the duke icon.
        final ImageIcon icon = createImageIcon("images/dukeWaveRed.gif");

        //Create and set up the layered pane.
        layeredPane = new JLayeredPane();
        layeredPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 310));
        layeredPane.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(
                                    "Move the Mouse to Move Duke"));
        layeredPane.addMouseMotionListener(this);

        //This is the origin of the first label added.
        Point origin = new Point(10, 20);

        //This is the offset for computing the origin for the next label.
        int offset = 35;

        //Add several overlapping, colored labels to the layered pane
        //using absolute positioning/sizing.
        for (int i = 0; i < layerStrings.length; i++) {
            JLabel label = createColoredLabel(layerStrings[i], layerColors[i], origin);
            layeredPane.add(label, new Integer(i));
           origin.x += offset;
            origin.y += offset;
        }

        //Create and add the Duke label to the layered pane.
       dukeLabel = new JLabel(icon);
        if (icon != null) {
            dukeLabel.setBounds(15, 225, icon.getIconWidth(), icon.getIconHeight());
        } else {
            System.err.println("Duke icon not found; using black square instead.");
            dukeLabel.setBounds(15, 225, 30, 30);
            dukeLabel.setOpaque(true);
            dukeLabel.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
        }
        layeredPane.add(dukeLabel, new Integer(2), 0);

        //Add control pane and layered pane to this JPanel.
        add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 10)));
        add(createControlPanel());
        add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(0, 10)));
        add(layeredPane);
    }

    /** Returns an ImageIcon, or null if the path was invalid. */
    protected static ImageIcon createImageIcon(String path) {
        java.net.URL imgURL = Demo.class.getResource(path);
        if (imgURL != null) {
            return new ImageIcon(imgURL);
        } else {
            System.err.println("Couldn't find file: " + path);
            return null;
        }
    }

    //Create and set up a colored label.
    private JLabel createColoredLabel(String text, Color color, Point origin) {
        JLabel label = new JLabel(text);
        label.setVerticalAlignment(JLabel.TOP);
        label.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);
        label.setOpaque(true);
        label.setBackground(color);
        label.setForeground(Color.black);
        label.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
        label.setBounds(origin.x, origin.y, 140, 140);
        return label;
    }

    //Create the control pane for the top of the frame.
    private JPanel createControlPanel() {
        onTop = new JCheckBox("Top Position in Layer");
        onTop.setSelected(true);
        onTop.setActionCommand(ON_TOP_COMMAND);
        onTop.addActionListener(this);

        layerList = new JComboBox(layerStrings);
        layerList.setSelectedIndex(2);    //cyan layer
        layerList.setActionCommand(LAYER_COMMAND);
        layerList.addActionListener(this);

        JPanel controls = new JPanel();
        controls.add(layerList);
        controls.add(onTop);
        controls.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Choose Duke's Layer and Position"));
        return controls;
    }

    //Make Duke follow the cursor.
    public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {
        dukeLabel.setLocation(e.getX()-XFUDGE, e.getY()-YFUDGE);
    }
    public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {} //do nothing

    //Handle user interaction with the check box and combo box.
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        String cmd = e.getActionCommand();

        if (ON_TOP_COMMAND.equals(cmd)) {
            if (onTop.isSelected())
                layeredPane.moveToFront(dukeLabel);
            else
                layeredPane.moveToBack(dukeLabel);

        }
        else if (LAYER_COMMAND.equals(cmd)) {
            int position = onTop.isSelected() ? 0 : 1;
            layeredPane.setLayer(dukeLabel,layerList.getSelectedIndex(),position);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Create the GUI and show it.  For thread safety,
     * this method should be invoked from the
     * event-dispatching thread.
     */
    private static void createAndShowGUI() {
        //Create and set up the window.
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("LayeredPaneDemo");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        //Create and set up the content pane.
        JComponent newContentPane = new Demo();
        newContentPane.setOpaque(true); //content panes must be opaque
        frame.setContentPane(newContentPane);

        //Display the window.
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
        //creating and showing this application's GUI.
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGUI();
            }
        });
    }
}

This is the result :

It looks to run, but I can not put JLabel into JLabel (will have i to create my own object ? with a JLabel and with sons ?
And finally when i put an addMouseListener to a JLabel , if an other JLabel is above it, i can click it through the other :-/

Answer 1

Use JavaFX with Java 8.

• It is a bit slower in development until learned. Due to lambdas and component complexity.
• The styling can be done with CSS.
• There are animated effects.

Answer 2

Since the question targets Swing, I'll add a Swing-oriented answer anyway for the people who find this question and really must use Swing for any reason.

The trick is to use a fitting look & feel to do it for you in Swing.

Swing tutorial documentation on the subject.

That alone doesn't answer the question as this is about make it pretty and the default look & feel selections are not exactly all that great to look at / didn't stand the test of time. But there are also third party look & feels available for download, you're not necessarily limited to what is bundled with the runtime by default.

As an example, one can use Insubstantial (formerly known as Substance) to pretty up Swing applications. It is too naive to think that you can just plop this look & feel into an existing program and make it look good in an instant, but when you design your application with one of these look & feels from the beginning, the application can look very slick indeed.

But one should really use Swing only when it is a must. Swing is an aging technology and whatever extensions were available for download for it in its glory days are slowly disappearing from the internet / no longer maintained. On top of that it is basically the difference between choosing a pre-designed look & feel or having flexibility to do styling yourself, which JavaFX allows you to do with quite some flexibility.