It contains code I wrote and (re-)used for several projects (Jacob, Timelog, WebPresenter, and others) and plan to use again for new projects in the future.

Maybe this code is of some use for you too.

How the gui part of the library is used to create a base application, can be seen from the source code examples Main.java and ViewController.java. It is a base application with a frame, menu, info box, and help page. The code can be used to jump start your own application.
A precompiled project setup of the example with start and build script etc. can be found in this guiexample.zip file.

Here is the meat: The ccl API Documentation

Features

• Basic GUI/Swing application framework and utility classes
• Additional string methods
• Vector methods
• File methods
• Debug and assertion support
• Test framework

System Requirements

Download

Installation

java ccl.Main -check

you can trigger a ccl self test. There is also a script in the bin directory which you can use to invoke the self test.

./bin/ccl -check

This should work most of the time. Eventually you need to specify in the shell script or batch file some environment variables explicitly if the script could not figure out everything itself.

If you use the help feature from ccl.swing.MainJFrame, you have to add JavaHelp to your classpath. For convenience reasons JavaHelp is distributed together with ccl (just add ccl26.57/lib/jhbasic.jar to your classpath).

Release History

Version 26.57

New multipart request library and debugserver shell script.

What's New

1. DebugServer has now its own shell script to start it up (./bin/debugserver).
2. Instead of using O'Reilly's servlets library ccl is now using Jason Pell's multipart request library. While O'Reilly's had some severe license implications, Jason's library is under the LGPL.

Version 25.54

A couple of small additions and bug fixes.

What's New

1. New convenience method ccl.servlet.HTML.printFormularTextInput(..) with size of text field specification.
2. New ccl.util.Util.centerLine(..) and formatCenter methods to format ascii text in center mode.
3. New ccl.servlet.DebugServer which can be used to study details of HTTP or other network protocols.
4. Slightly improved ccl.swing.DoubleList and DoubleListModel.

Fixed Bugs

1. Get class path for classes without a package failed (ccl.util.FileUtil.getClassPath(Object)).
2. Method getUserTables returned also system tables for the McKoi database. This is fixed now in class ccl.util.DBUtil.
3. ccl.servlet.ChangedRequest is updated to the latest servlet api (HttpServletRequest).
4. ccl.util.Util.isOSSolaris() checks now also for SunOS.
5. Table name gets converted to lowercase when getting column info in ccl.servlet.XMLImportHandler. This is necessary for postgresql 7.2, this might now confuse other databases.

Version 24.51

Minor bug fixes.

Fixed Bugs

1. Added new tests for ccl.servlet.XMLImportHandler class using a PostgreSQL database. If the user has no JDBC driver installed for this database, the tests will be skipped.
2. ccl.util.Init class did not accept project file names without a suffix.

Version 23.50

Minor bug fix with comman line option handling.

Fixed Bugs

1. Text after commas in command line option descriptions got truncated.

Version 22.48

Minor feature enhancements.

What's New

1. Util.untabify() method replaces tab characters with the necessary number of spaces.
2. New convenience method ccl.xml.XMLUtil.getValueOf(file,xpath).
3. New method ccl.util.FileUtil.normalizeFileName(filename) which returns an absolute file name but takes the system property "user.dir" into account (instead of the native system's current directory (which can't be changed that easily in Java).
4. New class ccl.util.ClassPathUtil which contains methods moved from other classes dealing with finding files or directories from the classpath or inside jar archives.

Version 21.47

Minor feature enhancements.

What's New

1. XML helper class supports now Xalan version 2. Support for Xalan version 1 has been dropped.
2. New method ccl.swing.SwingUtil.maximizeWindow( Window, float ) to set the size of a window to a given percentage of the screen size.

Version 20.46

New ascii text formatting methods (e.g. block mode).

What's New

1. New methods to format ascii text in block mode or left aligned (ccl.util.Util.formatBlock(..) and ...formatLeft(..)). This is especially useful to be invoked from an xslt parser.
2. There is new example code that demonstrates the gui framework. It is a base application with a frame, menu, info box, and help page which can be used to jump start your own application. Take a look at doc/guiexample/Main.java and doc/guiexample/ViewController.java. A precompiled project setup of the example with start and build script etc. can be found at doc/guiexample/guiexample.zip.
3. Ccl lib comes with an ant build.xml script now. This should help to compile the whole lib on your own. The ant script does not yet help to compile the native Linux shared library.
4. New method ccl.util.Util.systemAndWait( String ) and ...systemAndGetError( String ). These are just added for convenience, as the same methods have been there already with an Vector argument.
5. New method ccl.util.FileUtil.getFiles( dir, prefix, suffixes ) gets all base file and dir names inside a given directory which map the given prefix and suffix list.

Bugs Fixed

1. Exception in ccl.swing.DoubleList when clicking in left list below last line.
2. Exception in ccl.util.FileUtil.copy is not printed to standard error anymore.

Version 19.44

Minor API change.

What's New

1. Moved method ccl.servlet.XMLExporter.printEscaped(..) to class ccl.xml.XMLUtil.escape(..). This method replaces characters in a string with an XML entity reference if necessary. Credit for this code goes to the Apache Xerces project from which it is taken.

Version 18.43

Minor bug fix version.

Bugs Fixed

1. Return value of FileUtil.move(..) was different from what the documentation said.

Version 17.42

Minor enhancements.

What's New

1. More convenience methods for converting xml via xslt in ccl.xml.XMLUtil.
2. New native method setLocation( Frame f, int x, int y ) for Linux as my last hope to workaround a nasty Java bug.

Version 16.41

Minor new features.

What's New

1. New class ccl.servlet.CSV to generate spread sheet data in csv format.
2. New method in ccl.servlet.HTML to convert a null or empty string into a space in HTML ( ).
3. Added ccl.util.Util.getFirstDayOfMonth().

Bugs Fixed

1. ReflectionClassLoader failed loading classes from package javax in version Java 1.1.
2. A bug fix in FileUtil.readStream(). End of stream was not always successfully recognized.

Version 15.37

New XMLUtil class.

What's New

1. ccl.xml.XMLUtil is an utility class which makes transforming xml via xslt stylesheets just as convenient as invoking a shell script. You provide either files or strings and get the transformed xml file back as a string or file. No need to know the classes used from Xalan in detail.

Bugs Fixed

1. None.

Version 14.36

Improved HTML formatting class.

What's New

1. Class ccl.servlet.HTML has better formatting of data tables.
2. Class ccl.util.DBUtil supports now InstantDB as well as Sybase.

Bugs Fixed

1. None.

Version 13.33

New servlet support classes and a TextViewer class.

What's New

1. New class ccl.servlet.HTML.
2. New class ccl.servlet.XMLExporter.
3. New class ccl.servlet.XMLImporter and ccl.servlet.XMLImportHandler.
4. New class ccl.util.DBUtil.
5. New class ccl.swing.TextViewer.

Bugs Fixed

1. None.

Version 12.32

Minor new features.

What's New

1. Util has new methods to get formatted memory information (percentage of used memory etc.).
2. FileUtil has new methods 'getBaseName' and 'getDirName'.

Bugs Fixed

1. InputCancelDialog had a severe (off by one) bug in its history handling.

Version 11.31

Minor new features.

What's New

1. Text field input dialog (ccl.swing.InputCancelDialog) has optional drop down list.
2. FTPUtil is a wrapper of the sun.net.ftp.FtpClient class. This class provides convenience methods for ftp put and get in binary mode.

Bugs Fixed

1. FileUtil.getFiles(String,String) is now also able to process empty ("") file suffixes.

Version 10.29

A minor bug fix.

What's New

1. Method 'getTimeWithMillis' in ccl.Util.
2. Shell script and batch file included to start self test.
3. Makefile (with hardcoded paths) for compiling native code for Linux is included.

Bugs Fixed

1. For applications installed under a classes directory the application path was not identified correctly.

Version 9.26

Init class does use awt only if necessary.

What's New

1. Init class does not use awt if not necessary. The awt is only needed for color objects anyway. In batch mode the background colors is hardly of relevance. Now the class can be used on machines which have no X installed.

Bugs Fixed

1. None.

Version 8.24

Minor additions.

What's New

1. ccl.util.OutputErrorStreamManager captures stdio and stderr streams.

Bugs Fixed

1. Miscellaneous.

Version 7.22

Some new GUI classes.

What's New

1. New class BusyWindow, CCLTreeNode, HighlightableList, ListCancelMultiSelector, ListEditDialog, ListToListPanel, MetaJDialog, MemoryDialog, MemoryPanel, and ThreadsDialog.
2. SplitPane provides workaround for setDividerLocation( double ) bug in Swing JSplitPane class. Thanks to Marcel Nijman for this code.
3. JCFUtil class which offers some helper methods for analyzing Java byte code files. It uses Matt Yourst's Java Class File library.
4. New package ccl.platform with Linux class to access some Unix system functions (e.g. create symbolic link etc.).

Bugs Fixed

1. Miscellaneous.

Version 6.20

Some new GUI classes.

What's New

1. New class BusyWindow, CCLTreeNode, HighlightableList, ListCancelMultiSelector, ListEditDialog, ListToListPanel, MetaJDialog, MemoryDialog, MemoryPanel, and ThreadsDialog.
2. SplitPane provides workaround for setDividerLocation( double ) bug in Swing JSplitPane class. Thanks to Marcel Nijman for this code.
3. JCFUtil class which offers some helper methods for analyzing Java byte code files. It uses Matt Yourst's Java Class File library.
4. New package ccl.platform with Linux class to access some Unix system functions (e.g. create symbolic link etc.).

Bugs Fixed

1. Miscellaneous.

Version 5.18

New date methods and GUI date text field.

What's New

1. New GUI date text widget ccl.swing.DateField.
2. New date methods in ccl.util.Util.

Bugs Fixed

1. Miscellaneous.

Version 4.11

New GUI/Swing package and some minor ccl.util classes.

What's New

1. New GUI/Swing application framework and utility classes.
2. New ThreadExitSecurityManager, History, Initializable, Testable classes.

Version 3.9

New ccl.util classes.

What's New

1. Direction, Enum, FileObject, History, Init, Option, ReflectionClassLoader, Singleton, SysEnv classes and Exitable interface.

Version 2.7

New support for Windows ini or KDE config files.

Version 1.6

Authors

• Doug Lea for ccl.util.Comparable interface and ccl.util.Util.quicksort(..) methods (they are Public Domain and taken out of his collection library)
• Elliotte Rusty Harold for ccl.util.StreamCopier copied from Java I/O p. 43.
• Benjamin "Quincy" Cabell V (thethe@wpi.edu), Besiex Software for StringMethods.java which is renamed to ccl/util/IniFile.java and which is distributed under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License.
• Paddy Ramanathan <rpaddy@concordesolutions.com> for ccl.util.SysEnv. It was a contribution for the Jacob project.
• My managers at UBS Warburg who let me use and maintain this library for project development.
• Marcel Nijman for SplitPane code, which I took out of a news group.
• Matt T. Yourst for Java Class File library which is used by the the ccl.jcf package. The Matt's jcf library, which is redistributed with this library, has the following copyright disclaimer:

  JCF Copyright
  All included source code, binaries, and information ("the Software") are Copyright 1997 Matt Yourst ("the Author"). Permission is granted to use the included files for any purpose so long as appropriate credit is given to the Author.

• Glen Cordrey for a tip to set the application home directory automatically in a batch file.
• Brian Uegawachi and jalal for bug reports.
• The Apache Xerces project for making code for escaping a string with XML entity references freely available.
• Jason Pell for a multipart request library under the LGPL which ccl uses for importing data from an XML file into an SQL database using a servlet [2002-05-20].

Links

• Clemens' Java Page - take a look at the other Java stuff I did which also uses the ccl lib.
• CCL Java Coding Standard - my personel code conventions used also for the ccl code.