Enhancement Request: Dynamic GUI Scaling for Accessibility in NetBeans Platform

DawidLokiec commented 7 months ago

Description

Issue Description:

I am currently developing a NetBeans Platform-based application and am aiming to enhance accessibility by dynamically scaling (enlarging) all GUI controls. The goal is to provide users with visual impairments the ability to adjust the scaling of UI components dynamically.

I am seeking guidance on how to programmatically iterate through all GUI controls in the NetBeans Platform application and dynamically set the scaling in both the x and y dimensions. Specifically, I am looking for information on whether there are setters or APIs available for achieving this.

Proposed Solution: I propose introducing an enhancement to the NetBeans Platform that enables developers to programmatically scale GUI controls for accessibility. The enhancement could include the following:

API for Dynamic Scaling:
- Introduce a new API or extend existing APIs in the NetBeans Platform that allows developers to programmatically set the scaling of GUI controls dynamically.
Iteration Through GUI Controls:
- Provide a mechanism for developers to iterate through all GUI controls in the NetBeans Platform application easily.
User-Adjustable Scaling:
- Ensure that the scaling can be adjusted based on the user's preferences, allowing for a customizable and user-friendly experience.
Documentation:
- Update documentation to include clear guidelines and examples on how to use the new API for dynamic scaling of GUI controls.

Expected Behavior: Upon implementing this enhancement, developers should be able to use the provided API to iterate through GUI controls and dynamically set the scaling in both the x and y dimensions. This would facilitate the creation of more accessible applications, particularly for users with visual impairments.

Use case/motivation

No response

Related issues

No response

Are you willing to submit a pull request?

No

neilcsmith-net commented 7 months ago

This might start with getting #3523 in a stable position for inclusion and then working with the font sizing or UI scaling covered in #6676 ?? cc/ @DevCharly thoughts on this?

mbien commented 7 months ago

I am seeking guidance on how to programmatically iterate through all GUI controls in the NetBeans Platform application and dynamically set the scaling in both the x and y dimensions. Specifically, I am looking for information on whether there are setters or APIs available for achieving this.

Although it is relatively easy to visit the whole UI hierarchy and access all components, simply scaling them won't give satisfying results.

Your best bet is a combination of sun.java2d.uiScale and default font size. The sun.java2d.uiScale property however won't work for all values, this is resolution dependent (and might depend on other factors).

For example on 1080p it seems to only work with full integers: 2, 3 (anything beyond that is too large anyway, 2 is already very large). On higher resolutions it should work for more scaling values since swing has more pixels to work with (e.g you probably want factor 2 by default on 4k, which is what NB is automatically setting I believe).

easy to test:

    public static void main(String[] args) {
//        System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", "1");
//        System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", "1.75");
        System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", "2");
//        System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", "2.5");
//        System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", "3");

        JFrame frame = new JFrame("ui scaling");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.add(new JButton("hello there"));
        frame.setSize(400, 200);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

JDK is testing other values: https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Aopenjdk%2Fjdk+sun.java2d.uiScale&type=code

DawidLokiec commented 7 months ago

@mbien Interesting. I didn't know that System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", x) takes effect at runtime. I thought it always had to be passed to the JVM in the java command invocation because programmatically setting it with System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", "2") (for example, in the static block of a subclass of ModuleInstall) has no effect in my NetBeans-based application. Is it possible to write a custom main method in a NetBeans Platform-based application, or perhaps modify the existing one? If the latter, where can I find the main method in the NetBeans Platform-based application?

mbien commented 7 months ago

Interesting. I didn't know that System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", x) takes effect at runtime.

it does only work if it is set before any UI is initialized, the code above is just an experiment for testing purposes.

...programmatically setting it with System.setProperty("sun.java2d.uiScale", "2") (for example, in the static block of a subclass of ModuleInstall)

your module is likely not loaded early enough, some UI might be already initialized

where can I find the main method in the NetBeans Platform-based application?

The Main class can't be customized

apache / netbeans