java - how to create a JTable with POJOs with a single table model

Question

I’m trying to create a GUI to display the content of a database. I’m using a JTable for that. I want a constructor that takes a list of POJOs and eventually column titles. I want also my JTable to be able to return the selected POJO (for example when I doubleclick on a row). Do I really need to create a table model for each POJO or is there a better way?

I’ve made some searchs on similar topics, but I didn’t find any answer that uses a single table model for all POJOs and none of them has a method that returns a POJO.

Here is the description of my database tables and POJOs:

Database tables:

• students (id, firstname, lastname, birthdate, grade_id, phonenumber)
• grades (id, grade)
• authors (id, firstname, lastname, nationality_id)
• nationalities (id, nationality)
• books (id, title, author_id, student_id)

POJOs:

• Grade (int id, String grade)
• Student (int id, String firstname, String lastname, Grade grade)
• Author (int id, String firstname, String lastname, Nationality nationality)
• Nationality (int id, String nationality)
• Book (int id, String title, Author author, Student student)

Answer 1

I'm guessing someone has already created a generic TableModel backed by bean getters and setters. Try googling ReflectionTableModel or BeanTableModel.

Failing that it would be quite simple to roll your own TableModel using the reflection api