GridBagLayout help

I have to admit I quite like GridBagLayout. Not a lot of people admit to that I guess. However, I was recently impressed with MigLayout and wondered if I could hack up something similar for grid bag and make it a little more tidy. You may or may not agree; opinions as always are welcome.

Here's how you use it.

setLayout(new GridBagLayoutEx());
add(component1, "insets:2.2.2.2 fill:BOTH weightx:1.0 weighty:1.0 gridwidth:1 gridx:0 gridy:0");
add(component2, "insets:2.2.2.2 fill:BOTH weightx:1.0 weighty:1.0 gridwidth:1 gridx:1 gridy:0");
add(component3, "insets:2.2.2.2 fill:BOTH weightx:1.0 weighty:1.0 gridwidth:2 gridx:0 gridy:1");
add(component4, "insets:2.2.2.2 fill:VERTICAL weightx:0.0 weighty:1.0 gridwidth:1 gridheight:2 gridx:2 gridy:0");

The basic premise is that any property that GridBagConstraints supports can be set using property:value.

Here's the class......off you go...

// Copyright (c) 2008 Luke Biddell
//
// Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
// of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
// in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
// to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
// copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
// furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
//
// THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
// IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
// FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
// AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
// LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
// OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
// SOFTWARE.
package uk.co.biddell;

import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.GridBagConstraints;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import java.awt.Insets;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import java.util.regex.Matcher;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public final class GridBagLayoutEx extends GridBagLayout {

    private static final Logger log = Logger.getLogger(GridBagLayoutEx.class.getName());
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 5303976710331305433L;
    private static final Pattern[] patterns = new Pattern[] {
            Pattern.compile("(fill):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(anchor):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(gridx):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(gridy):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(gridwidth):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(gridheight):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(weightx):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(weighty):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(ipadx):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE),
            Pattern.compile("(ipady):([^\\s]+)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE)
    };
    private static final Pattern insetsPattern = Pattern.compile("insets:(\\d+).(\\d+).(\\d+).(\\d+)",
            Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);

    @Override
    public final void addLayoutComponent(final Component comp, final Object constraints) {
        try {
            final GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
            for (final Pattern pattern : patterns) {
                final Matcher m = pattern.matcher((String) constraints);
                if (m.find()) {
                    // First have a look and see if the value is a static constant ie there's a field representing it.
                    // This would be something like gbc.gridx = GridBagConstraints.REMAINDER
                    final Field f = gbc.getClass().getField(m.group(1).toLowerCase());
                    try {
                        final Field value = gbc.getClass().getField(m.group(2).toUpperCase());
                        if (f.getType() == int.class) {
                            f.setInt(gbc, value.getInt(gbc));
                        } else if (f.getType() == double.class) {
                            f.setDouble(gbc, value.getDouble(gbc));
                        }
                    } catch (final NoSuchFieldException nsfe) {
                        // There's no field for this value so we will attempt to set it ourselves.
                        if (f.getType() == int.class) {
                            f.setInt(gbc, Integer.valueOf(m.group(2)).intValue());
                        } else if (f.getType() == double.class) {
                            f.setDouble(gbc, Double.valueOf(m.group(2)).doubleValue());
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            final Matcher m = insetsPattern.matcher((String) constraints);
            if (m.find()) {
                gbc.insets = new Insets(Integer.valueOf(m.group(1)).intValue(), Integer.valueOf(m.group(2)).intValue(),
                        Integer.valueOf(m.group(3)).intValue(), Integer.valueOf(m.group(4)).intValue());
            }
            super.addLayoutComponent(comp, gbc);
        } catch (final Exception e) {
            log.severe("Exception adding component [" + comp + "] with constraints [" + constraints + "]");
            e.printStackTrace();
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }
}