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adding text box on top of gwt java

I am currently working on a school project where we are creating a GWT web application which uses a GeoChart widget to display information about the servers we have crawled. Simply put, I would wish to create a text box on top of our GeoChart widget which shows an interactive world map that takes up the whole screen right now to input information. I have searched quite extensively but I have been unable to come up with an answer.
Here is the code as follows:
#Override
public void onModuleLoad() {
dataReader = (DataReaderAsync) GWT.create(DataReader.class);
RootLayoutPanel.get().add(getSimpleLayoutPanel());
// Create the API Loader
ChartLoader chartLoader = new ChartLoader(ChartPackage.CORECHART);
chartLoader.loadApi(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
getSimpleLayoutPanel().setWidget(getGeoChart());
drawGeoChart();
}
});
}
As GeoChart is a widget, it is wrapped under(i am not sure if this is the right word) a SimpleLayoutPanel right now which will display it into a full screen. As stated above, I would wish to include text above the geoChart. From my understanding, I would need to create another widget containing my text and add both the GeoChart widget and the text box widget into it. What would be the best way to go about doing this?

I believe DialogBox could solve your problem. People usually program the DialogBox in a way that it only pops up into display when certain event is triggered and disappears after user finishes some operation. In your particular case, you can simply make the DialogBox shows up from the beginning and never disappears. And the best part of it: you don't need to add the DialogBox widget to the geoChart widget. Calling dialogBox.center() or dialogBox.show() will do the magic for you.
Here is the sample code.
#Override
public void onModuleLoad() {
dataReader = (DataReaderAsync) GWT.create(DataReader.class);
RootLayoutPanel.get().add(getSimpleLayoutPanel());
// Create the API Loader
ChartLoader chartLoader = new ChartLoader(ChartPackage.CORECHART);
chartLoader.loadApi(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
getSimpleLayoutPanel().setWidget(getGeoChart());
drawGeoChart();
}
});
// NOTE: the first argument 'false' makes sure that this dialog box
// will not disappear when user clicks outside of it
// NOTE: the second argument 'false' makes sure that mouse and keyboard
// events outside of the dialog box will NOT be ignored
DialogBox dialogBox = new DialogBox(false, false);
DialogBox.setText("Demo");
HorizontalPanel panel = new HorizontalPanel();
panel.setSpacing(5);
InlineLabel labelOfTextBox = new InlineLabel("Label");
TextBox textBox = new TextBox();
panel.add(labelOfTextBox);
panel.add(textBox);
dialogBox.setWidget(panel);
// show up in the center
dialogBox.center();
}

Dear all thanks for answering my question. To rectify this problem, I have made use of the custom widget API within GWT(known as Composite). Here's the code as below:
private static class CombinedWidget extends Composite {
public CombinedWidget() {
// place the check above the text box using a vertical panel.
VerticalPanel panel = new VerticalPanel();
DockLayoutPanel dPanel = new DockLayoutPanel(Unit.EM);
panel.setSpacing(13);
panel.add(nameProject);
nameProject.setStyleName("gwt-Group-Label");
panel.add(className);
panel.add(nameKs);
panel.add(nameEsmond);
panel.add(nameBowen);
panel.add(nameAaron);
dPanel.addWest(panel, 13);
dPanel.add(getGeoChart());
// all composites must call initWidget() in their constructors.
initWidget(dPanel);
setWidth("100%");
}
Actually I sort of changed from the original idea. Instead of putting it on the very top, I attached the labels into a VerticalPanel and then created a CombinedWidget(custom widget) which adds both a VerticalPanel and DockLayoutPanel together. I then added the VerticalPanel(containing all the labels) and the GeoChart into the DockLayoutPanel.
This solved my problem of displaying both the labels and the GeoChart on the same page(as originally i added it into a VerticalPanel but it would not work as the app would not read the GeoChart due to the VerticalPanel being overlayed on top of the GeoChart).
If you guys want a picture of my app to visualise, please say so!

After remove the component inside JPanel, nothing to show

Hi I have a JPanel which has many JPanel inside. When the user changed data in the inside panel. I need to refresh the outerpanel; I removed all insider panel and add the new inside panel. My problem is that there are no inside panel showing after refresh. If I make the JFrame minimize and then maximize, it shows the refresh panel. Would someone tell me how to solve this problem. Thanks in advance.
There is my code to remove and add the new JPanel
private void getListCommentPane(){
//sortPage
Component[] components = jpListCommentPane.getComponents();
for (Component component : components) {
jpListCommentPane.remove(component);
jpListCommentPane.validate();
}
ArrayList<CommentItem>sortComment= lstComment;
Collections.sort(sortComment,CommentItem.sortPage);
for(CommentItem comm: sortComment){
//The class DivCommentJPane extends JPanel
DivCommentJPane d=new DivCommentJPane(comm, this);
jpListCommentPane.add(d);
}
jpListCommentPane.repaint();
}

After removing and adding your components to jpListCommentPane, try calling jpListCommentPane.revalidate() instead of jpListCommentPane.repaint(), do this last, do it once. There should be no need to call jpListCommentPane.validate(); and especially from within a loop
revalidate will instruct the container that it needs to perform a layout and update its contact hierarchy

In JAVA, JButton, Button displayed only when cursor is on the button and works even on clicking anywhere in contentPane

I am a beginner into Java and OOPS in general. Am studyin Head First Java to start, and studying GUI and Swing concepts in it.
The below code is just for understanding purposes.
On running the code, The frame window is displayed with Button, and when I expand it I can see Radio Button too.
Issues-
Button works till the window size is not more than the button size . As soon as I increase the window size even slightly more than button's dimensions, then the button is displayed only when cursor is on it.
I am changing window size using mouse.
Also even if I set Frame size to be more than button. say frame.setSize(800,800); then the button covers whole contentPane. and still behaves same way on resizing.
And the button responds to clicking on mouse, irrespective of where I click in the contentPane. It should respond only when i click directly on the button.
Please inform me why it is behaving this way.
And if possible,corrections in code or additions to correct this.
import java.awt.Color;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Test1 implements ActionListener {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Frame");
JButton button = new JButton("Button!");
JRadioButton radio = new JRadioButton("VideoKilledTheRadioStar!",true);
int j=0;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Test1 t = new Test1();
t.method1();
}
public void method1()
{
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
button.setSize(100,100);
button.setBackground(Color.ORANGE);
frame.add(button);
frame.setSize(100,100);
frame.setVisible(true);
button.addActionListener(this);
frame.getContentPane().add(radio);
radio.addActionListener(this);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{j++;
button.setText("clicked .. " + j);
if(button.getBackground()==Color.ORANGE)
button.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
else
button.setBackground(Color.ORANGE);
}
}
P.S I did not know which segment of code is important or more relevant to this question, so I have put complete code.

You are trying to add the JButton button and JRadioButton objects in the default layout(BorderLayout) of the JFrame.
Whenevery you add a component to JFrame having BorderLayout the components goes in the Middle Section and BorderLayout center section has tendency to occupy the complete space, so to position elements properly you will need to specify the location as well as set the PreferredSize of the component.
frame.add(radio, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
component.setPreferredSize(Dimension);

You are adding the JButton button and the JRadioButton both in the BorderLayout.CENTER location so only one is being displayed. Components at this location will be sized in the X and Y axis.
The JButton only displays when the cursor is over it due to the fact that it has its own MouseListener used for painting.
Also, the statements
frame.add(myComponent);
and
frame.getContentPane().add(myComponent);
both add the component to the frame's ContentPane & are equivalent but the first is chosen for convenience.
Note that components cannot co-exist in the same position in a BorderLayout. You could place the button at the BorderLayout.SOUTH position (& add directly to the frame):
frame.add(radio, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
BorderLayout disregards any preferred sizes for components so you would have to use a different layout manager such as BoxLayout to maintain a fixed size JButton.
See more about Layout Managers

For glasspane purposes, why are input elements in Swing seemingly not considered part of a JPanel?

By input elements I mean things like JSpinners and JComboxBoxes. My glasspane is passed a JPanel containing JSpinners, JComboBoxes and for the most part, JLabels. The glasspane has a MouseListener attached. The surprising thing is that mouseEntered is called upon the mouse cursor leaving the input elements and hovering over the other parts or empty space of the JPanel! Is this normal behaviour? How can I get the input elements to be considered part of the JPanel for Glasspane purposes?
Here is a screenshot of my UI with its input elements and jLabels.
Here is an example piece of Code:
import javax.swing.*;
public class DialogTest {
public DialogTest() {
JPanel dialogPanel = new JPanel();
SpinnerModel edgeModel = new SpinnerNumberModel(1, 1, 9, 1);
JSpinner edgeSpn = new JSpinner(edgeModel);
dialogPanel.add(edgeSpn);
JDialog initialDialog = new JDialog(new JFrame(), "Test", true);
initialDialog.setContentPane(dialogPanel);
initialDialog.pack();
glass = new GlassComponent(dialogPanel);
initialDialog.setGlassPane(glass);
glass.setOpaque(false);
glass.setVisible(true);
initialDialog.setDefaultCloseOperation(JDialog.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
initialDialog.setVisible(true);
}
}
public class GlassComponent implements MouseListener {
JPanel c;
public GlassComponent(JPanel c) {
this.c = c;
this.c.addMouseListener(this);
}
...
public mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
System.out.println("Entered JPanel");
}
}
By way of explanation, my goal is to eventually use the GlassPane to block input for those elements marked with the prohibition sign. However, given that the mouseListener assigned to the dialogPanel is seemingly generating new events upon leaving the input elements, I may have some difficulties achieving this.

You can forward mouse events to the underlying components, as shown in The Glass Pane demo's method, redispatchMouseEvent().

You appear to be using glasspane in a way that I feel it shouldn't be used.
As far as I know, a glasspane typically shouldn't be holding components at all but rather cover over the top-level window and then can act as a gate-keeper for the components that are below it, all held by the top level window's contentPane.

you can use GlassPane for overlay required Container or JComponent by #camickr, or my questions based on his code here or here,
another suggestion could be use JLayer (required Java7 for Java6 is there JXLayer)

Hide a button from Layout in Java Swing

I am trying something very basic:
I have a list of 5 buttons. They are in a FlowLayout and the general idea should be that once I click one it should disappear and the others should reorder themselves accordingly.
Now, if I call setVisible(false) the button becomes invisible, but it still occupies it's space in the Layoutmanager.
Is there any way to keep the Button in the JPanel while hiding it so it doesn't get picked up by Layout?
Update:: Thanks for all the answers, the problem with removing the buttons is that the order is important. The problem I was trying to solve was a find as you type szenario where a very long list of buttons gets filtered down to only the ones matching the characters entered so users can easily click them. Since users can delete characters from the search field ordering is important and buttons have to pop back in once they match again.

Works fine for me.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class FlowLayoutInvisible extends JFrame
implements ActionListener
{
JPanel north;
int i;
public FlowLayoutInvisible()
{
north = new JPanel();
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
JButton button = new JButton("North - " + i);
button.addActionListener(this);
north.add(button);
}
getContentPane().add(north, BorderLayout.NORTH);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
Component c = (Component)e.getSource();
c.setVisible(false);
((JPanel)c.getParent()).revalidate();
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
FlowLayoutInvisible frame = new FlowLayoutInvisible();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo( null );
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
If you need more help post your SSCCE.
Update: I don't know if the revalidate() is required. I seemed to have a problem once but now I can't duplicate the problem.

Just remove it:
panel.remove( button );
What's wrong with this option?
Layout managers are thought precisely to avoid having the "user" to make tricks in order to have each component it the right place ( although it seems to provoke the opposite effect )
Removing the button from the panel will have the effect of laying out again all the remaining components. That's why it's name is "Layout manager" it manages to layout the components for you.

I see two possibilities:
Write your own layout manager that listens for changes to its children's visible property - shouldn't be too hard, you can probably subclass FlowLayout to do it.
actually remove the clicked-button from the panel and, if necessary, re-add it later.

You could override each button's getPreferredSize() methods (and possibly getMinimumSize() as well to return 0,0 when the component is invisible; and you need to call, I think, invalidate() (or revalidate or validate, I can never keep them straight) on the container.