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How to add elements to GridBagLayout from paintComponent()

In the following code, in the constructor the label gets correctly created and displayed on the screen. Note that it is added to the GridBagLayout() layout manager. Then, in the paintComponent() method that we override from the JPanel extention, we reset the contents of the JPanel and add the label again. However, this time the label is not displayed on the screen. I would expect it to be added normally, but it is not. Why is this the case?
public class MyPanel extends JPanel {
private final GridBagConstraints grid = new GridBagConstraints();
public MyPanel () {
setBounds(200, 200, 1000, 1000);
setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
setOpaque(false);
setVisible(false);
grid.anchor = GridBagConstraints.PAGE_END;
JLabel oldLabel = new JLabel("This is an old Label");
add(oldLabel, grid);
}
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
removeAll();
JLabel newLabel = new JLabel("This is a new Label");
add(newLabel, grid);
revalidate();
repaint();
}
}
In this example the component is known, but in my situation I have a variable amount of components that is not known beforehand and changes during the program.

Like the comments to my question kindly say, my approach is not correct.
Under no circumstances should a paintComponent create, add, or remove components. Painting is triggered by the system, for many many reasons, including seemingly trivial events like moving the mouse over the window. Also, never call repaint from a paintComponent method; that forces Swing to eventually called paintComponent again, which means you have created an infinite loop.
The solution is to add the components to the panel and invoke revalidate() on the panel instead.

Second JPanel and JTexField look too cramped

I have an application where I use two JPanels. One of them is a PaintPanel. The second panel,the jtextfield and the jtextarea work fine but they look too cramped against the right side. I tried changing the sizes with setSize() but it didn't work.
The code for the paintpanel
public void center() {
jpCenter = new PaintPanel();
jpCenter.addMouseListener(this);
jpCenter.setSize(100, 100);
jpCenter.setBackground(Color.white);
add(jpCenter, BorderLayout.CENTER);
}
The code for the panel of the chatbox
public void east() {
// CREATE EAST Panel
gl = new GridLayout(4, 1);
jpEast = new JPanel();
jpEast.setSize(200, 200);
jpEast.setLayout(gl);
jpEast.setBackground(Color.white);
label = new JLabel("Number of shapes: ");
jpEast.add(label);
// ADD TEXT FIELD
jtf = new JTextField();
jtf.setText("");
jtf.setSize(200, 200);
jpEast.add(jtf);
// ADD BUTTON
jbSend = new JButton("Send");
jbSend.setEnabled(false);
jbSend.setSize(20, 60);
jpEast.add(jbSend);
jbSend.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
send(jtf.getText());
jtf.setText("");
}
});
// ADD TEXT AREA
jta = new JTextArea("");
jta.setSize(100, 100);
jpEast.add(jta);
// ADD EAST panel
add(jpEast, BorderLayout.EAST);
}

Avoid setting the size of components since it can make them not work well on all platforms, and with JTextArea in particular, it will not allow it to expand correctly if held within a JScrollPane (which is where a JTextArea belongs). Note also that most layout managers don't even respect a component's size but rather its preferred size.
Instead, set the row and column properties of your JTextAreas (done most easily via the JTextArea(int row, int column) constructor), the column property of your JTextField, the font sizes of other components (if need be). Then allow your container (JPanel) layout managers and component's own preferred sizes size all appropriately when you call pack() on your top-level window (often a JFrame), after adding all components but before setting it visible.
For more specific help, consider posting an image of the GUI you're getting vs. the one you're trying to achieve.

Make JScrollPanel dynamically resizable with JPanel drawing

I have a JScrollPanel and a JPanel added to it. I would like to draw to the JPanel and make the scrollbars of the JScrollPane appear whenever the drawing exceeds the size of the panel and be able to scroll the drawing both vertically and horizontally.
I have tried consulting with various forums and the official docs and tried a few things (setting the borders, the preferred size, etc.) but none seems to yield the desired effects.
I have a JFrame (with GridBagLayout, btw.) :
JFrame frame1 = new JFrame("Application");
frame1.setVisible(true);
frame1.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(580,620));
frame1.setResizable(false);
frame1.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame1.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
The relevant components are :
JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(panel1);
frame1.add(scrollPane, gbc_panel1); //added with layout constraints
JPanel :
panel1.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
panel1.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500,500));
panel1.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(360,360));
panel1.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(1000,1000));
JScrollPane :
scrollPane.setAutoscrolls(true);
The relevant code from the action event
of a button that does the drawing :
Graphics g;
g = panel1.getGraphics();
panel1.paint(g);
g.setColor(new Color(0,128,0));
/* this is followed by some more code that
does the drawing of a maze with g.drawLine() methods */
The code does the drawing perfectly, I just can't seem to figure it out how to make the scrolling and dynamic resizing happen.
I would appreciate any helpful comments or remarks!
Thank you!

Ultimately rewriting the paint method did the trick as #MadProgrammer suggested. I was just hoping that I could do the painting without having to define my custom JPanel class, but looks like it doesn't work that way.
The custom class looks like this:
class Drawing extends JPanel {
int mazeSize;
public Drawing(JTextField jtf)
{
try {
this.mazeSize = Integer.parseInt(jtf.getText());
}
catch (Exception e)
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "ERROR! Invalid size value!");
}
} // the constructor gets the size of the drawing from a textField
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(mazeSize*10,mazeSize*10);
} //getPreferredSize - this method is used by the scroll pane to adjust its own size automatically
public void drawMaze (Graphics g)
{
/* some irrelevant code that does the desired drawing to the panel by calling g.drawLine()*/
} // drawMaze method that does the de facto drawing
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
{
super.paintComponent(g);
drawMaze(g);
}// paintComponent() #Override method - this was the tricky part
}//Drawing JPanel subclass
It is also worth noting (if some noob like myself happens to stumble upon this question), that after instantiating the new JPanel subclass in the action event, I had to add it to the JScrollPanel in the following way, instead of just simply using its add() method:
Drawing drawPanel = new Drawing(textfield1);
scrollPane.getViewport().add(drawPanel);
Again, thanks for the suggestion!
Once finished with the program (a random maze generator that uses a recursive backtracking algorithm), I will make the source code available at my github profile.

Best practice to resize JScrollPane

I read some answered questions in this forum (this one for example) where it is strictly recommended to avoid the use of setXXXSize() methods to resize components in swing applications.
So, coming to my problem, i would like to know how to best resize a JScrollPane in order to avoid its parent panel to increase its size without any control.
Before writing some code, i want to describe the real situation, since i will post a "toy example".
In my JFrame i'm currently using a border layout for my content pane. At BorderLayout.CENTER there is a JPanel where i do some custom painting.
At BorderLayout.EAST there is a JPanel (say eastPanel) containing some components inside another panel (this panel will be added to eastPanel at BorderLayout.NORTH), and a JScrollPane which contains a JTable (added to eastPanel at BorderLayout.CENTER). This table will have a lot of rows.
Since i want eastPanel's height to be the same as centerPanel's height, i need some way to avoid the JScrollPane to increase its size in order to try to display as much rows as possible.
For now i wasn't be able to find another solution apart from calling setPreferredSize on the eastPanel containing the scrollpane, but i have to admit that i hate this kind of solution.
Sample Code
In this code sample i added some random labels at the north of eastPanel and inside the JScrollPane, since my purpose was to post a short sample of code.
However, the situation is very similar to the one i have described above.
I wasn't be able to solve my problem without using this "terrible" line of code :
eastPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(eastPanel.getPreferredSize().width, centerPanel.getPreferredSize().height));
I would like to avoid a more complex layout for a simple situation like this. Am i missing something ? Also, is setting that empty border an acceptable way to set the size of the panel where i will do some custom painting?
Code :
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
public class Test
{
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try { UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
new TestFrame().setVisible(true);
}
catch(Exception exception) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Fatal error while initialiing application", "Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
}
}
});
}
}
class TestFrame extends JFrame
{
public TestFrame() {
super("Test");
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JPanel pane = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(20, 0));
pane.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(20, 20, 20, 20));
JPanel centerPanel = new JPanel();
centerPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
centerPanel.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(400, 400, 0, 0));
// centerPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 400));
JPanel eastPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(0, 20));
JPanel labelsContainer = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1));
for(int i=0;i<7;i++) labelsContainer.add(new JLabel(String.valueOf(i)));
eastPanel.add(labelsContainer, BorderLayout.NORTH);
JPanel moreLabelsContainer = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1));
for(int i=7;i<70;i++) moreLabelsContainer.add(new JLabel(String.valueOf(i)));
JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(moreLabelsContainer, JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS, JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
eastPanel.add(scroll, BorderLayout.CENTER);
eastPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(eastPanel.getPreferredSize().width, centerPanel.getPreferredSize().height));
pane.add(centerPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
pane.add(eastPanel, BorderLayout.EAST);
setContentPane(pane);
pack();
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
}
Thanks for your help !

I am not aware of a layout manager that restricts the height of the panel based on the height of a specific component in the panel.
One way is to customize the behaviour of the parent panel that contains the two child components.
The code might be something like:
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize()
{
Dimension d = super.getPreferredSize();
BorderLayout layout = (BorderLayout)getLayout();
Component center = layout.getLayoutComponent(BorderLayout.CENTER);
int centerHeight = center.getPreferreidSize().height;
if (d.height > centerHeight)
d.height = centerHeight;
return d;
}
This approach will allow for dynamic calculation of the height based on the component in the center.
Another option is to write you own layout manager. Then you can control this type of logic from within the layout manager.
Also, is setting that empty border an acceptable way to set the size of the panel where i will do some custom painting?
I override the getPreferredSize() to return the appropriate dimension.
By using the EmptyBorder you lose the ability to add a true Border to the panel, so I wouldn't recommend it.

JScrollPane not repaint Canvas when scrolling?

I trying to make a game where I add a Canvas to a JScrollPane but the canvas is larger than the visible area of the JScrollPane. So when I scroll the JScrollPane to see the rest I only see the blank area even though my Canvas is continuously redrawn. Anybody can help me??

It is common JScrollPane problem. To fix this with minimum fuss, call the following methods on your JScrollPane:
scrollpane.getViewport().setScrollMode(JViewport.SIMPLE_SCROLL_MODE);

Swing components do not work with heavyweight AWT components like Canvas. Use a JComponent or a JPanel instead of a Canvas

You need to use a lightweight JPanel and 2 heavyweight objects like:
JPanel foreground = new JPanel();
Panel frame = new Panel();
Cavas canvas = new Cavas();
foreground.add(frame);
frame.add(canvas);
Heavyweight objects might be AWT, or SWT (with OLE), or mixed, it does not matter.
Then get JScrollPane and add AdjustmentListener which calls method like:
private void updateLocation() {
final JScrollPane scroll = getScrollPane();
if (null == scroll) {
// do nothing
return;
}
final Point top = getLocation();
final Rectangle visible = getVisibleRect();
// set up new location
frame.setSize(visible.width, visible.height);
frame.setLocation(visible.x - top.x, visible.y - top.y);
canvas.setSize(getWidth(), getHeight());
canvas.setLocation(top.x - visible.x, top.y - visible.y);
}