Visual use of Properties in JavaBeans

One of the most significant features of JavaBeans is its support for visual editing of Bean properties.
In this case, you might think that there is some secret, highly complex mechanism going on that allows properties to be manipulated visually. In reality, visual editing is nothing more than a graphical interface calling the accessor methods of a property.

A JavaBean does not extend any standard class, nor implement any standard interface, although visual components always extend java.awt.Component or its subclasses. However, JavaBeans typically share a set of characteristics in the form of a standard set of facilities that enable beans to be easily combined into applications. These facilities in order of usage from design to run time are introspection, customization, properties, events, persistence, packaging, and methods. Introspection and customization are used at design time; properties, events, persistence, and packaging are used at both design and run time; methods are used exclusively at run time. We discuss these facilities in the reverse order, that is, from run time to design time, to allow the reader to grasp the significance of the design time facilities after understanding the utility of the run time facilities.