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Setting JPanel background while using BoxLayout

I am developing a simple application, and am currently working on the gui design using Swing. In my program I have a JPanel which I would like to have a background color black like so:
JPanel playerPanel = new JPanel();
playerPanel.setOpaque(true);
playerPanel.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
This code works fine. However, the problem is when I assign a Layout Manager to the panel:
JPanel playerPanel = new JPanel();
playerPanel.setOpaque(true);
playerPanel.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
playerPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(playerPanel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
For some reason, this makes the black color of the panel go away. This happens no matter where I place the .setLayout(...) command, before or after the .setBackground(...) and .setOpaque(true).
Why is this, and how do I work around this? How do I keep a black JPanel that uses a BoxLayout manager?

Verify that your panel's content is not obscuring the altered background. Resize the example below, which I've artificially enlarged, to see the effect.
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ComponentAdapter;
import java.awt.event.ComponentEvent;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.swing.Box;
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
/**
* #see https://stackoverflow.com/a/57785802/230513
*/
public class BoxTest {
public static final Random random = new Random();
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new BoxTest().create();
}
});
}
void create() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
panel.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
panel.add(Box.createVerticalGlue());
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
panel.add(new VariablePanel());
panel.add(Box.createVerticalGlue());
}
JFrame f = new JFrame("BoxTest");
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.add(panel);
f.pack();
f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
f.setVisible(true);
f.setSize(f.getWidth(), f.getHeight() + 64);
}
}
/**
* A VariablePanel has a label showing its current size,
* as well as a variable number of text items.
*/
class VariablePanel extends JPanel {
private static final String text =
"Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit.";
private final JLabel sizeLabel = new JLabel("Size:");
public VariablePanel() {
this.setLayout(new GridLayout(0, 1));
this.add(sizeLabel);
int count = BoxTest.random.nextInt(5) + 1;
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
this.add(new JLabel(text));
}
this.addComponentListener(new ComponentAdapter() {
#Override
public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {
int w = e.getComponent().getWidth();
int h = e.getComponent().getHeight();
sizeLabel.setText("Size: " + w + "\u00d7" + h);
}
});
}
}

Swing components (except JLabel) are opaque by default. This means:
you don't need playerPanel.setOpaque(true)
most components you add to the panel will be opaque and cover the background of your playerPanel.
Also, the BoxLayout respects the maximum size of any component you add to the panel. So if you add a component:
like a JButton which has a defined maximum size, you will see the button on top of the playerPanel and the background will surround the button.
like a JPanel, which does not have a defined maximum size, the panel will be resized to fill the entire area of the playerPanel and you won't see the background of the playerPanel.
If you want to see the background of the playerPanel show through a component added to the playerPanel, then you need to use setOpaque(false) on the component. For example:
JPanel child = new JPanel();
child.setOpaque( false );
playerPanel.add( child );

Paint Component seems to be causing cursor and Mouse Listener of Label to not work

Using LayerUI to add labels to the upper corner of a tabbed pane. Would like to allow these labels to display as hyperlinks, so I set the color blue, the cursor to a hand and I added a mouselistener.
Howev,er when I paint the component the cursor customization and mouse listener are not not working.
sample image
Sample Application:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Cursor;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JDialog;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JLayer;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.plaf.LayerUI;
public class TopRightCornerLabelLayerUITest {
public static JPanel makeUI() {
JPanel resultPanel = new JPanel();
resultPanel.setLayout( new BorderLayout());
resultPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));
JTabbedPane tabbedPane = new JTabbedPane();
tabbedPane.add("Tab 1", new JPanel());
tabbedPane.add("Tab 2", new JPanel());
resultPanel.add(new JLayer<JComponent>(tabbedPane, new TopRightCornerLabelLayerUI()), BorderLayout.CENTER);
return resultPanel;
}
private static void initandShow()
{
JDialog dialog = new JDialog();
dialog.getContentPane().add(makeUI());
dialog.setSize(520, 240);
dialog.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
dialog.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
initandShow();
}
});
}
}
class TopRightCornerLabelLayerUI extends LayerUI<JComponent> {
private JPanel rubberStamp = new JPanel();
#Override public void paint(Graphics g, JComponent c) {
super.paint(g, c);
JLabel layoutHyperlink = new JLabel("<html><a href=''>File Layout and Descriptions</a></html>");
JLabel templateHyperlink = new JLabel("<html><a href=''>Download Template</a></html>");
layoutHyperlink.setForeground(Color.BLUE.darker());
layoutHyperlink.setCursor(Cursor.getPredefinedCursor(Cursor.HAND_CURSOR));
layoutHyperlink.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
#Override
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
// the user clicks on the label
System.err.println("clicked");
}
});
templateHyperlink.setForeground(Color.BLUE.darker());
templateHyperlink.setCursor(Cursor.getPredefinedCursor(Cursor.HAND_CURSOR));
templateHyperlink.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
#Override
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
// the user clicks on the label
System.err.println("clicked");
}
});
// Add components
Dimension templateDimension = templateHyperlink.getPreferredSize();
int x = c.getWidth() - templateDimension.width - 5;
SwingUtilities.paintComponent(g, templateHyperlink, rubberStamp, x, 2, templateDimension.width , templateDimension.height);
Dimension layoutDimension = layoutHyperlink.getPreferredSize();
x = c.getWidth() - layoutDimension.width - 15 - templateDimension.width;
SwingUtilities.paintComponent(g, layoutHyperlink, rubberStamp, x, 2, layoutDimension.width, templateDimension.height);
}
}

I was actually unaware of class JLayer until I read your question. I don't have a complete answer but I think it's enough to give you a push in the right direction. I was helped by the lesson in Oracle's Java tutorial: How to Decorate Components with the JLayer Class. That lesson has a section entitled Responding to Events which helped me to figure out how to partially solve your issue. Basically you are just painting the labels and not actually adding them as components and therefore they will not respond to mouse events. Since the labels can be considered part of the JLayer component that is added as a component, you can configure that JLayer to respond to mouse events. As stated in the tutorial lesson, you need to override some other methods in your TopRightCornerLabelLayerUI class. The code below contains two of those methods. Add them to your code and see if they give you the expected result.
public void installUI(JComponent c) {
super.installUI(c);
((JLayer<?>) c).setLayerEventMask(AWTEvent.MOUSE_EVENT_MASK);
}
protected void processMouseEvent(MouseEvent e, JLayer l) {
if (e.getID() == MouseEvent.MOUSE_CLICKED) {
Point pt = e.getPoint();
if (pt.x >= xTemplateHyperlink && pt.x <= (xTemplateHyperlink + widthTemplateHyperlink)) {
System.out.println("clicked");
}
}
}
EDIT:
Forgot to mention that I added the following members to your TopRightCornerLabelLayerUI class...
private int xTemplateHyperlink;
private int yTemplateHyperlink;
private int widthTemplateHyperlink;
private int heightTemplateHyperlink;
And set their values in method paint() like so...
Dimension templateDimension = templateHyperlink.getPreferredSize();
xTemplateHyperlink = c.getWidth() - templateDimension.width - 5;
yTemplateHyperlink = 2;
widthTemplateHyperlink = templateDimension.width;
heightTemplateHyperlink = templateDimension.height;
which explains the code in method processMouseEvent().

Creating an animated 4x4 grid in Java

I need to create a 4 x 4 grid of rectangles in Java, I then need these rectangles to change color in a sequence.
I've never done any graphical work before, just things in the console.
I started by doing some research and created a 650 x 650 JFrame to put the rectangles in.
After that I used GridLayout and managed to create a 4 x 4 grid out of buttons using window.JButton which wasn't right.
How would I create rectangles instead? And would it be right to use for loops with ++ to time the animation?
I couldn't find anything that worked for my needs when searching on stackoverflow and google. Sorry if this is a stupid question. I'm new to this and I'm doing for an apprecticeship.
Here's how I would like it to look like, with each rectangle changing color in a time interval

From #Eng.Fouad answer (so give him credit and upvote his answer too), I made some changes, this example shows how to use a Swing Timer which changes color every second from green to red. I'm using a simple JLabel for demonstration purposes, take this logic into the GridLayout you have:
Here are some screen shots on how it looks:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.Color;
import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class SimpleTimer extends JFrame
{
private JLabel label;
private Timer timer;
private int counter = 3; // the duration
private int delay = 1000; // every 1 second
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private Color c = Color.RED;
private boolean red = true;
private boolean stop = false;
int i = counter;
public SimpleTimer()
{
super("Simple Timer");
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
label = new JLabel("Wait for " + counter + " sec", JLabel.CENTER);
JPanel contentPane = (JPanel) getContentPane();
contentPane.add(label, BorderLayout.CENTER);
contentPane.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
pack();
timer = new Timer(delay, action);
timer.setInitialDelay(0);
timer.start();
setVisible(true);
}
ActionListener action = new ActionListener()
{
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
{
if(i == 0)
{
timer.stop();
stop = true;
i = counter;
timer = new Timer(delay, action);
timer.setInitialDelay(0);
timer.start();
}
else
{
c = red ? Color.GREEN : Color.RED;
red = !red;
label.setBackground(c);
label.setOpaque(true);
label.setText("Wait for " + i + " sec");
i--;
}
}
};
public static void main(String[] args)
{
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
new SimpleTimer();
}
});
}
}

You could use jLabel, and set background color to it. How you do it, you can read here: How do I set a JLabel's background color?
Then just use for loop and Thred.sleep to change there color in animation.

How to get the painted size of a Swing component?

When I add Swing component (like a JButton) to a JPanel, it renders with it's 'preferred size'.
However, the preferred size is actually larger than the painted button. There appears to be an invisible border around it.
Here's a simple frame with my test panel:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
TestPanel pnl = new TestPanel();
frame.getContentPane().add(pnl);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
Here's my test panel ...
public class TestPanel extends JPanel {
JButton btn1 = new JButton("Test1");
JButton btn2 = new JButton("Test2");
public TestPanel() {
this.add(btn1);
this.add(btn2);
}
public void paint(Graphics g) {
super.paint(g);
g.setColor(Color.RED);
Dimension dim = btn1.getPreferredSize();
g.drawRect(btn1.getX(), btn1.getY(), (int)(dim.getWidth()), (int)(dim.getHeight()));
}
}
Notice I painted btn1's "PreferredSize" in RED to demonstrate that the preferredSize is actually larger than the button itself.
My question is, how can I determine the width and height of the painted button, not the JButton's preferredSize?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
UPDATE
Because I actually need this to work for all Swing components, here's a screen shot with the more components.
Unfortunately, I need to figure this out, determining the "real" size of the visible widget is crucial to my application.

I don't think this is particular or practically achievable.
The problem is, the button is using the "unpainted" area to paint other elements, like the focus highlight.
You could try look at the AbstractButton#set/getMargin

If nothing better comes along, note that the authors "recommend that you put the component in a JPanel and set the border on the JPanel."
Addendum: Based on your comments below, it's clear that your question is not about rendering borders but about establishing a component's boundary. What you perceive as unused space is actually reserved by the UI delegate for any number of uses, e.g. selection highlighting or esthetic coherence. You can get an idea of how this varies by selecting different Look & Feel themes in the examples here and here.
Using getbounds():
Using setBorder():
import component.Laf;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JCheckBox;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
/**
* #see https://stackoverflow.com/a/15490187/230513
*/
public class Test {
private void display() {
JFrame f = new JFrame("Test");
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/11949899/230513
f.add(Laf.createToolBar(f));
f.add(decorate(new JButton("Test")));
f.add(decorate(new JTextField("Test")));
f.add(decorate(new JTextArea(3, 8)));
f.add(decorate(new JCheckBox("Test")));
f.pack();
f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
f.setVisible(true);
}
private JPanel decorate(final JComponent c) {
JPanel p = new JPanel() {
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
Rectangle r = c.getBounds();
g.setColor(Color.red);
// NB pen hangs down and to the right
g.drawRect(r.x - 1, r.y - 1, r.width + 1, r.height + 1);
}
};
p.add(c);
return p;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new Test().display();
}
});
}
}

Swing: resize icon to fit text with specified font in JLabel

I'm trying to create two JLabels - one for icon (UIManager.getIcon("OptionPane.informationIcon") - one of Java's standart icons) and one for text. Sure, I know there is a JLabel's constructor which can make one label from icon and text, but I need exactly two labels, because one of them should be highlighted when mouse moves through it, I omit this part of code.
The problem is I can't find out how to change Icon size. At least I want to set manually height of icon, but it would be better if its height calculated automatically to fit text with specified font. I spent several hours trying to find information in the Web, but couldn't find anything relative.
I tried to implement Icon class and override getIconHeight() and getIconWidth() methods, but I don't know what to do next with my Icon object, because Icon is an interface so it has no constructors.
Here is my simplified code:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Font;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import net.miginfocom.swing.MigLayout;
public class AppView
{
private final JFrame main_frame;
public AppView()
{
main_frame = new JFrame();
main_frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
main_frame.setTitle("Example");
JPanel main_panel = new JPanel() {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
public Dimension getPreferredSize()
{
return new Dimension(200, 200);
}
};
main_frame.getContentPane().add(main_panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
main_panel.setLayout(new MigLayout());
JLabel label_icon = new JLabel(UIManager.getIcon("OptionPane.informationIcon"));
JLabel label_text = new JLabel("Text goes here");
label_text.setFont(new Font("sans-serif", Font.PLAIN, 12));
main_panel.add(label_icon);
main_panel.add(label_text);
main_frame.pack();
main_frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
new AppView();
}
});
}
}
Here is the result, as you can see, Icon is higher than text:
Thanks in advance!