edu.ksu.cis.viewer

edu.ksu.cis.viewer is a JavaTM package of tools for viewing and manipulating trees. The package includes an applet that may be run in your browser. A portion of this package has been ported to the Microsoft® .NET Framework.

The remainder of this page describes how to install and use the package on your own platform. The JavaTM SE Runtime Environment (JRE) is required to run the viewer as a stand-alone application, whereas The JavaTM SE Development Kit (JDK), which includes the JRE, is required to use the class library in your own JavaTM programs. Both packages can be downloaded from the Oracle® Software Downloads page.

Installation

The search tree viewer may be installed in two different ways:
  1. The stand-alone application only. If you have the JavaTM runtime installed, the simplest way to install the viewer as a stand-alone application is to click here to install and launch the viewer. (For those who have difficulty distinguishing red from black, the monochrome version might be more appropriate. This version differs from the original only in that instead of using the color red, it uses the color gray. Turning on bold and increasing the font size may help in distinguishing gray from black.)
  2. Manual download. If you want to be able to use the edu.ksu.cis.viewer class library in your own programs, you will want to download the file viewer.jar (39K). This file is a JAR archive. Normally there is no need to unpack it. The program can be run by issuing the command 
    java -jar viewer.jar
    Please note that all letters must be lower-case in the above command. On Windows, the application can also be run by double-clicking on the viewer.jar icon.

Usage

There are two main uses of this package.
  1. Search Tree Viewer. This is the stand-alone application (or applet) for manipulating and visualizing search trees. The program may be started as described above.

    To create and manipulate a tree, enter any string in the text field in the upper left-hand corner, and press either the Put button to add that string as a key to the tree, or the Remove button to remove that key from the tree. The keys will be maintained in lexicographic order. The Back and Forward buttons allow you to move through the history of your tree construction. The Clone button opens a new window with an exact copy of the tree and history in your current window; the tree in this window can then be manipulated independently.

    Important Note: This applet treats all keys as strings. You may enter numbers, but be aware that they will be treated as strings (e.g., "10" < "5"). Virtually all of the questions I've received regarding this program have reflected a misunderstanding of this fact.

  2. Tools for viewing trees built from user code. In order to be able to implement a tree that can be displayed using this package, you must write your tree class to implement TreeInterface. If you wish to have colored nodes, you will also need to provide a class that implements Colorizer. You may then use the TreeDrawing, TreeComponent, and/or TreeFrame classes to display your tree. If you didn't add this package to your CLASSPATH, you will need to specify it when you compile and run your program; e.g.: 
         javac -classpath viewer.jar *.java
     java -cp .;viewer.jar MyClass.java
    (On unix, the ";" is replaced by a ":".)

The complete package documentation can be browsed online.

Other Downloads

Related Demos

The following demos use the viewer package to render trees:

Last updated November 25, 2010.

Rod Howell (rhowell@ksu.edu)

Valid HTML 4.01!
Valid CSS!

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Microsoft, .NET, Windows, and Visual Studio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.