Setting orientation within a JPanel - java

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.

Related

Java Swing GUI JLabel Not Showing

I am trying to write a Title for the main menu of my program, by using a JLabel, but it doesn't seem to appear on my screen.
import javax.swing.*;
public class GUI {
public GUI() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(30,30,10,30));
panel.setLayout(new GridLayout());
frame.add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setTitle("Title");
frame.pack();
frame.setSize(854,560);
frame.setVisible(true);
JLabel title = new JLabel();
title.setText("Title");
//title.setSize();
title.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new GUI();
}
}
What am I doing wrong and how could I change the position of the Text if I manage to make it visible?
And I also want to add a button to go to the next page so if you could tell me how to do that too that would be great.
I would quickly and untested say that you are adding the label after you set the frame visible.
Do it before. Else you would have to revalidate and repaint the frame
As I can see in your code you are not adding title in panel. As a quick solution put panel.add(title); after title.setVisible(true); line in your code, it will display the label.
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(30,30,10,30));
panel.setLayout(new GridLayout());
frame.add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setTitle("Title");
frame.pack();
frame.setSize(854,560);
frame.setVisible(true);
JLabel title = new JLabel();
title.setText("Title");
//title.setSize();
title.setVisible(true);
panel.add(title); //<---- this one line will diaplay label in GUI

I cannot add several components to a JFrame [duplicate]

I have this Java JFrame class, in which I want to use a boxlayout, but I get an error saying java.awt.AWTError: BoxLayout can't be shared. I've seen others with this problem, but they solved it by creating the boxlayout on the contentpane, but that is what I'm doing here. Here's my code:
class EditDialog extends JFrame {
JTextField title = new JTextField();
public editDialog() {
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
setTitle("New entity");
getContentPane().setLayout(
new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
add(title);
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
}
Your problem is that you're creating a BoxLayout for a JFrame (this), but setting it as the layout for a JPanel (getContentPane()). Try:
getContentPane().setLayout(
new BoxLayout(getContentPane(), BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS)
);
I've also found this error making this:
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
The JPanel isn't initialized yet when passing it to the BoxLayout. So split this line like this:
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
This will work.
I think that one important thing to highlight from the previous answers is that the BoxLayout's target (the first parameter) should be the same Container that the setLayout method is being called upon as in the following example:
JPanel XXXXXXXXX = new JPanel();
XXXXXXXXX.setLayout(new BoxLayout(XXXXXXXXX, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
If you're using the layout on a JFrame like:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setLayout(new BoxLayout(frame, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
frame.add(new JLabel("Hello World!"));
The control is actually being added to the ContentPane so it will look like it's 'shared' between the JFrame and the ContentPane
Do this instead:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setLayout(new BoxLayout(frame.getContentPane(), BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
frame.add(new JLabel("Hello World!"));

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..

Java Swing Layout

I would like the following lay out...
JButtons on top along side eachother.
The JTextArea should be under the buttons.
The JTextArea should also have a scrollbar.
...for the code below.
JPanel jp = new JPanel();
One = new JButton("One");
Two = new JButton("Two");
TestOutput = new JTextArea();
jp.add(One);
jp.add(Two);
jp.add(TestOutput);
Use a nested layout: To a JPanel having BorderLayout,
add a JPanel having FlowLayout for the buttons to the NORTH
and a JScrollPane for the JTextArea to the CENTER.
The keyword is layering - having JPanel on JPanel.
Use a GridBagLayout
See this for more help : How to Use GridBagLayout
Now note that the JTextarea to have a scrollbar have nothing to do with layouts.
See this for more help in that context : How to Use Scroll Panes
The FlowLayout in a JPanel for the JButton instances is one way to go. You might also use a JToolBar for the buttons.
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
class ButtonsAndTextAreaLayout {
ButtonsAndTextAreaLayout() {
JPanel gui = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(5,5));
// use a toolbar for the buttons
JToolBar tools = new JToolBar();
// use firstWordLowerCase for attribute/method names.
JButton one = new JButton("One");
JButton two = new JButton("Two");
tools.add(one);
tools.add(two);
// provide hints as to how large the text area should be
JTextArea testOutput = new JTextArea(5,20);
gui.add(tools, BorderLayout.NORTH);
gui.add(new JScrollPane(testOutput), BorderLayout.CENTER);
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, gui);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new ButtonsAndTextAreaLayout();
}
});
}
}
You can either use a GridBagLayout as suggested, or nest multiple layout managers such as:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
JButton oneButton = new JButton("One");
JButton twoButton = new JButton("Two");
buttonPanel.add(oneButton);
buttonPanel.add(twoButton);
JTextArea output = new JTextArea();
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(output);
frame.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
frame.add(scrollPane);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);

error upon assigning Layout: BoxLayout can't be shared

I have this Java JFrame class, in which I want to use a boxlayout, but I get an error saying java.awt.AWTError: BoxLayout can't be shared. I've seen others with this problem, but they solved it by creating the boxlayout on the contentpane, but that is what I'm doing here. Here's my code:
class EditDialog extends JFrame {
JTextField title = new JTextField();
public editDialog() {
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
setTitle("New entity");
getContentPane().setLayout(
new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
add(title);
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
}
Your problem is that you're creating a BoxLayout for a JFrame (this), but setting it as the layout for a JPanel (getContentPane()). Try:
getContentPane().setLayout(
new BoxLayout(getContentPane(), BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS)
);
I've also found this error making this:
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
The JPanel isn't initialized yet when passing it to the BoxLayout. So split this line like this:
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
This will work.
I think that one important thing to highlight from the previous answers is that the BoxLayout's target (the first parameter) should be the same Container that the setLayout method is being called upon as in the following example:
JPanel XXXXXXXXX = new JPanel();
XXXXXXXXX.setLayout(new BoxLayout(XXXXXXXXX, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
If you're using the layout on a JFrame like:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setLayout(new BoxLayout(frame, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
frame.add(new JLabel("Hello World!"));
The control is actually being added to the ContentPane so it will look like it's 'shared' between the JFrame and the ContentPane
Do this instead:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setLayout(new BoxLayout(frame.getContentPane(), BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
frame.add(new JLabel("Hello World!"));

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