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Border layout doesn't work as intended

I would like to achieve the below layout.
There are 6 panels. The 4 buttons at the top are one panel, and the 3 buttons at the right side of the image are also in one panel. Apart from those two there are 4 other panels as indicated by the borders. I tried the below code but displays everything in a scattered way.
mainPanel.add(topToolBarPanel,BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
mainPanel.add(lefsideToolBarPanel,BorderLayout.LINE_START);
mainPanel.add(descriptionPanel,BorderLayout.LEFT);
mainPanel.add(mapPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
mainPanel.add(propertiesPanel,BorderLayout.EAST);
mainPanel.add(tablePanel,BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
How can I achieve the design as shown in the image? I need all the panels to be arranged inside that mainPanel. I cannot use null layout though. Please advice.
After trashgod's answer :
JPanel gridPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 0));
gridPanel.add(jInternalFrame1);
gridPanel.add(descriptionPanel);
mainPanel.add(gridPanel, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
mainPanel.add(topToolBarPanel,BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
mainPanel.add(tablePanel,BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
mainPanel.add(mapPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
mainPanel.add(PropertiesPanel,BorderLayout.LINE_END);
What I get :

Add lefsideToolBarPanel and descriptionPanel to a panel having GridLayout; add the new panel to the BorderLayout.
Panel p new Panel(new GridLayout(1, 0));
p.add(lefsideToolBarPanel);
p.add(descriptionPanel);
//mainPanel.add(lefsideToolBarPanel, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
//mainPanel.add(descriptionPanel, BorderLayout.LEFT);
mainPanel.add(p, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
There is no BorderLayout.LEFT. See also A Visual Guide to Layout Managers.
Addendum: Your updated question shows elements of topToolBarPanel, which should be added to PAGE_START, rather than LINE_START.
//mainPanel.add(topToolBarPanel,BorderLayout.LINE_START);
mainPanel.add(topToolBarPanel,BorderLayout. PAGE_START);
The width of the propertiesPanel and height of the tablePanel need to be increased. I used setSize()…
For the propertiesPanel, you can override getPreferredSize(), as discussed here. For the tablePanel, override getPreferredScrollableViewportSize() to customize the size of the table's enclosing JScrollPane, for example.

I suggest using a JLabel as your "layout" to use exact positioning of yout objects with setBounds(x, y, width, height). It would look similar to this :
JButton button = new JButton("Text or Image");
JLabel backgr = new JLabel();
JFrame frame = new JFrame("JLabel as Layout");
button.setBounds(100, 200, 340, 40);
backgr.add(button);
frame.add(backgr);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(600, 600);
frame.setLocation(40, 40);
frame.validate();
frame.setVisible(true);
I know that this is just a quick example for you, but I think it should do for explanation... so just add everything on the backgr JLabeland your good to go. Quick and dirty example but the a way to go.

How to have one component on the left and one on the right by FlowLayout

In a part of my software I have a layout on bottom that holds couple of JButtons and a JLabel. I want to keep buttons one the right side of the panel, and label on the left side. I could manage to put buttons on the right, but do not know how to keep the JLabel on the left side.
Here is the code:
bottomPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
ftpBack = new JButton("Back");
ftpNext = new JButton("Next");
label = new JLabel("Text);
bottomPanel.add(label);
bottomPanel.add(ftpBack);
bottomPanel.add(ftpNext);
mainPanel.add(bottomPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
This is what I am trying to achieve:
Any idea how to make it ?

You can't do this with a FlowLayout.
You can use a horizontal BoxLayout:
Box box = Box.createHorizontalBox();
box.add(label);
box.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
box.add(backButton);
box.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(5));
box.add(nextButton);
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use BoxLayout for more information and examples.
Or another approach is to nest layout managers:
JPanel main = new JPanel( new BorderLayout() );
main.add(label, BorderLayout.WEST);
JPanel buttonPanel= new JPanel();
buttonPanel.add(back);
buttonPanel.add(next);
main.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.EAST);

Vertical alignment of components of jpanels using GridLayout

I am making KenKen as my term project using java swing library. For alignment I have used gridbag and gridlayout, But now i want to add one more component of JPanel to the UI. These screenshots will make the problem more clear:
Now I select the grid cell to which i want to add respective candidates of in the left most panel.
It disturbs the adjacent alignments of the grid and panels.
Here are the panels with their respective layouts:
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
buttonPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 4, 5, 5));
buttonPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(20,40));
buttonPanel.add(undoButton);
buttonPanel.add(redoButton);
buttonPanel.add(eraseButton);
buttonPanel.add(hintButton);
JPanel cellPanel = new JPanel();
cellPanel.setName("cellPanel");
cellPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(pSize, pSize, 0, 0));
JPanel numPanel = new JPanel();
numPanel.setName("numPanel");
numPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,1,5,5));
numPanel.setPreferredSize((new Dimension(50,60)));
JPanel candPanel = new JPanel();
candPanel.setName("candidatesPanel");
JLabel candidates = new JLabel("Candidates");
candidates.setFont(new Font("Courier New", Font.ITALIC, 14));
candidates.setForeground(Color.GRAY);
candPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(0,1));
candPanel.add(candidates);
Then it all goes into the content panel:
content.add(buttonPanel, pos.nextCol().expandW());
content.add(candPanel, pos.nextRow());
content.add(new Gap(GAP) , pos.nextRow()); // Add a gap below
content.add(cellPanel, pos.nextCol());
content.add(numPanel,pos.nextCol().expandW());
The buttons are all generated on runtime, and they are added to the candPanel in an action listener.

You appear to be using a GridBagConstraints subclass of which I am unaware (variable pos), though I can guess its function from context.
Assuming your problem is that you want the candidates panel to be to the left of the cellPanel, and not above it, you need to swap the lines which add the candPanel and the new Gap(GAP) as follows:
content.add(buttonPanel, pos.nextCol().expandW());
content.add(new Gap(GAP), pos.nextRow()); // These two lines
content.add(candPanel, pos.nextRow()); // swapped over
content.add(cellPanel, pos.nextCol());
content.add(numPanel,pos.nextCol().expandW());

Java swing layouts and/or labels not in order

I have got a window that should display the following:
JLablel "Have you used GUI before?" on the top, centered
two radioButtons "Yes" and "No" below it, somewhat in the center, a little bit towards the left
a JButton "NEXT" in the bottom-right corner
All three elements should have green font and darkGrey background.
The problem is that the window which is showing up, does not look like I would like it to.
And this is my code:
yesButton = new JRadioButton(yes);
//yesButton.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_B); // doesn't work?
yesButton.setActionCommand(yes);
noButton = new JRadioButton(no);
// noButton.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_C); // doesn't work?
noButton.setActionCommand(no);
ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
group.add(yesButton);
group.add(noButton);
nextButton = new JButton("NEXT");
nextButton.setActionCommand(next);
yesButton.addActionListener(this);
noButton.addActionListener(this);
nextButton.addActionListener(this);
JPanel radioPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1));
radioPanel.add(yesButton);
radioPanel.add(noButton);
add(radioPanel, BorderLayout.WEST);
// setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20,20,20,20));
// radioPanel.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(250, 250, 20, 20));
// there is no difference between the above two, right?
String q = "Have you used GUI before?";
JPanel area = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
area.setBackground(Color.darkGray);
JLabel textLabel2 = new JLabel("<html><div style=\"text-align: center;\">"
+ q + "</html>", SwingConstants.CENTER);
textLabel2.setForeground(Color.green);
Font font2 = new Font("SansSerif", Font.PLAIN, 30);
textLabel2.setFont(font2);
//textLabel2.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(0, 0, 250, 0)); //top, left, bottom, right
area.add(textLabel2, BorderLayout.NORTH);
area.add(nextButton, BorderLayout.EAST);
add(area, BorderLayout.CENTER);
I feel I'm nearly there, thanks for any help!
--EDIT--
A screenshot:

You need to use nested panels.
for the BorderLayout.NORTH you can add the JLabel directly. You will need to set the horizontal text alignment to center.
for the radio buttons you can create a JPanel with a FlowLayout and then add the buttons to the panel and add the panel to the CENTER.
for the button you add the button to a panel using a FlowLayout that is right aligned, then add the panel to the SOUTH.
There are other choices. You could also use a Vertical BoxLayout as the layout of the main panel and then add child panels to it.

You won't be able to get much control with just a BorderLayout. Try something else like MigLayout or one of the other many many layout managers Java has (GridBag, Box, etc).
In MigLayout it would look something like:
area.setLayout(new MigLayout("fill"));
area.add(textLabel2, "wrap");
area.add(radioPanel, "wrap");
area.add(nextButton, "tag right");

Java layouts, how to max a fixed height pane and one that fills the rest of the screen!

Simply put, I would like to make java do what I want but I can not get my head around the layout manages for anything other that auto resizing to what it feels like doing.
All I would like is a fixed height "footer" and the top "main" area to auto resize in height to whatever the window is.
With the horizontal for both having a min size but no max size.
Is it possible (I know it is but it feels like it isn't atm!)
Please help!
many thanks
Edit: Updated with advice from below:
public JPanel getPanDescription()
{
JPanel masterPane = new JPanel();
masterPane.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(999999,400));
masterPane.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(100,400));
<snip>
return masterPane;
}
this.panDescription = getPanDescription();
this.panPage = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
this.panPage.add(this.searchPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
this.panPage.add(this.panDescription, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
Works just fine, but depending on the content of panDescription, depends on its size.
It still just resizes to the content :S

Use a BorderLayout. Add your footer to the bottom location. Set the max size of the footer to the fixed height you want and a width bigger than your window will ever be.
JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
JPanel footerPanel = new JPanel();
this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
this.add(mainPanel);
this.add(footerPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
footerPanel.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(10000, 100));
footerPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(600, 100));
footerPanel.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(1, 100));