How would I add gridbag layout to my code in order for output box to span the length of gui within the border parameters provided in the following code? I have two other classes that go along with this work fine. When the GUI populates it all works except the output text box doesn't span the length of gui so that the text in text box is cut off and I want to fix this, but I don't know how to do it as I never used gridbaglayout.
Below is the image showing how the GUI is supposed to look:
The code in question is given below:
public ATMGui() {
checkingAcc = new Account(1000);
savingAcc = new Account(2000);
currentSelect = new Account(0);
atmFrame = new JFrame("Automated Teller Machine");
output = new JTextField();
panel = new JPanel();
I believe that the problem may be because I didn't completely declare the size of the output box so it only spans one grid so-to-speak whereas I want it to span both. Can someone help me decide whether I declare the grid differently in the code above or if it goes below? Also, I've read about GridBagLayout and other methods but my problem is that I'm not sure how/where to implement it here.
atmWithdraw = new JButton("Withdraw");
atmDeposit = new JButton("Deposit");
transfer = new JButton("Transfer to");
balance = new JButton("Balance");
atmWithdraw.addActionListener(this);
panel.setLayout(new GridLayout(4, 2));
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(15, 15, 0, 15));
panel.add(atmWithdraw, 0);
panel.add(atmDeposit, 1);
panel.add(transfer, 2);
panel.add(balance, 3);
panel.add(checking, 4);
panel.add(savings, 5);
panel.add(output, BorderLayout.LINE_END);
atmFrame.add(panel);
atmFrame.setSize(300, 175);
atmFrame.setVisible(true);
i have never used gridbaglayout
Start by reading the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use GridBagLayout for working examples.
The working example shows how to have a button span the entire width of the frame. You need to play with the "grid width" constraint. The tutorial explain how all the constraints are used.
The other option is to nest layout managers. So maybe you use the standard BorderLayout of the frame. Then you create a panel and add some components to the panel using your GridBagLayout and then add the panel to the CENTER. Then you can add your "output box" to the BorderLayout.PAGE_END. By default the component will fill the horizontal space.
The point is read the tutorials and learn the basics of each layout manager. Then use the appropriate combination of layout managers to get the job done.
My advice is not to use GridBagLayout but rather something a bit easier to use (but just as powerful) like TableLayout (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/tablelayout-141489.html). To use include download the library and include in classpath or use the following maven include: -
<dependency>
<groupId>info.clearthought</groupId>
<artifactId>table-layout</artifactId>
<version>4.3.0</version>
</dependency>
(See https://github.com/nerro/table-layout for more details)
Once included, then you can define your table layout as a simple 2 dimensional array of numbers e.g.
import info.clearthought.layout.TableLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JRadioButton;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
public class Test {
public static void main(String [] args) {
// Create JPanel using TableLayout as layout manager
double PREF = TableLayout.PREFERRED;
double BORDER = 10;
double size[][] = { { BORDER, 0.50, 10, 0.50, 10 }, { 10, PREF, 10, PREF, 10, PREF, 10, PREF, 10 } };
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new TableLayout(size));
panel.add(new JButton("Withdraw"), "1,1");
panel.add(new JButton("Deposit"), "3,1");
panel.add(new JButton("Transfer to"), "1,3");
panel.add(new JButton("Balance"), "3,3");
panel.add(new JRadioButton("Checking"), "1,5");
panel.add(new JRadioButton("Savings"), "3,5");
panel.add(new JTextField(), "1,7,3,7");
// Add to JFrame and Display
JFrame frame = new JFrame("ATM Machine");
frame.setSize(300, 200);
frame.setContentPane(panel);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
The previous code produces the following: -
NOTE that the layout is defined as follows: -
double size[][] = { { WIDTH1, WIDTH2, ... }, { HEIGHT1, HEIGHT2, ... } };`
The 2 column widths are specified as 50% or 0.50. All real numbers in the range [0.0..1.0) represents percentages e.g. see the BORDER variable. The constant FILL is allocated 100% of the scalable space and PREFERRED fills to the preferred size of the component. This allows the window to resize nicely.
To add then to this frame it's miles easier than GridBagLayout i.e. simply the cell X/Y positions e.g.
panel.add(new JButton("Withdraw"), "1,1");
panel.add(new JButton("Deposit"), "3,1");
We can span several columns as follows: -
panel.add(new JTextField(), "1,7,3,7");
This spans the JTextField from column 1 to column 3 in row 7.
For more advanced uses see: -
http://www.clearthought.info/sun/products/jfc/tsc/articles/tablelayout/Simple.html
Related
This is definitely a noob question. How do I resize two JTextArea panels so they look something like this:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
a a a
a a a
a a a
aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
With the first area about a tenth of the width of the second. I must also enclose this in a new scroll pane, but I've taken care of that. the resize function doesn't seem to be working.
When you create the text areas you use something like:
JTextArea textArea1 = new JTextArea(10, 10);
JTextArea textArea2 = new JTextArea(10, 80);
The two numbers provide a suggestion for the number of rows and characters in each row.
Then you add them to a scroll pane:
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.add(textArea1);
panel.add(textArea2);
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane( panel );
frame.add(scrollPane):
The above code will give you fixed size text areas.
Or, if you really want to do it by percentage and allow the text areas to dynamically grow/shrink you would use:
JTextArea textArea1 = new JTextArea(10, 1);
JTextArea textArea2 = new JTextArea(10, 1);
And then add them to a JPanel using a GridBagLayout with the appropriate constraints. You would need to use:
1. the "fill" constraint which would allow the text areas to grow as the space available grows.
2. the "weightx" contstraint. This will allow you to allocate extra space in the percentage that you desire.
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use GridBagLayout for more information and working examples.
You can use a JSplitPane to split horizontally (or vertically) the two components (text areas). This approach lets the user to freely move the divider (ie the vertical separator of the two areas) to a location he/she prefers.
As for the preference on the allocation of space of each component, you can use the setResizeWeight method which will distribute the new space allocated for the split pane (each time the user resizes the window) according to the value you specify. For example calling this method with a value of 0.5 will distribute the new size equally to both left and right components. A value of 0 will give all the extra space at the right component. A value of 1 will give it to the left component. A value of 1.0 / 3.0 will split the new space to three and then reserve the first third to the left component and the other two thirds to the right component. And so on...
This should be good user-experience, although if you don't want the user to relocate the divider by himself/herself, then use camickr's answer.
Here's a working example:
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JSplitPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class Main {
private static Component buildTextAreaContainer() {
final JTextArea txt = new JTextArea();
final JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(txt);
return scroll;
}
public static void main(final String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> {
final JSplitPane split = new JSplitPane(JSplitPane.HORIZONTAL_SPLIT, buildTextAreaContainer(), buildTextAreaContainer());
//split.setContinuousLayout(true);
//split.setOneTouchExpandable(true);
split.setResizeWeight(1d / 3d); //one third for left component, two thirds for right component.
split.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(1000, 600));
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Splitted text areas test.");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.getContentPane().add(split);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
});
}
}
To learn more about how to use the JSplitPane you can read the corresponding tutorial or the docs themselves.
UPDATE: I have received justified criticism for posting non working code. I've taken that to heart and am updating this post with a complete working example. I'm also updating the description accordingly:
I have a very simple java swing GUI whose components take up what looks to be an equal amount of vertical (Y) space as is used by the largest Y extent component, but completely unnecessarily so. I have tried to shrink those components that don't need that much vertical space using preferredSize hints but to no avail.
The basic layout is simple: There's a main window and three vertical panels. The layout is a simple GridLayout (and I would prefer to keep it that way, unless someone shows me what I need cannot be done with GridLayout). All three panels seem to be occupying the same amount of vertical space, even though in the case of the sliders, this is massive waste of space. How can I get each of the sub-panes to only use as much space as they each need? i.e. I would like the two slider windows to be only as tall as the sliders and their description need to be.
The code:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
class test {
public static void main(String[] arg) {
JFrame mainWindow = new JFrame();
JSlider slider1 = new JSlider(0,100,50);
JSlider slider2 = new JSlider(0,100,50);
JPanel pnlSlider1 = new JPanel();
pnlSlider1.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,1)); // 1 row, 1 column
pnlSlider1.add(new JLabel("Description for slider1"));
pnlSlider1.add(slider1);
JPanel pnlSlider2 = new JPanel();
pnlSlider2.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,1)); // 1 row, 1 column
pnlSlider2.add(new JLabel("Description for slider2"));
pnlSlider2.add(slider2);
// label should now be to the left of slider
String content = "<html>Some rather long winded HTML content</html>";
JEditorPane ep = new JEditorPane("text/html", content);
// this is the main window panel
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,1)); // 3 rows, 1 column
panel.add(ep);
panel.add(pnlSlider1);
panel.add(pnlSlider2);
// tie it all together and display the window
mainWindow.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 600));
mainWindow.setLocation(100, 100);
mainWindow.getContentPane().add(panel);
mainWindow.pack();
mainWindow.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
mainWindow.setVisible(true);
}
}
(removed rant about not having seen any GUI coding advances in 30 years as that's not pertinent to the problem and likely won't be solved in this post either)
..components take up what looks to be an equal amount of vertical (Y) space as is used by the largest Y extent component, but completely unnecessarily so.
Yes, that is the way GridLayout is designed to work.
Use a GridBagLayout or BoxLayout or GroupLayout instead, each of which can do a single column or row of components of variable size (width and height).
I have this code below to create a page inside of a tab.
I want each layout in one row of the overall box layout but i want the elements to stay in their original size and not expand to fill the width of the overall window. does anyone know what lines of code i need to change or what is the best way of doing this?! The image attached shows what it looks like at the moment
public void createPage4() {
panel4 = new JPanel();
panel4.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel4, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
navigatePanel = new JPanel();
navigatePanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(navigatePanel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
previousButton.setText("Previous");
previousButton.setEnabled(false);
navigatePanel.add(previousButton);
navigatePanel.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(10));
indexTextField.setHorizontalAlignment(JTextField.CENTER);
navigatePanel.add(indexTextField);
navigatePanel.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(10));
ofLabel.setText("of");
navigatePanel.add(ofLabel);
navigatePanel.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(10));
maxTextField.setHorizontalAlignment(JTextField.CENTER);
maxTextField.setEditable(false);
navigatePanel.add(maxTextField);
navigatePanel.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(10));
nextButton.setText("Next");
nextButton.setEnabled(false);
navigatePanel.add(nextButton);
panel4.add(navigatePanel);
displayPanel = new JPanel();
displayPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(5, 2, 4, 4));
firstNameLabel.setText("First Name:");
displayPanel.add(firstNameLabel);
displayPanel.add(firstNameTextField);
lastNameLabel.setText("Last Name:");
displayPanel.add(lastNameLabel);
displayPanel.add(lastNameTextField);
panel4.add(displayPanel);
}
image
BoxLayout accepting Min, Max and PreferredSize that came from JComponents
I want each layout in one row of the overall box layout but i want the elements to stay in their original size and not expand to fill the width of the overall window
I'd be to use proper LayoutManager, FlowLayout accepting only PreferredSize, and/or all JComponents layed by GridBagLayout without defininitions of GridBagConstraints stays unchanged on containers resize
doesn't make me sence (my view) for why reason (sure this is your job), but for better help sooner post an SSCCE
The easiest way is to add your panel4 to an other panel that uses GridBagLayout and then add that panel to the container. Then it will be centered and nothing will stretch on resize.
JPanel centeredPanel = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
centeredPanel.add(panel4); // add this panel to the container
You should also construct the textfields with a specified number of columns, like
indexTextField = new JTextField(20);
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.net.URI;
class MainPageTypo {
JFrame fr;
JButton easy, medium, tough;
JLabel Contact;
MainPageTypo() {
buildGUI();
hookUpEvents();
}
public void buildGUI() {
fr = new JFrame("TypoMaster");
JPanel mainP = new JPanel();
mainP.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
JPanel LevelPanel = new JPanel();
LevelPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, 0, 50, 50));
easy = new JButton("Easy");
medium = new JButton("Medium");
tough = new JButton("Tough");
Contact = new JLabel("Visit my Blog");
fr.add(mainP);
LevelPanel.add(easy);
LevelPanel.add(medium);
LevelPanel.add(tough);
LevelPanel.setBackground(Color.magenta);
LevelPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(50, 50, 50, 50));
mainP.add(LevelPanel);
mainP.setBackground(Color.lightGray);
fr.setSize(500, 500);
fr.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
fr.setVisible(true);
// fr.setResizable(false);
}
public void hookUpEvents() {
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
new MainPageTypo();
}
}
This is my complete code.I want to leave vertical space from top of JPanel().I am using LevelPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(50,50,50,50));
but unable to get vertical gap.How can i get this?
From what you are saying I am only guessing that you might be after something you get by setting the border on the main panel:
mainP.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(50, 50, 50, 50));
Please give us more details. Because you are getting the gap. Maybe draw a quick and nasty picture. :)
Recommendation
Please follow Java naming conventions, i.e. variables names should start from lowercase letter.
Basically, you have to understand which part of the puzzle is responsible for what
setting a Border on a container (here levelPanel) adds space-requirement to the container itself (as #Boro already explained): the LayoutManager apply to that container will layout the children of the container only inside the insets as requested by the border. That's what you are seeing in levelPanel, the red above the first button, below the last button (and to the sides of all buttons)
setting x/y gap properties in a LayoutManager which support this, has effects that are entirely at the decision of the manager itself, no way around reading the api doc of the concrete manager.
API doc for GridLayout:
* In addition, the horizontal and vertical gaps are set to the
* specified values. Horizontal gaps are placed between each
* of the columns. Vertical gaps are placed between each of
* the rows.
API doc for FlowLayout:
* #param hgap the horizontal gap between components
* and between the components and the
* borders of the <code>Container</code>
* #param vgap the vertical gap between components
* and between the components and the
* borders of the <code>Container</code>
From your code, I guess you expected to achieve the GridLayout to have the same gap-behaviour as the FlowLayout :-)
As the LayoutManager of the levelPanel's parent (parent == mainP) is FlowLayout, you can - as an alternative to setting the a Border to mainP - set the gap of the FlowLayout:
mainP.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER, 5, 50));
I am using miglayout to create a form in which there are JTextFields (short input answers) as well as JTextAreas (Longer answers). The problem is twofold.
The border placed around a Scrollpane wrapped text area does not match that of a Text Field.
The width and placement of the textarea/textfield differ, causing them not to line up correctly.
alt text http://grab.by/3O0V
After changing from right/left to right/fill:
alt text http://grab.by/3RMk
You can see that the bounds line up, but that there are still gaps. I tried setting novisualpadding but this did not fix it.
Source code:
package test2;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
import net.miginfocom.swing.MigLayout;
public class Test extends JPanel {
private static final int NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH = 20;
private static final int NUM_ROWS = 5;
public Test() {
setLayout(new MigLayout(
"wrap 2",
// Align text labels on the so their right edge meets left edge of the text fields
"[right][left]"
));
add(new JLabel("Text field:"));
add(new JTextField(NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH));
add(new JLabel("No scrollpane text area:"));
add(new JTextArea(NUM_ROWS, NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH));
add(new JLabel("Scrollpane text area:"));
add(new JScrollPane(new JTextArea(NUM_ROWS, NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH)));
add(new JLabel("Text field:"));
add(new JTextField(NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH));
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JPanel panel = new Test();
frame.add(panel);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
What's the preferred way to mix and match jtextfield and jtextareas, while still maintaining visual harmony? I notice now that the text field has a blue highlight around it when focus is in it, as opposed to the text area... another source of visual discontinuity.
I know this question is pretty old, but to get the border for a TextArea to match that of a TextField:
(myTextArea).setBorder(new JTextField().getBorder());
That should give a border to your TextArea like the one around a TextField.
Not sure how you can fix your border problem but to fix your layout situation I would just use springlayout. Springlayout is just a way to better layout your elements within the JPanel. You can find out more about it Java Sun Tutorial
Specifically you use it by setting where you want your North, South, West and East borders of each element. To do this you would have to first take your label calls out of the add so each one can be named. So instead of:
add(new JLabel("Text field:"));
Do:
JLabel myLabelName = new JLabel("Text field:");
add(myLabelName);
For each of your elements (JLabels, JTextAreas and JTextField). Once this is done you can easily set the layout.
Springlayout layout = new SpringLayout();
setLayout(layout);
Then for each of the elements you have to set any of the borders you want. They have to be in the specific order South, the North, West then East. Though you don't have to use all four borders if you don't want to. Here is an example on how to set your first text area, the one on the top.
layout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, FirstTextAreaName, 10, SpringLayout.NORTH, this);
layout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, FirstTextAreaName, this.getWidth()/2, SpringLayout.WEST, this);
layout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.EAST, FirstTextAreaName, -10, SpringLayout.EAST, this);
This example doesn't set the south of the text area but if you did want to it would have to be first. The first line sets the north side of the text area to be 10 pixels away from the top. When setting the other areas you but the previous (above) areas name instead of this and say it is 10 pixels away from the south of the previous one:
layout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, SecondTextAreaName, 10, SpringLayout.SOUTH, FirstTextAreaName);
The second line in the above example sets the east side of the text area to start halfway through your main panel. The last, third, line sets the east side of the text area to be 10 pixels from the east side of your main panel.
I know that MiGLAyout (which I love, BTW) has the ability to do special handling for visual alignment vs strict pixel alignment. You may be running into this... The 'al' unit identifier is used for this, but I haven't had to use it so can't provide examples. It would probably be worth downloading the MiG sample project and see if they have the same alignment issue (I'm sure they have panels similar to yours).
For what it's worth, we mix text fields and areas in the same panel quite frequently and don't run into this... We do have to set the border of the scroll pane to be the same as the border of the text field as suggested by Noel Ang.
Also, instead of specifying constraints in the layout constructor, we generally specify them as we add each component - not sure if that makes a difference or not...
For the layout problem, try a columnConstraints value of [right][fill] instead of [right][left].
For the other issue, this appears to be a look-and-feel inconsistency. I ran your code in Windows, and the differences are there too, but less flagrant. My suggestion would be to set identifical borders explicitly for text fields and text areas.
setLayout(new MigLayout(
"wrap 2",
"[right][fill]"
));
JTextField textField;
JScrollPane scrollPane;
add(new JLabel("Text field:"));
textField = new JTextField(NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH);
textField.setBorder( new EtchedBorder( EtchedBorder.LOWERED ) );
add(textField);
add(new JLabel("No scrollpane text area:"));
add(new JTextArea(NUM_ROWS, NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH));
add(new JLabel("Scrollpane text area:"));
scrollPane = new JScrollPane(new JTextArea(NUM_ROWS, NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH));
scrollPane.setBorder( new EtchedBorder( EtchedBorder.LOWERED ) );
add(scrollPane);
add(new JLabel("Text field:"));
textField = new JTextField(NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH);
textField.setBorder( new EtchedBorder( EtchedBorder.LOWERED ) );
add(textField);
If you can't get MigLayout to align your components, considering using java.awt.GridBagLayout:
import static java.awt.GridBagConstraints.*;
setLayout( new GridBagLayout() );
GridBagConstraints leftCons = new GridBagConstraints();
leftCons.anchor = NORTHEAST;
leftCons.fill = NONE;
leftCons.weightx = 1.0;
leftCons.gridy = RELATIVE;
leftCons.gridx = 0;
leftCons.insets = new Insets( 4, 8, 4, 8 );
GridBagConstraints rightCons = new GridBagConstraints();
rightCons.anchor = NORTHWEST;
rightCons.fill = HORIZONTAL;
rightCons.weightx = 1.0;
rightCons.gridy = RELATIVE;
rightCons.gridx = 1;
rightCons.insets = leftCons.insets;
add(new JLabel("Text field:"), leftCons);
add(new JTextField(NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH), rightCons);
add(new JLabel("No scrollpane text area:"), leftCons);
add(new JTextArea(NUM_ROWS, NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH), rightCons);
add(new JLabel("Scrollpane text area:"), leftCons);
add(new JScrollPane(new JTextArea(NUM_ROWS, NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH)), rightCons);
add(new JLabel("Text field:"), leftCons);
add(new JTextField(NUM_CHARACTERS_WIDTH), rightCons);
First off +1 for screen shots.
Since you are using Mac, did you try Quaqua Look And Feel? It renders the textboxes/areas properly.
The answer is that MiG Layout folks are working on a fix for their next version.
Hello,
Apple has a nasty habbit of compensating by default and not let the developer decide. This is such a case where they have added a border to make it more visually like OS X. This should be the choice of the layout manager...
MigLayout can compensate for visual bounds like this but it is only done for JTabbedPane in Windows XP. I'm not sure it can be done 100% good in OS X though. I'll have to check. We don't want the text field to just grow into the bounds.
I have added this to the todo list for the next version.