The visual editor for Java is a code-centric Java editor that helps you design applications that have a graphical user interface (GUI). The visual editor is based on the JavaBeans component model and supports visual construction using the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT), the Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT), or Swing.
The visual editor is designed to work with .java source files, letting you edit the source and work on the visual design simultaneously. The visual editor does not have its own perspective. If you use the visual editor in the Java perspective, the visual editor for Java uses any customization that you have made to the position of the Tasks view, the Console view and the Outline view.
You can use the visual editor for Java to create a visual class using a wizard, then design the class using visual components, or Java beans, from a design palette. This class can be an executable application (a class with a main method) or it can be a Java bean that you intend to include in another class. To be used as a Java bean by the visual editor for Java there is no interface that must be implemented and the only requirement is that the editor knows how to instantiate the class. For most purposes this means that the class should be public and have a public null constructor. The null constructor cannot be abstract, and it can be explicit or implicit, although there are a few exceptions that the visual editor for Java recognizes, for example java.awt.Dialog subclasses (which are instantiated using the java.awt.Frame argument constructor) or SWT controls. Certain other classes are recognized and can be dropped or sub-classed, such as Eclipse RCP views or editors. The visual editor adds an explicit constructor that calls the initialize method, which is used to set up the initial state of the Java bean.