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Java GUI Logic - Not understanding adding to JFrame

I have a pretty straight forward question. Can some please please explain to me why the following JFrame is not showing Hello (100,100 pixels on the left side of the screen and World (100,100 pixels) on the right side of the screen since I am using border layout.
I created a JFrame
Assigned it a layout of borderlayout
Created 2 panels with 2 labels and assigned the panels to be aligned left and right.
added the panels to the JFrame
Displayed the JFrame
What am I missing?
JFrame frame = new JFrame("FrameDemo");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(600, 500);
frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
frame.setVisible(true);
JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
panel1.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,100));
panel1.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
JLabel label1 = new JLabel("Hello");
label1.setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
label1.setForeground(Color.WHITE);
panel1.add(label1,BorderLayout.LINE_START);
frame.add(panel1);
JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
panel2.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,100));
panel2.setBackground(Color.RED);
JLabel label2 = new JLabel("World");
label2.setBackground(Color.CYAN);
label2.setForeground(Color.WHITE);
panel2.add(label2,BorderLayout.LINE_END);
frame.add(panel2);

You are setting the Layout-Constraints on the wrong panel.
Instead of panel2.add(label2,BorderLayout.LINE_END); it should be panel2.add(label2) and instead of frame.add(panel2); it should be frame.add(panel2, BorderLayout.LINE_END);.
Same for panel1.

Swing GUI problems with BorderLayout

I'm currently trying to get along with Layouts, considering that I never really understood them and only did nullLayout instead, absolutely positioning all elements then.
However, I currently have a suitable small project, where I am trying to learn it, which is some small chat service.
Here is a picture right now:
And here is a picture, of how I imagine it to be finished (Please note that this is just some concept, but it should give you the right idea. I'm not a graphic artist):
Here is my current code:
public class Gui {
JFrame frame;
JTextArea textfield;
JTextField enterMessage;
public Gui(){
frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(600, 400);
textfield = new JTextArea();
textfield.setText("Textfield");
textfield.setSize(400, 300);
JPanel messagePanel = new JPanel();
JTextField chatMessage = new JTextField();
chatMessage.setText("Send me");
JButton send = new JButton();
send.setText("Send");
messagePanel.add(chatMessage, BorderLayout.WEST);
messagePanel.add(send, BorderLayout.EAST);
frame.add(textfield, BorderLayout.WEST);
frame.add(messagePanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
My idea, together with the understanding of BorderLayouts so far was to put the Textfield, where the chat dialog ends up in later on, right inside the frame, on the WEST-side.
The button to send and the field to enter some text will be inside a panel, with an own borderlayout, while the button has some smaller part on the right and the rest of the width is being filled with the textfield.
The whole panel then ends on the SOUTH-side of the frame.
However, right now I have the problem, that the elements keep shrinking to the least possible size.
I tried to fix this with setSize(); , but that does not have an impact at all, it is just being completely ignored.
Any help to point me into the right direction?

Initially, you've got one simple problem:
// should be new JPanel(new BorderLayout())
JPanel messagePanel = new JPanel();
Then, after that, generally BorderLayout likes to stretch the component in BorderLayout.CENTER. So you want to put your textfield and chatMessage in the center.
public Gui(){
frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(600, 400);
textfield = new JTextArea();
textfield.setText("Textfield");
// textfield.setSize(400, 300);
JPanel messagePanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
JTextField chatMessage = new JTextField("Send me");
JButton send = new JButton("Send");
messagePanel.add(chatMessage, BorderLayout.CENTER);
messagePanel.add(send, BorderLayout.EAST);
frame.add(textfield, BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.add(messagePanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
Once you do that, you should get something like this:
But, as a few words of advice:
Don't rely on setSize of a JFrame. Instead, you should use setPreferredSize on a single component which the entire UI should size itself around. (Probably the main text area.) The size of a JFrame includes, for example, the title bar.
You should consider wrapping your JTextArea in a scroll pane. You can then instead setPreferredSize on the viewport.
After you have a component with a preferred size, call pack() on the JFrame before calling setVisible(true). This will size it automatically.
Something like:
frame = new JFrame();
// frame.setSize(600, 400);
...
JScrollPane pane = new JScrollPane(
textfield,
JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS,
JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
// specifying initial size for the
// visible portion of the scroll pane
pane.getViewport().setPreferredSize(new Dimension(320, 200));
frame.add(pane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.add(messagePanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
// entire UI sizes around the scroll pane view
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);

Try BoxLayout insted BorderLayout in messagePanel:
messagePanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(messagePanel,BoxLayout.LINE_AXIS));
messagePanel.add(chatMessage);
messagePanel.add(send);
And for textField:
frame.add(textfield, BorderLayout.CENTER);

Try setting preferred size dimensions of the elements.
textfield.setText("Textfield");
textfield.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(600, 300));
//some other code
JTextField chatMessage = new JTextField();
chatMessage.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 25));
//some other code

As pointed out by Sridhar, BorderLayout does not always respect the dimensions of sub-panels. To fix this, you should initialize your sub-panels (in this case textfield and messagePanel) using setPreferedSize() instead of setSize().

change your constructor to
public Gui() {
frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(600, 400);
textfield = new JTextArea();
textfield.setText("Textfield");
textfield.setSize(400, 300);
// set border layout to JPanel
JPanel messagePanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
JTextField chatMessage = new JTextField();
chatMessage.setText("Send me");
JButton send = new JButton();
send.setText("Send");
// add JTextField to CENTER and button to EAST
messagePanel.add(chatMessage, BorderLayout.CENTER);
messagePanel.add(send, BorderLayout.EAST);
// add textArea to CENTER of JFrame
frame.add(textfield, BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.add(messagePanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
and it will work..

Setting orientation within a JPanel

I am trying to use a nested JPanel, which I can then reuse in different parts of my application, eg navigation bar at the top of the page. I am having trouble setting the orientation of the items, eg I want the button to be above the textfield.
If I create them individually and add them directly to the JPanel they come out one on top of the other as inteneded, as below:
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Nested Layout Example");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
final JPanel gui = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(5,5));
gui.setBorder( new TitledBorder("BorderLayout(5,5)") );
JButton button = new JButton("Button");
JButton button1 = new JButton("Button1");
gui.add(button, BorderLayout.NORTH);
gui.add(button1, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
frame.setContentPane(gui);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
try {
// 1.6+
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
frame.setMinimumSize(frame.getSize());
} catch(Throwable ignoreAndContinue) {
}
frame.setVisible(true);
However, if I create a nested JPanel and put it inside another JPanel, so I can reuse it, they come out side by side, as below:
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Nested Layout Example");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
final JPanel gui = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(5,5));
gui.setBorder( new TitledBorder("BorderLayout(5,5)") );
JPanel container = new JPanel();
JButton button = new JButton("Button");
JButton button1 = new JButton("Button1");
container.add(button, BorderLayout.NORTH);
container.add(button1, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
gui.add(container);
frame.setContentPane(gui);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
try {
// 1.6+
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
frame.setMinimumSize(frame.getSize());
} catch(Throwable ignoreAndContinue) {
}
frame.setVisible(true);
I have tried setting the componenetOrientation,
container.setComponentOrientation(ComponentOrientation.);
but there is no option for vertical

I have tried setting the componenetOrientation
Please note the problem has nothing to do with component orientation: it's a layout manager problem as explained below.
However, if I create a nested JPanel and put it inside another JPanel, so I can reuse it, they come out side by side
Here:
JPanel container = new JPanel();
...
container.add(button, BorderLayout.NORTH);
container.add(button1, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
The default layout manager for panels is FlowLayout and it will ignore BorderLayout constraints. You'll have to set BorderLayout as layout manager not only to gui panel but to container panel as well.
JPanel container = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
...
container.add(button, BorderLayout.NORTH);
container.add(button1, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

Try setting a layout for your JPanel. There are many Layouts available in the package java.awt. Some of them are BorderLayout, GridBagLayout, CardLayout, FlowLayout, GridLayout.
I have just added One line to your code, and now, it puts the buttons in the way you want:
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Nested Layout Example");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
final JPanel gui = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(5,5));
gui.setBorder( new TitledBorder("BorderLayout(5,5)") );
JPanel container = new JPanel();
container.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,1)); // This is the line that I have added.
JButton button = new JButton("Button");
JButton button1 = new JButton("Button1");
container.add(button, BorderLayout.NORTH);
container.add(button1, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
gui.add(container);
frame.setContentPane(gui);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
try {
// 1.6+
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
frame.setMinimumSize(frame.getSize());
} catch(Throwable ignoreAndContinue) {
}
frame.setVisible(true);
If you want to add more buttons, you can edit that line. The first Parameter of the constructor method of GridLayout is the number of vertical columns, and the second is the number of horizontal columns.

JButtons only appear on JFrame if in BorderLayout.CENTER, not SOUTH or NORTH

So I'm trying to create a gui, I've tinkered with gui's before in java but I'm still new to them. So my issued here is that my JLabels (butLabel & cbLabel) are filled with buttons and checkboxes. Sadly my JFrame will only show whichever is set to the BorderLayout.CENTER. NORTH & SOUTH don't ever show, even if I only set the butLabel to SOUTH and don't even use the cbLabel. What am I overlooking?? It's much appreciated, thanks!
public class mainWindow
{
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Main Window");
JLabel butLabel = new JLabel();
JLabel cbLabel = new JLabel();
JButton showBut = new JButton("Show");
JButton exitBut = new JButton("Exit");
JButton addBut = new JButton("Add");
JButton remBut = new JButton("Remove");
JCheckBox aCB = new JCheckBox("Airplane");
JCheckBox bCB = new JCheckBox("Boat");
JCheckBox cCB = new JCheckBox("Clock");
public mainWindow()
{
frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout()); //I know this is set by default to BorderLayout but I just did it when I was out of options to try.
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(360, 480));
butLabel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,4));
cbLabel.setLayout(new GridLayout(2, 2));
butLabel.add(showBut);
butLabel.add(exitBut);
butLabel.add(addBut);
butLabel.add(remBut);
cbLabel.add(aCB);
cbLabel.add(bCB);
cbLabel.add(cCB);
frame.add(butLabel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.add(cbLabel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
}
public void setVisible()
{
butLabel.setVisible(true);//Didn't think I needed butLabel.setVisible or the cbLabel.setVisible but
cbLabel.setVisible(true);//again I was trying things that I thought might make sense.
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}

do not use Label for grouping elements, use JPanel instead
I have tried replace all
Label
with
Panel
it works

Use Icon in jcheckbox instead of text

I need to add an icon of an "envelope" to a jcheckbox. The documentation seems to focus on replacing the selected/unselected state icons.
I am happy with those - but I want an "envelope" picture rather than text saying "email".

Create a JCheckbox without a label. Then place it next to a JLabel using an icon.
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
JCheckBox box = new JCheckBox();
JLabel label = new JLabel(myIcon);
panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
panel.add(box);
panel.add(label);
frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}