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JFrame will not load new screen

I have a class that extends JFrame and works by adding in 2 panels with BoxLayout buttons, and one JTabbedPane in the center which displays graphs.
I want one of the buttons to remove all current components in the frame and add new ones.
Here are the methods used.
private void createAndShowGraphs() {
ImageIcon createImageIcon(lsuLettersPath); //simple png file to fill one tab
final JTabbedPane jtp = new JTabbedPane();
JLabel iconLabel = new JLabel();
iconLabel.setOpaque(true);
jtp.addTab(null, icon, iconLabel);
//Here is where the errors begin
JPanel menu = new JPanel();
menu.setLayout(new BoxLayout(menu, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
//I want this button to remove all components currently in the JFrame and replace them with new components specified in the createAndShowIntro() method
menu.add(new JButton(new AbstractAction("Intro Pane") {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
//I've also tried putting removeAll in the Intro method
removeAll();
createAndShowIntro();
}
}));
add(jtp, BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(menu, BorderLayout.WEST);
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
private void createAndShowIntro() {
System.out.println("Made it to Intro");
//all I want is a blank JLabel with the String "test" to show up
JPanel test = new JPanel();
test.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
JLabel label = new JLabel();
label.setText("test");
label.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
label.setVerticalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
test.add(label);
add(test, BorderLayout.CENTER);
test.revalidate();
label.revalidate();
validate();
test.repaint();
label.repaint();
repaint();
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
When I call createAndShowGraphs() in main() and then hit the 'Intro' button, everything freezes and nothing is actually removed. I know it makes it the Intro method because of the "Made it to Intro" string output to the terminal.
I've tried all kinds of combinations of invalidate(), validate(), revalidate(), repaint() on the labels and on the frame itself. Really frustrated because I don't know how else I'm going to be able to display 3 different screens to switch back and forth between while only actually displaying one at a time.
Thanks for your time.

How to display one Jframe at a time? [duplicate]

I'm trying to make a little game that will first show the player a simple login screen where they can enter their name (I will need it later to store their game state info), let them pick a difficulty level etc, and will only show the main game screen once the player has clicked the play button. I'd also like to allow the player to navigate to a (hopefully for them rather large) trophy collection, likewise in what will appear to them to be a new screen.
So far I have a main game window with a grid layout and a game in it that works (Yay for me!). Now I want to add the above functionality.
How do I go about doing this? I don't think I want to go the multiple JFrame route as I only want one icon visible in the taskbar at a time (or would setting their visibility to false effect the icon too?) Do I instead make and destroy layouts or panels or something like that?
What are my options? How can I control what content is being displayed? Especially given my newbie skills?

A simple modal dialog such as a JDialog should work well here. The main GUI which will likely be a JFrame can be invisible when the dialog is called, and then set to visible (assuming that the log-on was successful) once the dialog completes. If the dialog is modal, you'll know exactly when the user has closed the dialog as the code will continue right after the line where you call setVisible(true) on the dialog. Note that the GUI held by a JDialog can be every bit as complex and rich as that held by a JFrame.
Another option is to use one GUI/JFrame but swap views (JPanels) in the main GUI via a CardLayout. This could work quite well and is easy to implement. Check out the CardLayout tutorial for more.
Oh, and welcome to stackoverflow.com!

Here is an example of a Login Dialog as #HovercraftFullOfEels suggested.
Username: stackoverflow Password: stackoverflow
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.Arrays;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestFrame extends JFrame {
private PassWordDialog passDialog;
public TestFrame() {
passDialog = new PassWordDialog(this, true);
passDialog.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new TestFrame();
frame.getContentPane().setBackground(Color.BLACK);
frame.setTitle("Logged In");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
}
});
}
}
class PassWordDialog extends JDialog {
private final JLabel jlblUsername = new JLabel("Username");
private final JLabel jlblPassword = new JLabel("Password");
private final JTextField jtfUsername = new JTextField(15);
private final JPasswordField jpfPassword = new JPasswordField();
private final JButton jbtOk = new JButton("Login");
private final JButton jbtCancel = new JButton("Cancel");
private final JLabel jlblStatus = new JLabel(" ");
public PassWordDialog() {
this(null, true);
}
public PassWordDialog(final JFrame parent, boolean modal) {
super(parent, modal);
JPanel p3 = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 1));
p3.add(jlblUsername);
p3.add(jlblPassword);
JPanel p4 = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 1));
p4.add(jtfUsername);
p4.add(jpfPassword);
JPanel p1 = new JPanel();
p1.add(p3);
p1.add(p4);
JPanel p2 = new JPanel();
p2.add(jbtOk);
p2.add(jbtCancel);
JPanel p5 = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
p5.add(p2, BorderLayout.CENTER);
p5.add(jlblStatus, BorderLayout.NORTH);
jlblStatus.setForeground(Color.RED);
jlblStatus.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
add(p1, BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(p5, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
pack();
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
#Override
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
});
jbtOk.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (Arrays.equals("stackoverflow".toCharArray(), jpfPassword.getPassword())
&& "stackoverflow".equals(jtfUsername.getText())) {
parent.setVisible(true);
setVisible(false);
} else {
jlblStatus.setText("Invalid username or password");
}
}
});
jbtCancel.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
setVisible(false);
parent.dispose();
System.exit(0);
}
});
}
}

I suggest you insert the following code:
JFrame f = new JFrame();
JTextField text = new JTextField(15); //the 15 sets the size of the text field
JPanel p = new JPanel();
JButton b = new JButton("Login");
f.add(p); //so you can add more stuff to the JFrame
f.setSize(250,150);
f.setVisible(true);
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
Insert that when you want to add the stuff in. Next we will add all the stuff to the JPanel:
p.add(text);
p.add(b);
Now we add the ActionListeners to make the JButtons to work:
b.addActionListener(this);
public void actionPerforemed(ActionEvent e)
{
//Get the text of the JTextField
String TEXT = text.getText();
}
Don't forget to import the following if you haven't already:
import java.awt.event*;
import java.awt.*; //Just in case we need it
import java.x.swing.*;
I hope everything i said makes sense, because sometimes i don't (especially when I'm talking coding/Java) All the importing (if you didn't know) goes at the top of your code.

Instead of adding the game directly to JFrame, you can add your content to JPanel (let's call it GamePanel) and add this panel to the frame. Do the same thing for login screen: add all content to JPanel (LoginPanel) and add it to frame. When your game will start, you should do the following:
Add LoginPanel to frame
Get user input and load it's details
Add GamePanel and destroy LoginPanel (since it will be quite fast to re-create new one, so you don't need to keep it memory).

Trying to display images in multiple JPanels

I'm creating a program that features a grid of 12 JPanels. When the "add image" button is pressed, an image appears in the first JPanel in the grid and a counter is incremented by one. From then onwards, every time the "add image" is clicked again, an image would be added to the next JPanel. For some reason, the button only adds an image to the first JPanel and then stops working. Here's the code I've got so far.
public class ImageGrid extends JFrame {
static JPanel[] imageSpaces = new JPanel[12];
int imageCounter = 0;
ImageGrid() {
this.setTitle("Image Grid");
setSize(750, 750);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JPanel p3 = new JPanel();
p3.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, 4, 10, 5));
p3.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
p3.setOpaque(true);
p3.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(0, 5, 5, 5));
for (int j = 0; j < imageSpaces.length; j++) {
imageSpaces[j] = setImageSpace();
p3.add(imageSpaces[j]);
}
MyButtonPanel p1 = new MyButtonPanel();
add(p1, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
add(p3, BorderLayout.CENTER);
}
public JPanel setImageSpace() {
JPanel test;
test = new JPanel();
test.setOpaque(true);
test.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
return test;
}
class MyButtonPanel extends JPanel implements ActionListener {
final JButton addImage = new JButton("Add Image");
ImageIcon lorryPicture = new ImageIcon(ImageGrid.class.getResource("/resources/lorry.png"));
JLabel lorryImage = new JLabel(lorryPicture);
MyButtonPanel() {
add(addImage);
addImage.addActionListener(this);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (e.getSource() == addImage) {
imageSpaces[imageCounter].add(lorryImage);
revalidate();
repaint();
imageCounter++;
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
ImageGrid test = new ImageGrid();
test.setVisible(true);
}
}

You should be revalidating and repainting the panel, (which is the containter being affected by the addition), not the frame
imageSpaces[imageCounter].add(lorryImage);
imageSpaces[imageCounter].revalidate();
imageSpaces[imageCounter].repaint();
Diclaimer: This may work as a simple fix, but also note that a component (in this case your JLabel lorryImage) can only have one parent container. The reason the above fix still works is because you don't revalidate and repaint the previous panel, the label was added to. So you may want to think about doing it correctly, and adding a new JLabel to each panel.
if (e.getSource() == addImage) {
JLabel lorryImage = new JLabel(lorryPicture);
imageSpaces[imageCounter].add(lorryImage);
imageSpaces[imageCounter].revalidate();
imageSpaces[imageCounter].repaint();
imageCounter++;
}
Disclaimer 2: You should add a check, to only add a label if the count is less than the array length, as to avoid the ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
Side Notes
Swing apps should be run from the Event Dispatch Thread (EDT). You can do this by wrapping the code in the main in a SwingUtilities.invokeLater(...). See more at Initial Threads
You could also just use a JLabel and call setIcon, instead of using a JPanel

Resize JButtons in a BoxLayout

I'm trying to make a simple menu for my game. I have 4 buttons in the center and I want to make them a little bit bigger and center them.
The last part worked but I can't seem to call any of my JButtons and do a .setSize / .setPreferedSize(new Dimension()) on it.
public class mainMenu extends JFrame {
private JButton start, highscore, help, stoppen;
public mainMenu() {
super("Master Mind");
maakComponenten();
maakLayout();
toonFrame();
}
private void maakComponenten() {
start = new JButton("Start");
start.setBackground(Color.gray);
highscore = new JButton("Higscores");
help = new JButton("Help");
stoppen = new JButton("Stoppen");
}
private void maakLayout() {
JPanel hoofdmenu = new JPanel();
hoofdmenu.setLayout(new BoxLayout(hoofdmenu, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS ));
hoofdmenu.add(start);
start.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
hoofdmenu.add(highscore);
highscore.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
hoofdmenu.add(help);
help.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
hoofdmenu.add(stoppen);
stoppen.setAlignmentX(CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
super.add(hoofdmenu);
}
private void toonFrame() {
setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setVisible(true);
setSize(500,500);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new mainMenu();
}
}

As an example, to change the size of the "Start" button,
change :
start1 = new JButton("Start");
to
start1 = new JButton("Start") {
{
setSize(150, 75);
setMaximumSize(getSize());
}
};

The problem is that JFrames use BorderLayout by default, which means that your JPanel will naturally fill the space.
Before adding your JPanel, call the following code to change the JFrame's layout to null and use the JPanel's settings instead.
this.setLayout(null);
JPanel hoofdmenu = new JPanel();
hoofdmenu.setBounds(0,0, 400, 100);
Alternatively, you could set the maximum size of the JButtons
Dimension maxSize = new Dimension(100, 100);
start.setMaximumSize(maxSize);
highscore.setMaximumSize(maxSize);
help.setMaximumSize(maxSize);
stoppen.setMaximumSize(maxSize);

Here's another example following behind the previous two - I'm making a soundboard program, and this is actually a sample from it - The JPanel actually is needed, agreeing to the second post.
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel menuPanel = new JPanel();
JButton Button1 = new JButton("<BUTTON NAME 1>");
Button1.setSize(80, 30);
Button1.setLocation(4, 4);
JButton Button2 = new JButton("<BUTTON NAME 2>");
Button2.setSize(80, 30);
Button2.setLocation(90, 4);
Ah, and another thing - You created the buttons in a different block from the second piece of code. Doing that causes the other blocks to not see it. You need to declare them outside the block so all the blocks can see them.

Java - How to add new JLabel and JTextPane to JPanel when button is pressed

I have a JPanel to which when a button is pressed I want to add a new JLabel and JTextField too. However, I can't seem to get it working.
Is there an issue with my ActionListener, and if not, how could this be achieved?
JPanel south = new JPanel();
JButton add = new JButton("Add");
ActionListener addListener = new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
JLabel mL = new JLabel("MOD: ");
mR.add(mL);
JTextField mM = new JTextField(10);
mR.add(mM);
mR.repaint();
}
};
add.addActionListener(addListener);
south.add(add);
add(south, BorderLayout.NORTH);
The layout of the mR panel is a grid layout set to allow multiple rows and two columns.

Call mR.revalidate() before repaint();

See my answer on a previous SO question for some sample code which dynamically adds a component to a container