I've been working on KNIME plug-in development recently for Pervasive DataRush, and found myself wishing that there was a Matisse for Eclipse. As it turns out, as long as you are using Swing ( as is the case of KNIME ), you can use Netbeans to create a form which then runs in Eclipse! This is possible in the latest version of Matisse, since the generated java code uses GroupLayout, a standard part of the JDK.
The one trick is that Netbeans can only create a Matisse form in a Netbeans project. However, once created, it can be copied to an Eclipse project and then opened within Netbeans for additional editing and maintaintance.
Here's a full example:
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In Netbeans ( I'm using 6.8 Beta ), go to File->New Project, Java Application, Finish
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Right-click on "Source Packages"->New->Java Package, specify your package name, example "org.example"
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Right-click on "org.example"->New->JDialog Form, specify a name, "ExampleDialog", "Finish"
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You're done with this Netbeans project; you can now close it
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Now, outside of Netbeans, copy ExampleDialog.java and ExampleDialog.form into your Eclipse project.
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Inside Netbeans, File->Open File..., specify the location of ExampleDialog.java in your Eclipse project.
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You can now edit the form as you would normally.
Here are a couple of caveats to keep in-mind:
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When running in this mode, I've sometimes noticed a bug in Netbeans where the palette doesn't show up. If this happens, you can workaround by adding components in the "Inspector" window. (It has a right-click menu item "Add From Palette").
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Eclipse doesn't prevent you from editing the "Do Not Edit" sections of the generated java, so be careful not to edit them.
The following link provides a good tutorial on using Matisse:
http://www.javapassion.com/handsonlabs/nbguibuilder/