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Java Button Placement using BorderLayout

This code displays nothing, I have exhausted many avenues but it does not display anything on the GUI (I have a main class that calls this as well already). Please help. I am trying to put the two JButtons horizontally at the bottom of the page and the JTextField and JLabel at the center of the screen.
package test;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class Gui extends JFrame {
private JLabel label;
private JButton clear;
private JButton copy;
private JTextField textfield;
public Gui(){
super("test");
clear = new JButton("Clear");
copy = new JButton("Copy");
label = new JLabel("");
textfield = new JTextField("enter text here");
JPanel bottom = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
JPanel subBottom = new JPanel();
subBottom.add(copy);
subBottom.add(clear);
JPanel centre = new JPanel (new BorderLayout());
JPanel subCentre = new JPanel();
subCentre.add(label);
subCentre.add(textfield);
bottom.add(subBottom, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
centre.add(subCentre, BorderLayout.CENTER);
}
}

Your code is a bit over-complicated. You only need two panels, centre, and buttons. There are two reasons your UI is not showing up:
You never added the panels to the frame
You never set visible to true(Achieve this by using setVisible(true)), unless you did this in the class you ran it in.
One simple way to achieve your desired UI is like so(I added a main method to show the window):
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class test extends JFrame {
public Test() {
super("test");
JPanel buttons = new JPanel();
JPanel centre = new JPanel();
add(buttons, BorderLayout.SOUTH); //these lines add the
add(centre, BorderLayout.CENTER); //panels to the frame
JButton clear = new JButton("Clear"); // No need
JButton copy = new JButton("Copy"); // to declare
JLabel label = new JLabel("Label"); // these
JTextField textfield = new JTextField("enter text here"); // privately
buttons.add(copy);
buttons.add(clear);
centre.add(label);
centre.add(textfield);
pack();
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setVisible(true);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
} //end constructor
//added main method to run the UI
public static void main(String[] args) {
new Experiments();
} //end main
} //end class
And it shows the window:

I got closer but its not pretty code, the JFrame is 500x500 so this works based on that... any better suggestions than what I have?
package lab6;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class Gui extends JFrame {
private JLabel label;
private JButton clear;
private JButton copy;
private JTextField textfield;
public Gui(){
super("test");
clear = new JButton("Clear");
copy = new JButton("Copy");
label = new JLabel("label");
textfield = new JTextField("enter text here");
JPanel masterPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
JPanel top = new JPanel();
top.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 200));
JPanel bottom = new JPanel();
JPanel subBottom = new JPanel();
subBottom.add(copy);
subBottom.add(clear);
JPanel centre = new JPanel ();
JPanel subCentre = new JPanel();
subCentre.add(label);
subCentre.add(textfield);
bottom.add(subBottom);
centre.add(subCentre);
masterPanel.add(bottom, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
masterPanel.add(top, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
masterPanel.add(centre, BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(masterPanel);
}
}

paint method causing other components not to show up

I have a simple GUI program I'm trying to get to work. When the user presses the bottom button I'm trying to get some shapes to paint. When I get rid of the if(buttonClicked) in paint() everything shows up fine but paint() seems to be auto-executed and the shapes appear without any button click. When I add surround the paint() body with if(buttonClicked), regardless of how the ButtonHandler class handles it, the rest of my components do not even show up in the frame. I have no idea why this is happening. Test the code with and without the if logic in paint() and you will see what's going on.
public class GUI extends JFrame {
//declare components
Container container;
JPanel centerPanel, northPanel, southPanel, eastPanel, westPanel, mouseClickPanel;
JLabel topLabel;
JTextArea textArea;
JButton buttonA, buttonB, drawButton;
boolean buttonClicked;
public GUI(String title) {
super(title); // invoke JFrame Constructor
container = getContentPane();
container.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
centerPanel = new JPanel();
centerPanel.setBackground(Color.CYAN);
northPanel = new JPanel();
northPanel.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
southPanel = new JPanel();
southPanel.setBackground(Color.MAGENTA);
eastPanel = new JPanel();
eastPanel.setBackground(Color.ORANGE);
westPanel = new JPanel();
westPanel.setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
mouseClickPanel = new JPanel();
mouseClickPanel.setBackground(Color.GRAY);
mouseClickPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 400));
topLabel = new JLabel("Press either button to make something happen");
topLabel.setFont(new Font("Calibri", Font.PLAIN, 16));
topLabel.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);
textArea = new JTextArea(3, 20);
textArea.setEditable(false);
buttonA = new JButton("Press Here");
buttonB = new JButton("Press Here");
drawButton = new JButton("Press here");
container.add(centerPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
container.add(northPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
container.add(southPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
container.add(eastPanel, BorderLayout.EAST);
container.add(westPanel, BorderLayout.WEST);
northPanel.add(topLabel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
centerPanel.add(buttonA);
centerPanel.add(textArea);
centerPanel.add(buttonB);
centerPanel.add(mouseClickPanel);
centerPanel.add(drawButton);
buttonClicked = false;
ButtonHandler buttonHandler = new ButtonHandler(buttonA, drawButton, textArea, buttonClicked);
buttonA.addActionListener(buttonHandler); // add actionListeners to buttonA and B
buttonB.addActionListener(buttonHandler);
drawButton.addActionListener(buttonHandler);
setSize(525, 600);
setVisible(true);
}
public void paint(Graphics g) {
if (buttonClicked) {
super.paint(g);
g.setColor(Color.RED);
g.fillOval(150, 150, 50, 50);
g.draw3DRect(200, 200, 50, 50, true);
}
}
}
Handler class:
public class ButtonHandler extends JFrame implements ActionListener {
private JButton buttonA, drawButton;
private JTextArea textArea;
boolean buttonClicked;
public ButtonHandler(JButton buttonA, JButton drawButton, JTextArea textArea, boolean buttonClicked) {
this.buttonA = buttonA;
this.textArea = textArea;
this.drawButton = drawButton;
this.buttonClicked = buttonClicked;
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (e.getSource() == buttonA) {
textArea.setText(" <- You pressed left button");
}
else if (e.getSource() == drawButton) {
textArea.setText("You pressed button to draw rectangle");
buttonClicked = true;
repaint();
}
else {
textArea.setText("You pressed right button ->");
}
}
}

Take super.paint(g); out of the if statement. Have it as the first line. Otherwise, no painting at all (including the JPanel internals such as background) will happen unless the button is clicked.

Java Swing JButton must create 4 new objects and add to JPanel

Okay, so when I press the JButton menuselect1, I want it to create 4 new objecs, attack1 2 3 and 4, and then add them to the JPanel fightmenu.
This is my code so far, it's a mini pokemon game.
First I create all my objects, and then I set the sizes and adds them to the different JPanels
public class MainFrame extends JFrame {
JPanel mainwindow = new JPanel();
JPanel bottom = new JPanel();
JPanel combat = new JPanel();
JPanel selectionmenu = new JPanel();
JPanel fightmenu = new JPanel();
JButton menuselect1 = new JButton("Fight");
JButton menuselect2 = new JButton("Minimons");
JButton menuselect3 = new JButton("Bag");
JButton menuselect4 = new JButton("Run");
JButton attack1 = new JButton("Tackle");
JButton attack2 = new JButton("Lightningbolt");
JButton attack3 = new JButton("Thunder-Shock");
JButton attack4 = new JButton("Hyper-Beam");
JButton poke1 = new JButton("Ekans");
JButton poke2 = new JButton("Pikachu");
public static void main(String[] args){
new MainFrame();
}
public MainFrame(){
super("MiniMon");
setSize(640,640);
setResizable(false);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
add(mainwindow);
// SIZES
combat.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(640,452));
bottom.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(640,160));
selectionmenu.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(320,160));
fightmenu.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(320,160));
mainwindow.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
mainwindow.add(combat, BorderLayout.NORTH);
mainwindow.add(bottom, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
combat.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
combat.add(poke1, BorderLayout.NORTH);
combat.add(poke2, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
bottom.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
bottom.add(selectionmenu, BorderLayout.EAST);
bottom.add(fightmenu, BorderLayout.WEST);
selectionmenu.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,2));
selectionmenu.add(menuselect1);
selectionmenu.add(menuselect2);
selectionmenu.add(menuselect3);
selectionmenu.add(menuselect4);
fightmenu.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,2));
setVisible(true);
}
}
I set up my fightmenu to use a 2x2 gridlayout, so I just need to add the 4 objects whenever I press the JButton menuselect1. I'm not really sure how to go about this. I know I should add an eventlistener, but when I tried, it did nothing at all.
I tried doing this:
fightmenu.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,2));
menuselect1.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
fightmenupress();
}
private void fightmenupress() {
fightmenu.add(attack1);
fightmenu.add(attack2);
fightmenu.add(attack3);
fightmenu.add(attack4);
}
} );
But it just did nothing.

When you add (or remove) components to a visible GUI, the basic code is:
panel.add(...);
panel.revalidate(); // to invoke the layout manager
panel.repaint(); // to repaint all the components on the panel

I added revalidate and repaint, and it worked!
private void fightmenupress() {
fightmenu.add(attack1);
fightmenu.add(attack2);
fightmenu.add(attack3);
fightmenu.add(attack4);
fightmenu.revalidate();
fightmenu.repaint();
}
} );

How to set Jbuttons to a specific place when you have a background in JLabel : code below

How to set Jbuttons to a specific place when you have a background in JLabel : code below
i can't get the jlabel to stay at the top and the buttons to stay south(bottom) ??
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class ButtonsClass extends JFrame
implements ActionListener {
JButton b1 = new JButton("button1");
JButton b2 = new JButton("button2");
JButton b3 = new JButton("button3");
JButton b4 = new JButton("button4");
JLabel label = new JLabel("buttons:");
public static void main(String[] args) {
new ButtonsClass();
}
public Jukebox() {
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
setContentPane(new JLabel(new ImageIcon("image.png")));
setLayout(new FlowLayout());
setSize(500,150);
setTitle("Backgroundwithbuttons");
setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
JPanel top = new JPanel();
top.add(label);
add("North", top);
JPanel bottom = new JPanel();
bottom.add(b1);
bottom.add(b2);
bottom.add(b3);
bottom.add(b4);
add("South", bottom);
setVisible(true);
}
}

" i can't get the jlabel to stay at the top and the buttons to stay south(bottom)"
That's because you set the layout the BorderLayout, then immediately set it to FlowLayout. With FlowLayout, your BorderLayout positioning will do nothing.
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
setContentPane(new JLabel(new ImageIcon("image.png")));
setLayout(new FlowLayout());
Just get rid of the setLayout(new FlowLayout());
Also your constructor is wrong
public Jukebox() {
-Should be-
public ButtonClass() {
Also you need to set the layout of the JLabel that you set as the content pane. Yout constructor should look like this
public ButtonClass() {
JLabel background = new JLabel(new ImageIcon("image.png"));
background.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
setContentPane(background);
setTitle("Background with buttons");
setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
JPanel top = new JPanel();
top.add(label);
add(top, BorderLayout.NORTH);
JPanel bottom = new JPanel();
bottom.add(b1);
bottom.add(b2);
bottom.add(b3);
bottom.add(b4);
add(bottom, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
//pack();
setVisible(true);
}
Also, add("North", top); is a deprecated method. Instead use add(top, BorderLayout.NORTH) and same for add(bottom, BorderLayout.SOUTH)
Also, Swing apps should be run on the Event Dispatch Thread. You can do so by wrapping the code in your main with a SwingUtilities.invokeLater...
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new ButtonClass();
}
});
}
Also, you should set the panel's opaque property to false, if you want the image to show behind them.
top.setOpaque(false);
bottom.setOpaque(false);
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class ButtonClass extends JFrame
implements ActionListener {
JButton b1 = new JButton("button1");
JButton b2 = new JButton("button2");
JButton b3 = new JButton("button3");
JButton b4 = new JButton("button4");
JLabel label = new JLabel("buttons:");
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new ButtonClass();
}
});
}
public ButtonClass() {
label.setForeground(Color.WHITE);
JLabel background = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/resources/space.png")));
background.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
setContentPane(background);
setTitle("Background with buttons");
setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
JPanel top = new JPanel();
top.setOpaque(false);
top.add(label);
add(top, BorderLayout.NORTH);
JPanel bottom = new JPanel();
bottom.setOpaque(false);
bottom.add(b1);
bottom.add(b2);
bottom.add(b3);
bottom.add(b4);
add(bottom, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
setSize(400, 300);
setVisible(true);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {}
}

Try using:
add(bottom, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
instead of:
add("South", bottom);
BorderLayout tutorial

can't get a simple layout in java

I am trying to make an GUI in java ,this is my first venture with GUI in java and I am trying to learn
Above is what I trying to create.But I simple can't get to design it in that way ,here is my code:
//Frame:
JFrame frame;
//Menu :
JMenuBar menuBar;
JMenu menu1,menu2;
JMenuItem menuItem;
//Panels:
JPanel topPanel;
JPanel centerPanel;
JPanel bpttomPanel;
String[] vTypeStrings = { "Select vehicle","Car", "Boat", "Truck", };
//Labels:
JLabel typeLabel;
//ComboBoxes:
JComboBox vList;;
//Frame creation
frame= new JFrame("frame1");
frame.setSize(450,250);
frame.setLocation(200,300);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,1));
//Create the menu bar.
menuBar = new JMenuBar();
//Create menu bar items
menu1 = new JMenu("File");
menu1.setMnemonic('F');
menuBar.add(menu1);
menu2 = new JMenu("Help");
menu2.setMnemonic('H');
menuBar.add(menu2);
//Adding items to each menu
menuItem = new JMenuItem("Load", 'L');
menu1.add(menuItem);
menuItem = new JMenuItem("Exit", 'X');
menu1.add(menuItem);
//Second menu
menuItem = new JMenuItem("About",'A');
menu2.add(menuItem);
//Adding menu to frame
frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
//Top Panel
topPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout());
frame.add(topPanel,BorderLayout.NORTH);
JLabel headLabel=new JLabel("Snedden's Ordering system");//Heading label
topPanel.add(headLabel);
headLabel.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 24));
headLabel.setForeground(new Color(0xff0000));
//Center Panel
centerPanel = new JPanel();
centerPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,2,2,2));
vList = new JComboBox(vTypeStrings);
vList.setSelectedIndex(0);
typeLabel=new JLabel("Vehicle Type");
typeLabel.setLabelFor(vList);
centerPanel.add(typeLabel);
centerPanel.add(vList);
frame.add(centerPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.setVisible(true);
Here is what I get
THing is I get the label and the field on the same line, don't understand why,please help thanks.

frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,1));
This is your first mistake. The cells of a GridLayout are all the same size, while you want the central part to be higher.
frame.add(topPanel,BorderLayout.NORTH);
....
frame.add(centerPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
This is the second one, you set frame to have a GridLayout, so you shouldn't use BorderLayout constraints.
The correct thing to do, in my opinion, is to remove the first line, and leave the frame with the default border layout.
As for your issue with the grid, it's due to the fact that you're not filling the grid.
If you insert 4 controls in the grid, or initialize the grid with (1,2), you will get the expected outcome.
This is with centerPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,2));:
And this is with `
centerPanel.add(typeLabel);
centerPanel.add(vList);
centerPanel.add(new JLabel());
centerPanel.add(new JLabel());

What about this:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class Gui extends JFrame {
public Gui()
{
super("Gui");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setSize(500, 500);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setVisible(true);
add(new Form(), BorderLayout.EAST);
add(new ButtonRow(), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
}
private class ButtonRow extends JPanel {
private JButton button1;
private JButton button2;
private JButton button3;
private JButton button4;
public ButtonRow()
{
setLayout(new FlowLayout());
button1 = new JButton("button 1");
button2 = new JButton("button 2");
button3 = new JButton("button 3");
button4 = new JButton("button 4");
add(button1);
add(button2);
add(button3);
add(button4);
}
}
public static void main(String args[])
{
new Gui();
}
private class Form extends JPanel {
String[] vTypeStrings = { "Select vehicle","Car", "Boat", "Truck", };
public Form()
{
setLayout(new VerticalLayout());
JComboBox vList = new JComboBox(vTypeStrings);
add(new Control("choose", vList));
add(new Control("label 1"));
add(new Control("label 2"));
add(new Control("label 3"));
add(new Control("label 4"));
}
}
private class Control extends JPanel {
private JLabel label;
private JTextField text;
public Control(String lbl)
{
label = new JLabel(lbl);
text = new JTextField(15);
setLayout(new FlowLayout());
add(label);
add(text);
}
public Control(String lbl, JComboBox list)
{
label = new JLabel(lbl);
setLayout(new FlowLayout());
add(label);
add(list);
}
}
}
I think you get the idea.
NOTE: I've used this VerticalLayout class.

Not good answers I see from others, now this one is good. Just type:
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(null);
And set the LOCATIONS and SIZES to the objects on the JPANEL and you can place them anywhere.