I currently have build an application where I use multiple frames.
But it would be nice if I could use the frames I used all in just 1 frame.
Like in the image below.
So if you press the left button "Speler Overzicht" that it will show the users in the right panel and I still have my buttons in the left panel.
Generally speaking, it's a very bad idea to base you UI classes on JFrame, as it locks you into a single use case, meaning you can't add the UI component (frame) to other containers.
I better solution is to base your UI components on JPanels, which then allows you to add them to where ever you need them. It also makes life easier to extend them, but that's another story.
To allow the user to move between multiple views, you can use either a CardLayout or JTabbedPane depending on your needs
See How to Use CardLayout and How to Use Tabbed Panes for more details
Use JPanels instead.
buttonPanel=new JPanel();
overzichtPanel=new JPanel();
buttonPanel.add(button);// do this for every button
overzichtPanel.add(componentsYouWantToAdd);// replace with your variables of course
frame.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.WEST)
frame.add(overzichtPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER)
You cannot put one JFrame inside another. You have a some design choices here. You can change your JFrames to JPanels. This is probably the easiest change. On the other hand, you can look at using Internal Frames instead.
Related
I am now writing code simple GUI that's for start the game window. I only need Do you want to start game message and start button on the window. But I have a confusing concepts for the JFrame and JPanel. Actually, I thought I need to add JPanel to JFrame to add the other components such as JLabel, JButton,...etc. But I realized I don't actually need JPanel. I can just add the components simply use add(button), add(label) to JFrame. So why I need JPanel. And I think JFrame doesn't need JPanel but JPanel need JFrame. Am I understand correctly?
No, not always. A simple graphical user interface may be implemented by just adding components "directly" to a JFrame. But in order to get more flexibility, you would always use JPanels. For example, to employ different layouts in different parts of the GUI, to group certain components together, etc.
A JFrame is backed by a JRootPane, a part of which is a contentPane.
(image from Oracle Javadoc)
When you add components to a JFrame, you are really adding them to the content pane, e.g.: frame.getContentPane().add(Component).
A JFrame is a common starting scene of a Swing GUI application, while a JPanel is intended to be put in another scene (container). Since both content pane and a JPanel inherit from the same class (Container) you may use them in a similar manner, as far as adding components to them goes.
Do I need JPanel always?
No. Well, unless you need a Swing GUI. Then yes.
Another answer replied words to the effect. "No, you can add components direct to a frame" What they missed was that components added to a JFrame are added to the content pane (automatically). The content pane is a JPanel.
Having said that:
I (and many others) would recommend designing an app based around a main content panel, then adding that panel to a top-level container as needed. The top level container might be a JFrame, JWindow, JDialog, JOptionPane ..
What prompted the question? A JPanel is a very 'light weight' container (in more ways than one). A GUI can contain 1000s and not be burdened by doing so. Of course, that's a rare requirement, but just saying .. use panels as needed and don't worry about it.
I want to design a jFrame where there are three jButtons and a set of three jpanels one above the other. When we call a jPanel from the respective jButton , that pane will be displayed. It would appear to the user as if the same portion of the jFrame is displaying the content to be shown on clicking each jButton.But when i am trying to set the jPanels one above the other, they are being shown side by side thus elongating the jFrame horizontally. What should i do to put one jPanel over the other? Any other idea than jPanel which should do the work i intend to do would also be help !!
Your behavior sounds like you are using a FlowLayout. This will not "layer" anything. Instead us a CardLayout, which does exactly what you are trying to accomplish. You call method like show, next, and previous to navigate the panels. See How to Use CardLayout for more details.
Also there are probably hundreds of other examples here on so. Go through the cardlayout questions.
[Tip: navigate the different tabs like "votes" and "frequent" to filter to some of the better posts]
Here's one that uses the show() method to switch between two panels by name.
Think about the classic installation process, where you have a "next" button and when you click it the content of the window changes. To represent this situation I thought of two possible solutions:
-when "next" is clicked destroy the current JFrame and create a new JFrame, maybe passing to his constructor useful information (e.g. actual window size, content inserted by the user in the current frame, ...)
-when "next" is clicked remove all the components from the current JFrame and add new components as needed
The first solution looks way better about OOprogramming, because I can keep separate classes for different frames and I can avoid huge methods that empty the frame and repopulate it. However the first solution sounds a bit "dirty" and I should pass lots of parameters to the new frame. To represent this situation I would choose the second solution.
Now think about a menu with an "option" component: in this situation I would create a new JFrame when "option" is clicked, so that I can populate it with option items. Is this a correct solution? Is there a way I can always know which one is the best solution? Are there any solutions I didn't think about?
Destroying the main JFrame would be silly -- not to mention jarring for the user. Just use a single JFrame and change its contents.
To implement an installer wizard, use a single JFrame containing one large JPanel on top and a smaller one containing the "Next", "Back", "Cancel" buttons along the bottom. When the Next or Back buttons are pressed, you replace the large JPanel. You can have many different JPanel subclasses, one for each "page" of the wizard.
There's a LayoutManager called CardLayout which is ideal for implementing this scenario -- it manages a "stack" of components, and only shows one of those components at a time. Use a BorderLayout in the JFrame. Into the center position put a JPanel with a CardLayout. Then add the individual pages of the wizard to that JPanel, so the CardLayout can manage them.
The CardLayout is well suited for this. You just swapout the JPanel contents when the "Next" button is pressed.
I read that JFrame is made of several panes ..what are panes and why is Jframe made of panes ?
And why there is a JPanel while it seems that the JFrame looks exactly like the JPanel but with a menu bar and a close button so what's the need for a JPanel ? Can anybody explain to me clearly the definition and use of those 3 components ?
There are top level containers such as JFrame. These can serve as the main window in which a GUI is built.
Then there are intermediate level containers. These must be placed in other containers, they cannot exist by themselves. They either help you organize components or they add functionality. A JPanel is a very simple container that helps you to organize other components. While a JSplitPane adds the functionality of having two panes that are variable sized.
When you have a complex GUI you may want to use JPanels to organize various areas of your GUI and then add each of the panels to your JFrame.
In Java the Swing API makes use of the Composite Design Pattern. This means that you can compose very complex objects from other objects and still treat the composite objects the same way as the simple objects. So you can put a JPanel into a JPanel and it still behaves like a JPanel.
Think of it like a tackle box (or sewing kit). It is made of a big container. But rather than put many small objects into this big container and make it difficult to manage later you can place some smaller compartments inside the big box. Then hooks and sinkers etc go in the compartments. Its easier to manage. The big box is the JFrame and the compartments are the JPanels.
I am currently trying to build an expanding panel in Swing (akin the WPF's Expander control) and I'd like to retain the usual methods for manipulating it (i. e. setLayout, add, etc.). Only they should be routed to an embedded panel (the one being shown or hidden).
How would one do that? Overriding every method of JComponent and re-routing that to an embedded JPanel would be cumbersome, but that's the only way I see.
Or should I rather make the embedded panel visible to the outside and force users to use something like ExpanderPanel.getInnerPanel() instead. But then it's no drop-in replacement for JPanel which I think would be nice to have.
Take a look at the JXTaskPane from Swingx project. It already does what you need.
In 1.5(ish) Swing routed a few methods to the content pane in JFrame, JApplet, etc. Whilst there appeared to be some usability benefits for those just starting, it doesn't actually fix the problem. So everyone has to deal with a very strangely behaving API. So my advice is to avoid this approach.
If you have a Container widget which holds a panel you want to show and hide, why not layout your inner panel however you want, then add it to the Container panel, then use static methods against the Container to say
JPanel p = new JPanel();
//do something with the JPanel...
ContainerWidget.setContent(p);
ContainerWidget.expandPanel(p,true);
Would somethign like this work?