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adapt windows and its content to screen size in java

I have designed a java program that open in its main file a JFrame, where different panel are then opened. I found that using the program of different machine with different screen size it can be that some panel are "cut" and , for instance I loose some bottom in the panels.
What is the better designing solution to solve this issue?
Thanks in advance to who can help.

I dont know if this sounds like a 'better' solution (btw. better than what?), but like DreadHeadedDeveloper already said you can use toolkits.
Also, you can put everything on one panel and put that panel onto a scrollpane, which puts on scrollbars, if the screen is too small.
I dont know if you can make a final size or if you want to be able to resize it (which is often more trouble than it's worth).
What does: "where different panel are then opened" mean?
Should these panels be next to each other, or do they overlap? Do they change the size of your frame?

Quite frankly, use QT or something like JavaFX, maybe Grails or anything but swing really but this is besides the point.
Anyway, for this you use LayoutManagers to reposition your elements for you. By using:
Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
double width = screenSize.getWidth();
double height = screenSize.getHeight();
you can get your screensize, after which you can give subpanels percentage based sizes. Say screenheight is 800, you can pass 800*0.40 if you want 40% of the parent height as the height for a child panel through the constructor of the panel.
Something like MyPanel extends Panel
public MyPanel(int width, int height){
this.setSize(width,height);
}
The downside of layoutmanagers is that they can squish your components somewhat. I sincerely hope this at least helped you on your way to finding your answer!

scaling up the contents whenver window size increases or decreases

Is there any possibilities to scale the contents of the J Frame For Example : if im giving the initial setSize(800,1000) in which i placed the textfields,labels,buttons etc..as per the size 800,1000 the application looks good,suppose im maximizing the window of the Frame, automatically the textfields,labels,buttons are kept in the static way...how to scale it when the maximize is pressed the entire contents are cleanly arranged in good manner..kindly give me solution to solve this issue

if im giving the initial setSize(800,1000) in which i placed the
textfields,labels,buttons etc..as per the size 800,1000 the
application looks good,suppose im maximizing the window of the Frame,
automatically the textfields,labels,buttons are kept in the static
way...
for AbsoluteLayout to have to place the JComponent by using the Insets that came from first container
Is there any possibilities to scale the contents of the J Frame
have to use ComponentListener (notice delayed by Swing Timer, because this Listener firing a new event for every pixels on all directions) for scalling JComponents together with container
this is job only for LayoutManager, don't to supply that by using AbsoluteLayout & Insets & ComponentListener, be sure this code could be longer an more complicated than by using GroupLayout

Applet Stand alone issue

I attempted to make an applet program I have Stand alone by adding in:
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("StartingPoint");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
StartingPoint sp = new StartingPoint();
frame.getContentPane().add(sp);
sp.init();
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
sp.start();
}
Right after my public class. When running as just the applet this does nothing, but when Running it as an application it runs as a very small, nearly flat box aside from the heading, and when manually resized, the screen is blank other then the backround color.
Any idea what may cause this?
I have also noticed, each time I resize the frame, what is on it freezes,as if a screen shot of what should happen, and when the screen is resized to nearly full screen I can see at the tip top of the screen a sliver of what should be moving.

I'd just like to say, that dropping an applet into a frame is a really bad idea. You are better off writing the application contents into a separate container (such as JPanel) and adding that to your applet or frame - IMHO.
From the Java Docs...
Window#pack
Causes this Window to be sized to fit the preferred size and layouts
of its subcomponents. The resulting width and height of the window are
automatically enlarged if either of dimensions is less than the
minimum size as specified by the previous call to the setMinimumSize
method.
If the window and/or its owner are not displayable yet, both of them
are made displayable before calculating the preferred size. The Window
is validated after its size is being calculated.
This would suggest that your applet needs to provide a preferredSize if you wish to use pack

You need to set the size of the JFrame:
frame.setSize(500, 400);
It sounds as if you are overriding the paint() method. If so, you will need to call
super.paint(g);
to repaint all child components of the applet container on resize.

setSize() doesn't work for JFrame

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
class Demo
{
JFrame jf;
Demo()
{
jf=new JFrame("Demo");
jf.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
jf.setSize(5000,5000);
jf.setVisible(true);
System.out.println(jf.getSize());
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
new Demo();
}
});
}
}
I use jf.setSize(5000, 5000) for JFrame but after that getSize returns other size: java.awt.Dimension[width=1386,height=788] (my screen resolution is 1366x768) Can I set frame size greater than screen size? probably such behaviour is provided with some frame properties but I don't know about them.

Try using setPreferredSize instead of setSize. Works in my case (Ubuntu 12.04+GNOME 3).

The javadoc says this:
"The method changes the geometry-related data. Therefore, the native windowing system may ignore such requests, or it may modify the requested data, so that the Window object is placed and sized in a way that corresponds closely to the desktop settings."
This covers the behavior that you are observing / complaining about.
It is not crystal clear, but one reason that Window.setSize(...) has this behaviour is that window managers (outside of Java) typically veto application attempts to do this. Presumably, that's because it is open to abuse and "not what the user wants". Anyway, it is ultimately not your application's call to override the window manager's restrictions.

Just for Friday fun (that is, nothing you should consider doing in production environment :-) - playing a bit further with #jinguy code, I noticed that the bigger-than-life size was used after minimizing the frame. Doing so programmatically let it appear as monster right from the start
jf.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(5000,5000));
jf.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(5000,5000));
jf.pack();
jf.setVisible(true);
jf.setState(Frame.ICONIFIED);
jf.setState(Frame.NORMAL);
System.out.println(jf.getSize());

I tried out a few combinations of calls, and the following seemed to work:
jf.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
jf.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(5000,5000));
jf.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(5000,5000));
jf.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(5000,5000));
jf.pack();
jf.setVisible(true);
It still prints out a different size, but the window appears to be far larger than it prints.

These are my observations (used 1.6, now I'm using 1.7 under XP):
You can have undecorated frame of "almost" any size -- I use screen resolution of 1280x1024 (rotated) and didn't noticed any problems with frame 1500x1500, although some frames 2000x2000 look uncompleted (but work) and frame of 4000x4000 displays its thumb in taskbar but this thumb is unactive and the frame itself doesn't appear. I think the largest possible size of undecorated JFrame is dependent on system capabilities which is dependent on the graphic hardware.
With decorated frames there is a simple story -- they can be a little larger than screen size (by few pixels in generally).
In my application with size determined during runtime (e.g. games where you set board size dynamically) I use the following approach:
1). before packing set frame location relative to null. It places the upper-left corner of JFrame in the middle of the screen (before pack the JFrame is (0,0) dimensioned)
2). set preferred sizes of my frame content (I always use single JPanel) and remember them
3). pack the frame
4). if frame sizes after pack don't match those before pack dispose the frame, remove content's JPanel, add JScrollPane with this JPanel and set the preferred sizes of JScrollPane as JPanel preferred sizes PLUS the JScrollBar fixed dimensions (i.e. a width of the vertical scrollbar and a height of the horizontal one).
5). pack again -- this guarantees only the necessary scrollbars appear (if you don't increase the JFrame sizes then both scrollbars will always appear -- there is also a need to remove the JScrollPane default border).
6). set new location of the frame by moving it left and up by the half of the corresponding size to center it.

Netbeans GUI Designer & Fixed-Size Application Panels

I'm having a problem, creating a fixed-size overall panel for a touchscreen GUI application that has to take up the entire screen. In a nutshell, the touchscreen is 800 x 600 pixels, and therefore I want the main GUI panel to be that size.
When I start a new GUI project in NetBeans, I set the properties of the main panel for min/max/preferred size to 800 x 600, and the panel within the 'Design' view changes size. However, when I launch the app, it is resized to the original default size.
Adding this code after initComponents() does not help:
this.mainPanel.setSize(new Dimension(800,600));
this.mainPanel.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(800,600));
this.mainPanel.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(800,600));
this.mainPanel.repaint();
I've peeked into all of the resource files and cannot seem to find values that would override these (which seems somewhat impossible anyway, given that I'm setting them after initComponents() does its work). I'm using the FreeDesign layout, because I wanted complete control over where I put things.
I suspect the layout manager is resizing things based upon how many widgets I have on the screen, because different prototyped screens come in at differing sizes.
Help is appreciated!

Have you tried java full screen mode?

I use this method to complete the task, not sure if its the best and you need to wait calling it until the frame is actually on the screen.
protected void growBig()
{
int screenWidth = java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize().width;
int screenHeight = java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize().height;
Rectangle rectangle = getFrame().getBounds();
rectangle.setSize(screenWidth, screenHeight);
getFrame().setBounds(0, 0, screenWidth, screenHeight);
getFrame().setSize(screenWidth, screenHeight);
getFrame().doLayout();
getFrame().validate();
updateUI();
}

I'm not sure how your touchscreen device works. But if you use Netbeans preview your panel is put in some outer container like JFrame/JWindow. And just maybe you set the frame to 800x600.
If so, then the problem might be that the frame eats a few pixels for its own border, leaving your panel size < 800x600. And in that case your panel will be unable to use your min/max settings and revert to default sizes.