I've a big problem with Swing in Java, I used BoxLayout for this but still it looks bad.
Any suggestions about my usage of layouts, or how to change it to look like in assumptions? (here are assumptions)
Container main = new Container();
Container left = new Container();// here goin buttons
Container right = new Container(); // here goin tabs + more buttons, textfields and other stuff
BoxLayout lewyL = new BoxLayout(left, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
left.setLayout(lewyL);
left.add(rastrowa); //radiobutton
left.add(wektorowa);//radiobutton
left.add(apDwuliniowa);//checkbox
left.add(wczytaj);//button
left.add(zapisz);//obutton
left.add(wyczysc);//button
BoxLayout prawyL = new BoxLayout(right, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
right.setLayout(prawyL);
right.add(zakladki);// tabs (mostly i use BoxLayout but for last one i need something more "complicated")
EDIT: I almost solve this problem, I need to move all elements to left (how it look like)but I have no idea how ;/ Here is constructor of this class.
JLabel label = new JLabel("O wektor");
JLabel labelA = new JLabel("a:");
JLabel labelB = new JLabel("b:");
JButton wykonaj = new JButton("Wykonaj");
JTextField a = new JTextField(5);
JTextField b = new JTextField(5);
add(label);
add(labelA);
add(a);
add(labelB);
add(b);
add(wykonaj);
There's nothing wrong with the way it looks (in my opinion), but if you want it to look a little better, why don't you convert the left panel (which is 6x1) into a 3x2 panel, with the checkboxes/radiobuttons on the left, and buttons on the right? Sounds like a job for GridLayout - one of my favorite classes...
JPanel leftPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(3,2));
leftPanel.add(rastrowa); //radiobutton
leftPanel.add(wczytaj); //button
leftPanel.add(wektorowa); //radiobutton
leftPanel.add(zapisz); //obutton
leftPanel.add(apDwuliniowa); //checkbox
leftPanel.add(wyczysc); //button
Note that the 3,2 defines the number of rows,columns. When adding panels, they are added to the grid from left-to-right, and top-to-bottom. GridLayout also auto-sizes the components, so all the buttons etc will be the same width and height, making it look more consistent.
The GridLayout documentation might be useful, and the Visual Guide to Layout Managers is a great place to see other layout managers that might work better for your different situations. I personally find BorderLayout and GridLayout to be the most useful, and cover about 95% of the situations I ever need for my GUIs.
Related
I'm trying to fix the height of the "amountField" text field, but I can't.
I would like the height of amountField to have the same height as the JComboBox that it's above, so it looks better.
Right now, the JTextField looks very tall compared with the rest of design.
I've tried everything that I've read in this forum, but nothing seems to work.
I don't know if it's relevant, but this whole JPanel (WithdrawalScreen) is inside another JPanel with BorderLayout. This panel is the center part of it
Thanks
PictureHere
public class WithdrawalScreen extends JPanel {
Public JPanel init() {
this.setLayout(new GridLayout(0,1));
account = new JLabel("account");
accountSelect = new JComboBox(labels);
amount = new JLabel("amount");
amountField = new JTextField("");
submit = new JButton("SUBMIT");
this.add(account);
this.add(accountSelect);
this.add(amount);
this.add(amountField);
this.add(submit);
return this;
}
}
Try creating the Grid Layout with 5 rows and 1 column. I think the height is messed up because you are not setting the constructor arguments properly.
new GridLayout(5,1);
Grid layout will stretch the component and give the same size to all of its components. In order to keep the "default" size of each component, you can use BoxLayout with BoxLayout.Y_AXIS parameter in its constructor. Another way would be to use a dummy-nested JPanel with another layout. Let's say FlowLayout.
JTextField textField = new JTextField(10);
JPanel nestedPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout());
nestedPanel.add(textField);
gridLayoutPanel.add(nestedPanel);
JTextField will not be stretched. nestedPanel will be. Do some experiments yourself and you will find the way that fits your needs.
A link that will help you: A visoual guide to Layout Managers.
Please consider this Java code fragment:
Box buttonBox = Box.createHorizontalBox();
buttonBox.add(new JCheckBox("Select all"));
buttonBox.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
buttonBox.add(new JLabel("Filter: "));
buttonBox.add(new JTextField());
Box paneBox = Box.createVerticalBox();
paneBox.add(buttonBox);
paneBox.add(new JScrollPane(jList));
For some reason i don't get, the JTextField takes up most of the screen. The jList isn't even visible anymore. I would like to know why and how to fix it.
When i comment the line with the JTextField, it looks fine (except no JTextField, of course). Why does the JCheckBox and the JLabel not get ridiculously big? What is the purpose of a one-line JTextField being able to take up almost the whole screen?
Most people suggest to set the size of the JTextField field to my needs. However, i read that i should not call these methods, but let the LayoutManager take care of it. Now what is the most elegant solution to prevent the JTextField from becoming so big?
Try using the setPreferredSize method like this:
textFieldName.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(x, y));
Obviously input the values for x and y that you wish the JTextField size to be
You can avoid this problem by using a simple JPanel() instead of a Box for the horinzontal one. And after just set the prefered size to your JTextField.
//Box buttonBox = Box.createHorizontalBox();
JPanel buttonBox = new JPanel();
buttonBox.add(new JCheckBox("Select all"));
buttonBox.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
buttonBox.add(new JLabel("Filter: "));
JTextField jt = new JTextField();
jt.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,25));
buttonBox.add(jt);
EDIT
Btw the defaut Layout of a JPanel is the FlowLayout which place components from left to right and with centered alignement by default. You can still change the alignement.
For example:
JPanel buttonBox = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT));
You can also change the gap between each components. There is some other Layout like the BorderLayout or GridLayout / GridBagLayout. I let you search on Google for more information about them.
See in yellow the JPanel, in red the VerticalBox
Box box = Box.CreateVerticalBox();
Use box.setMaximumSize(Dimension(160,80))
and box.setMinimumSize(Dimension(160,80))
then it will work :D
If you need a strut for your layout, put it in between boxes.
I have:
public class BaseStationFrame1 extends JFrame
{
JButton activateButton;
JButton deactivateButton;
BaseStation bs;
JTextField networkIdField;
JTextField portField;
public BaseStationFrame1(BaseStation _bs){
bs = _bs;
setTitle("Base Station");
setSize(600,500);
setLocation(100,200);
setVisible(true);
activateButton = new JButton("Activate");
deactivateButton = new JButton("Deactivate");
Container content = this.getContentPane();
content.setBackground(Color.white);
content.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
content.add(activateButton);
content.add(deactivateButton);
networkIdField = new JTextField("networkId : "+ bs.getNetworkId());
networkIdField.setEditable(false);
content.add(networkIdField);
portField = new JTextField("portId : "+ bs.getPort());
portField.setEditable(false);
content.add(portField);}
}
My problem is that i don't want the two TextFields to appear on the right of Activate and Deactivate buttons but below them. How can i fix that?
Specify your layout manager, like this:
content.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,2));
That would use the Grid Layout Manager to establish a grid with 2 columns and 2 rows, that your components would then be placed in.
The layout manager you are currently using, FlowLayout, only adds contents onto the end of the current row. it will wrap around once it reaches the constrained edge of the pane, though.
You should also check the other layout managers here
You could alternatively use GridBagLayout , but you will have to specify a GridBagConstraints object you then add alongside the individual elements, like so:
content.add(networkIdField, gridConstraints);
see more on that in the linked tutorial.
can I suggest that you use a Null Layout for the parent component?
setLayout(null);
then use a setBounds(xPos,yPos, Width, Height);
to position the components on the panel etc?
Doing this will prevent Java's UI Manager to manage the components to the Frame, Panel etc.
That seems to be the easiest and less painful way.
Regards
I'm trying to create a very simple window using Java Layouts. I have got three elements to arrange: a button, a progress bar and a label. The button has to be vertically centered, the progress bar has to take full width, and the label has to be left aligned.
Here's some code (just assume pane is the content pane of a JFrame, and button, progressBar and label have been created before):
BoxLayout layout = new BoxLayout(pane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
pane.setLayout(layout);
button.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
pane.add(button);
progressBar.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
pane.add(progressBar);
label.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
pane.add(label);
When I test the application I see everything misaligned and screwed up: the button and the label are randomly indented, and if I resize the window the indentation amount changes in a strange way.
The progress bar looks good (full width).
I just don't understand what's happening. Can you give me a clue?
BoxLayout cannot handle different alignments: see http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/layout/box.html
quoting from that article: "In general, all the components controlled by a top-to-bottom BoxLayout object should have the same X alignment. Similarly, all the components controlled by a left-to-right Boxlayout should generally have the same Y alignment."
Sometimes you need to get a little creative and use nested panels. But I like this approach better then trying to learn and memorize all the constraints required when using other layout managers (GridBagLayout, GroupLayout) there where designed to be used by IDE's that generate code for you.
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class BoxLayoutVertical extends JFrame
{
public BoxLayoutVertical()
{
Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();
JButton button = new JButton("A button");
button.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
box.add(button);
JProgressBar progressBar = new JProgressBar(0, 100);
progressBar.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
box.add(progressBar);
JPanel panel = new JPanel( new BorderLayout() );
JLabel label = new JLabel("A label");
label.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
panel.add(label);
box.add(panel);
add(box, BorderLayout.NORTH);
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
BoxLayoutVertical frame = new BoxLayoutVertical();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
frame.setSize(300, 200);
frame.setLocationRelativeTo( null );
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
To complement my comment to the original question, here is a snippet that uses DesignGridLayout:
JButton button = new JButton("Button");
JProgressBar progressBar = new JProgressBar();
JLabel label = new JLabel("Label");
// The interesting stuff is in the next 4 lines
DesignGridLayout layout = new DesignGridLayout(getContentPane());
layout.row().center().add(button).withOwnRowWidth();
layout.row().center().fill().add(progressBar);
layout.row().left().add(label);
pack();
It does exactly what wou describe in your question and doesn't require any specific call of any of the components.
Maybe your code is just a snippet, but I'm missing a call to pack().
Coding swing layout by hand can be very frustrating with the standard Layout managers. I use MiG Layout for that purpose. It is straight forward and you have a nice layout with just a few lines of code. If you're not forced to use BoxLayout I would suggest you give it a try.
Don't use BoxLayout. It works only for very simple cases.
For your case, I would recommend either GridBagLayout or (my favorite) GroupLayout.
For GroupLayout, I created a subclass (LayoutHelper) with some utility methods and useful constructors, which makes writing the Layout much easier.
Of course, usually I align all components in a group the same way, so it is not as short in your case as it would be in the simple case.
LayoutHelper h = new LayoutHelper(pane);
h.setVerticalGroup
( h.sequential( button, progressBar, label));
h.setHorizontalGroup
( ((ParallelGroup)h.parallel())
.addComponent(button, Alignment.CENTER)
.addComponent(progressBar)
.addComponent(label, Alignment.TRAILING));
Here is a screenshot:
For a simple "everything aligned the same way", the horizontal group would look like this:
h.setHorizontalGroup
( h.parallel (button, progressBar, label));
(optionally with a first argument indicating the alignment).
In my application, I have a layout similar to what is shown below:
#######
XXXXXXX***
XXXXXXX***
XXXXXXX***
%%%%%%%
In this layout, X is a JTable. The other components can remain the same size. Is there a layout or strategy that will have the JTable (X) resize based on available screen size and have everything else stay on the sides properly?
Thanks.
That looks very much like a BorderLayout to me. Have you tried that?
It can also be done with GroupLayout, but it is designed for GUI builders, as it's very verbose. So if you already have existing code, you might not want to try it first.
I am a big fan of JGoodies FormLayout. Here is some sample code of one way to do this with FormLayout.
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
FormLayout layout = new FormLayout("100dlu, 20dlu:grow", "pref, pref, pref");
panel.setLayout(layout);
JTextField t1 = new JTextField();
JTextField t2 = new JTextField();
JTable tb = new JTable();
JScrollPane sp = new JScrollPane();
sp.setViewportView(tb);
CellConstraints cc = new CellConstraints();
panel.add(t1, cc.xy(1, 1));
panel.add(t2, cc.xy(1, 3));
panel.add(sp, cc.xyw(1, 2, 2));