I am currently trying to develop a volunteer app where the administrator can add a volunteer's name into a textfield, and have this input but converted into a new button each time the admin enters a name. I am new to GUI development, so how would I do this? I have tried passing the input as a String into a method, but I am unsure on how to create multiple buttons with this design.
Defining UI elements
First to check what you need to implement this quickly.
You need a panel for your text field and I went for a button to enter current text field input.
You also need a panel where you are adding your generic buttons
I also added a list of buttons for convenience, because you likely intend to do something with those buttons later on, and so access is desired
// UI elements to type in input and create buttons
private JPanel inputPanel = new JPanel();
private JTextField textField = new JTextField();
private JButton addGenericButtonBtn = new JButton( "ADD NEW BUTTON" );
// UI elements to put your generic buttons into
private JPanel genericButtonsPanel;
private List<JButton> buttonList = new ArrayList<>();
Creating layouts
You will likely need layouts and button styling, e.g. setting sizes for the buttons at least might be necessary, though I will not post that specific code here. The layouts I chose will put your text field and the button to create a generic button horizontally in proximity to one another and the generic buttons will be stacked vertically in the container below:
inputPanel.setLayout( new BoxLayout( inputPanel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS ) );
genericButtonsPanel.setLayout( new BoxLayout( genericButtonsPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS ) );
Adding your elements to the current hierarchy of UI elements
These pannels must be added to the parent container whichever it is you are working with. Let's say parentContainer is a JPanel and the one where you want to add all of those elements to:
parentContainer.inputPanel.add( textField );
parentContainer.inputPanel.add( addGenericButtonBtn );
parentContainer.add( inputPanel );
parentContainer.add( genericButtonsPanel );
Adding generic buttons via ActionListener
The way this is designed is so that you can type into the text field and then press the "ADD NEW BUTTON" button in order to create generic buttons and add them to the second container genericButtonsPanel. So what remains is an action listener for addGenericButtonsBtn in order to accomplish this:
addGenericButtonBtn.addActionListener( e ->
{
String txt = textField.getText();
JButton genericBtn = new JButton( txt );
buttonList.add( genericBtn ); // this is merely to store the generated buttons for future access
genericButtonsPanel.add( genericBtn );
text.setText( "" ); // optional clear of the text field
// this call is mandatory, otherwise the changes to the hierarchy of UI elements will not be reflected
revalidate();
});
Further reading
This is a very minimalistic example which fulfills the requirements you described. This was just tested on my machine and works as expected. There is also a myriad of ways to go about solving this, so you might see some different solutions.
The presented solution lacks details, such as setSize, setBackground, setBorder and other UI property setters, so you would have to style your UI the way you need it to look yourself.
Related
This is my menu screen. It is a JTabbedPane that when the user clicks on any of the tabs I set the menu's visibility to false and set visibility of another tabbed pane to true.
Say the user clicked on stock, then the window will look something like this:
When the user clicks on the "<<" tab it will set stock's visibility to false and menu's visibility to true.
Is it better to just create multiple JFrame files and do the same instead of adding multiple TabbedPanes inside a single frame? It's getting kind of hard to maintain the single .java file for the entire JFrame.
Yes you can also do this,in this way:
JTabbedPane preupdatetab = new JTabbedPane();
preupdatetab.setForeground(new Color(255,0,0).darker());
preupdatetab.setBounds(30,15,930,300);
preupdate.add(preupdatetab);
precomplete.setLayout(null);
preupdatetab.add(precomplete,"Complete Change");
preonce.setLayout(null);
preupdatetab.add(preonce,"Qty Change");
changelocationpanel = new JPanel();
changelocationpanel.setLayout(null);
preupdatetab.add(changelocationpanel,"Change Location");
changesaleprice = new JPanel();
changesaleprice.setLayout(null);
preupdatetab.add(changesaleprice,"Change Sale Price");
changebookprice = new JPanel();
changebookprice.setLayout(null);
preupdatetab.add(changebookprice,"Change Book Price");
changevendor = new JPanel();
changevendor.setLayout(null);
preupdatetab.add(changevendor,"Change Vendor");
changeitemname = new JPanel();
changeitemname.setLayout(null);
preupdatetab.add(changeitemname,"Change Item Name");
The other variables are globally declared JLabel so don't be confused
and the following picture will clear you more about this.
I have a similar menu style in one of my applications. I would do one of the following:
For better organization I would move your second JTabbedPane to another JFrame and swap the code out. This would be quick, give you no new functionality, but would make your code easier to keep track of.
As the other poster showed you can do both tabs above. This would separate the code and give the user the functionality of going "Up a level" without having to go "back".
What I like to do is a combination of the two. For the main menu, keep your tab on the left but for the sub menus have a separate JTabbedPane above that loads into the frame when the first menu is accessed. It gives your windows a clean look, a way to easily navigate everything, and it will train the users to look left for big changes and up for smaller ones. That way, once your users are comfortable with that you can make more menus act that way and it becomes more intuitive the more they use it.
Here is my problem:
I'm creating a window that is responsible for listing a layer, where it displays the layer's
current image (in the form of a ImageIcon as of now), layer's name, and a check box to alter the current on/off state of said layer. The entire thing is supposed to be a knock-off of Paint.NET's Layer Window, as seen here:
My problem has been how to bypass JTable to structure it as so. I figure in the end I might have to resort to just making a dynamic table, but I am wondering if there is a way to make an item/container that can individually display those three components.
The closest I got was using a JLabel with its icon and text properties used, but I had trouble figuring out how to add the check box.
Should I use the layout manager to move the label list to the left, and add a new list filled with check boxes within the pane?
My code is probably as follows:
public class StudioLayerWindow extends JFrame
{
// Objects
JPanel buttonPanel;
JScrollPane layerScroll;
JButton addNewLayer;
JButton deleteCurrentLayer;
JButton duplicateCurrentLayer;
JButton mergeCurrentLayer;
JButton moveCurrentLayerUp;
JButton moveCurrentLayerDown;
JButton layerProperties;
// Constructors & Initializers
public StudioLayerWindow()
{
// Main Window Initialization
this.setTitle("Layers");
this.setType(Type.UTILITY);
this.setSize(200,200);
this.setResizable(false);
this.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
initButtons();
buttonPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1,7));
buttonPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(this.getWidth(), this.getHeight() / 7));
buttonPanel.add(addNewLayer);
buttonPanel.add(deleteCurrentLayer);
buttonPanel.add(duplicateCurrentLayer);
buttonPanel.add(mergeCurrentLayer);
buttonPanel.add(moveCurrentLayerUp);
buttonPanel.add(moveCurrentLayerDown);
buttonPanel.add(layerProperties);
// Code for what I'd add here
layerScroll = new JScrollPane();
this.add(layerScroll , BorderLayout.CENTER);
this.add(buttonPanel , BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
}
The code above does not contain any of my tried solutions, only the basic template I have been at.
Is there any way to make multiple components on a single row?
JList is a generic class.
Create a class which extends JPanel. (Let us call it RowPanel)
Put all elements in it required to be present in a single row (using a horizontal layout)
Create your JList using those panels like
JList<RowPanel> list = new JList<RowPanel>();
You can refer to this for creating ListCellRenderer and ListCellEditor : https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/list.html
Note: This should be done if you don't want to use JTable under any circumstances. JTable is a good alternative to this solution.
Hope this helps.
Good luck.
I have a frame with a var , I added that var to a JPanel, and if I want to add the same var to another JPanel, it`s disappearing from the first JPanel. I want a logical explanation for my problem please, thank you !
I want to store my JLabel in both of my jpanels.
public class Gui {
JPanel panel1, panel2;
JLabel text = new JLabel("some text");
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
public Gui {
panel1 = new JPanel();
panel1.setLayout(null);
panel1.add(text);
panel1.getComponent(0).setBounds(50,50,50,50);
panel1.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
panel1.setBounds(x,y,w,h);
// it`s working, the labels it`s visible
panel2 = new JPanel();
panel2.setLayout(null);
panel2.add(text);
panel2.getComponent(0).setBounds(100,100,50,50);
panel2.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
panel2.setBounds(x,y,w,h);
//it`s not working, the label ins`t visible ...
frame.add(panel1);
frame.add(panel2);
}
}
Disclaimer: I am editing my answer in response to comments from the OP. However, I am still not entirely sure about some of the details of the question. I will gladly edit my answer as more clarifications are given.
Answer: One possible solution is to create subclasses of the Swing components you are using. For example,
public class MyPanel extends JPanel {
private JLabel label = new JLabel("some text");
public MyPanel() {
this.add(label);
}
}
Now you can create multiple instances of MyPanel which each have its own JLabel. Then you can add these panels to your frame.
Added: With the additional information given in the comments, I would go a step further and create a custom JFrame class:
public class MyFrame extends JFrame {
private MyPanel panel = new MyPanel();
public MyFrame() {
this.add(panel);
}
}
Now you can create several instances of MyFrame. If you want to go even further, you can add parameters to the constructors of both of these custom classes to set the JLabel text to different values in each instance MyFrame. I will leave the details as an exercise to the reader. (Of course, please ask if you get stuck, though.)
Just as it's discussed with in other posts. All Swing UI components (ie JLabel included) can only have one parent (ie JPanel). If you add it to another panel it will remove itself from the prior parent. There are very good reasons for this behavior. For example, JPanel 1 might not use the same Layout as JPanel 2 and hence the label would have to support two different placements within each JPanel. The whole point of using Objects as components is to provide encapsulation of data like (font, position within the parent, width, height, etc) inside that object. If you want two visual elements just create another element. Now that creates a problem "How do you synchronize the data across all of these controls?" That's basically scratching how do you build a proper Swing architecture for your program?
What you don't want to do is use the Swing component model (ie. Jabel, JTextField, etc) as your data model. And after reading your question and code I believe that's what you are doing. You may not realize it. UI Components should be used for display only. They reflect what is in the data model. So you'll want to create a model that doesn't involve Swing. It should model your problem regardless of how its displayed. That means you shouldn't assume it will always be Swing or web, etc.
There are very practical reasons for this. Say in a year you want to redesign your UI. If you combined the view components and data model together you pretty much have to start completely over. Even if you aren't switching technologies. Say you are switching from a JList to a JTable or a JTreeTable. Just simple changes of the types of components you have on the screen can be an absolute nightmare if you don't segment your view from the model. Plus the View displays thing, but the model might need information that isn't displayed to the user but is tied to what is being displayed. For example, the ID of the row in the database. If you stuff the view and data model together you have to play little hacks to store this invisible information in weird ways. Things that make it hard for other people to understand.
If you don't know what I mean you either will in 6 months when you have to make your first major redesign or you'll save yourself some pain now and try and understand what I mean now. Just simple POJOs will suffice. Then share those POJOs with your Swing components. For example:
MySpecialPanel panel1 = new MySpecialPanel();
MyOtherSPecialPanel panel2 = new MyOtherSpecialPanel();
frame.add( panel1 );
frame.add( panel2 );
...a little while later...
MySpecialPOJO specialPOJO = ...some call to a service...;
panel1.setSpecialPOJO( specialPOJO );
panel2.setSpecialPOJO( specialPOJO );
Notice that I created two subclasses of JPanel called MySpecialPanel and MyOtherSpecialPanel. Inside there they create the components contained within them. Then then expose a setter method taking a data model object of type MySpecialPOJO. Inside those methods we might see something like the following:
public void setSpecialPOJO( MySpecialPOJO specialPOJO ) {
this.model = specialPOJO;
textField1.setText( specialPOJO.getName() );
textField2.setText( specialPOJO.getDescription() );
radioButtonGroup.setSelected( specialPOJO.getGender() );
....
}
Now you have a way to take a model object, and update the relative UI components that make up that view. Notice it doesn't care about any other external dependencies (ie where it got the object from). It just updates the controls it owns to reflect what's carried by the POJO. Now if you follow these simple rules it makes instantiating your special panels easy. Whether you need only one instance or many instances. Also if you need to move panels within your program it's pretty easy to do that if you reduce your dependencies to just your POJOs. There's a lot more to this, but for now this will get you started. You still have to figure out how to get data out of the UI and back into your POJOs (events!). Controllers, Services, etc.
This might help you as well:
Up-to-date Swing MVC example + Question
You can't. As you noticed, a control can only be attached to one window at a time, and if you try to attach it to another one, it will remove itself from the first.
Suggestions:
panel2.add(text.clone()); // clone the existing label
panel2.add(new JLabel("some text")); // make a new label from scratch
I have a JDialog and inside it I have a JPanel that uses FlowLayout
now I've created 3 labels and text fields using the Netbeans GUI Builder, and I want to add 2 more text fields using code
I've adjusted the size of the panel so that when I add a new label and a textfield with a preferred size the new set of label - textfield will be under the previous set
somewhere in the JDialog I do something like this
JLabel cores = new JLabel("Cores");
cores.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(70,15));
first = new JTextField();
first.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(140,20));
JLabel power = new JLabel("Power");
power.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(70,15));
second = new JTextField();
second.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(140,20));
panel2.add(cores);panel2.add(first);panel2.add(power);panel2.add(second);
when I compile the program, the labels don't show up and neither do the textfields
when I go down and click I have the following result
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/13/unledlpy.png
if I type something, the text field appears
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6796/unledhig.png
the labels don't appear though, I don't think I made any changes to the properties, any help would be appreciated thanks
Define the no of columns while creating object.
like this
JTextField jt=new JTextField(20);
I'm pretty new to java, and using netbeans for design a UI.
What I am trying to do is...
in the form. there are a jComboBox and a JTextField, where user can input the service he is choosing and an observation. So far so good. JComboBox is populated from database entries.
The problem is, a user can input N different services at once (there are too much to be a bunch of checkboxes). I was thinking into add a "[+]" button (along with a "[-]" for removal). Thus, users click on [+] and another new line with a jcombobox + jtextfield appear right below the previous ones.
I'm stucked at this point. On [+] button ActionPerformed I just can't clone and add previous nodes. Any idea on how proceed.
My background is webdev. Doing this with javascript would be really quick. Well, I think you already know what I'm trying to do. Waiting for some light. Thx.
You're on the right track. Here's some source code to give you some ideas
The basic idea is that the EntryList is responsible for keeping track of the rows to display; each row has a plus/minus button, and then delegates out the actual adding/removing to this EntryList. It also exposes methods to disable the minus/plus button so that the list view can ensure that you don't remove a single entry (so that you don't have an empty display)
This doesn't work perfectly; you'll notice you need to resize the frame to get the new rows to show up correctly. But this should be enough to get you started.
Create your main panel to use a layout manager that displays component horizontally. The Box class is easy to use for this. Then you just create a new panel with the components you want to display and add this panel to your main panel. Something like:
JComboBox checkBox = new JComboBox(...);
JTextField textField = new JTextField(...);
JPanel row = new JPanel();
row.add( comboBox );
row.add( textfield );
mainPanel.add( row );
mainPanel.revalidate();