Vertical alignment of components of jpanels using GridLayout - java

I am making KenKen as my term project using java swing library. For alignment I have used gridbag and gridlayout, But now i want to add one more component of JPanel to the UI. These screenshots will make the problem more clear:
Now I select the grid cell to which i want to add respective candidates of in the left most panel.
It disturbs the adjacent alignments of the grid and panels.
Here are the panels with their respective layouts:
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
buttonPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 4, 5, 5));
buttonPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(20,40));
buttonPanel.add(undoButton);
buttonPanel.add(redoButton);
buttonPanel.add(eraseButton);
buttonPanel.add(hintButton);
JPanel cellPanel = new JPanel();
cellPanel.setName("cellPanel");
cellPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(pSize, pSize, 0, 0));
JPanel numPanel = new JPanel();
numPanel.setName("numPanel");
numPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,1,5,5));
numPanel.setPreferredSize((new Dimension(50,60)));
JPanel candPanel = new JPanel();
candPanel.setName("candidatesPanel");
JLabel candidates = new JLabel("Candidates");
candidates.setFont(new Font("Courier New", Font.ITALIC, 14));
candidates.setForeground(Color.GRAY);
candPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(0,1));
candPanel.add(candidates);
Then it all goes into the content panel:
content.add(buttonPanel, pos.nextCol().expandW());
content.add(candPanel, pos.nextRow());
content.add(new Gap(GAP) , pos.nextRow()); // Add a gap below
content.add(cellPanel, pos.nextCol());
content.add(numPanel,pos.nextCol().expandW());
The buttons are all generated on runtime, and they are added to the candPanel in an action listener.

You appear to be using a GridBagConstraints subclass of which I am unaware (variable pos), though I can guess its function from context.
Assuming your problem is that you want the candidates panel to be to the left of the cellPanel, and not above it, you need to swap the lines which add the candPanel and the new Gap(GAP) as follows:
content.add(buttonPanel, pos.nextCol().expandW());
content.add(new Gap(GAP), pos.nextRow()); // These two lines
content.add(candPanel, pos.nextRow()); // swapped over
content.add(cellPanel, pos.nextCol());
content.add(numPanel,pos.nextCol().expandW());

Related

How to have gap between the frame and a component?

I'm trying practice my GUI and I am having troubles putting gap between component and the frame.
The picture above is what I have so far. But I really want to put a gap between the left side of the frame and "label1".
private void initialize() {
frame = new JFrame();
frame.setTitle("WINDOW");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(500, 300);
panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
bottomPanel = new JPanel();
bottomPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 5));
l1 = new JLabel("Label1");
l2 = new JLabel("Label2");
l3 = new JLabel("Label3");
l4 = new JLabel("Label4");
l5 = new JLabel("Label5");
bottomPanel.add(l1);
bottomPanel.add(l2);
bottomPanel.add(l3);
bottomPanel.add(l4);
bottomPanel.add(l5);
panel.add(bottomPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
frame.add(panel);
}
Above is part my code. I tried doing:
bottomPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 5, -20, 0));
to put some horizontal gap but that only added gap between the components. That didn't move "label1" away from the frame at all. Is there any other way of doing this? I am very new to Java so I don't really know much of the other tricks. I would appreciate any help! Thank you!
The other answers are fudges that won't achieve the desired effect when the GUI is resized. Instead use:
JLabel.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
By centering the text within the JLabel, combined with GridLayout stretching the components to the full width of the cell, each label will have as much space either side as the GUI can allow. E.G. here is the effect when the GUI is at minimum size.
And when stretched wider:
(The red border is added to show the bounds of each label.)
Add a Border to the panel:
bottomPanel = new JPanel();
bottomPanel.setBorder( new EmptyBorder(0, 10, 0, 0) );
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Borders for more information about the different borders you can create.
Try the following:
bottomPanel.add(javax.swing.Box.createHorizontalStrut(10));

My Frames take up most of the space availbe

So I have a problem that I have to make a questionnaire about something and I have to use multiple Layouts.
My problem is that when I add 2 JPanels to a Grid layout (only to 1 side) my first Panel takes up most of the space.
Code:
public class MainFrame extends JFrame implements ItemListener{
JPanel mainPanel,rightSideAge,rightSideGender,leftSide,rightSideBox,leftSideBox;
JTextArea nameArea;
JSpinner ageSpinner;
JRadioButton genMale,genFema;
ButtonGroup genderGroup;
MainFrame(){
this.setSize(1000, 800);
this.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
this.setTitle("Közvélemény kutatás a zenei ízlésekről");
mainPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 2));
this.setContentPane(mainPanel);
/* --- RIGHT PANEL --- */
rightSideBox = new JPanel();
rightSideBox.setLayout(new BoxLayout(rightSideBox, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
rightSideAge = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT));
rightSideAge.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.BLUE));
//rightSide.setLayout(new BoxLayout(rightSide, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
mainPanel.add(rightSideBox);
//Age label
//JLabel labelAge = new JLabel("Kor: ");
//labelAge.setSize(100, 30);
//Age Spinner
ageSpinner = new JSpinner(new SpinnerNumberModel(1, 1, 120, 1));
ageSpinner.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(40, 20));
Component mySpinnerEditor = ageSpinner.getEditor();
JFormattedTextField jftf = ((JSpinner.DefaultEditor) mySpinnerEditor).getTextField();
jftf.setColumns(5);
//New box for zenei ízlés
rightSideGender = new JPanel();
rightSideGender.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.GREEN));
rightSideGender.setLayout(new BoxLayout(rightSideGender,BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
//Gender ComboBox
genderGroup = new ButtonGroup();
genMale = new JRadioButton("Férfi");
genderGroup.add(genMale);
genFema = new JRadioButton("Nő");
genderGroup.add(genFema);
/* --- LEFT SIDE --- */
rightSideBox.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.RED));
/* ADD STUFF TO PANELS */
/* RightSideBox */
rightSideBox.add(rightSideAge);
rightSideBox.add(rightSideGender);
/*RIGHT SIDE PANELS*/
rightSideGender.add(new JLabel("Nem:"));
rightSideGender.add(genMale);
rightSideGender.add(genFema);
rightSideAge.add(new JLabel("Kor"));
//rightSide.add(labelAge);
rightSideAge.add(ageSpinner);
/*LEFT SIDE PANEL*/
this.setVisible(true);
this.setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
The Blue lineout sould be only under the JSpinner:
ageSpinner.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(40, 20));
First of all, you should not be manually setting the size of a component. Each Swing component is responsible for determining its own size.
The Blue lineout should be only under the JSpinner:
The box layout will resize a component to its maximum size if there is space available. For some reason a JSpinner doesn't appear to have a maximum height so it expands to fill all the available space.
To fix this you can do something like:
//ageSpinner.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(40, 20));
ageSpinner.setMaximumSize( ageSpinner.getPreferredSize() );
mainPanel layout is set to have two columns:
mainPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 2));
You only add one panel to mainPanel which uses the GridLayout:
mainPanel.add(rightSideBox);
Note: the first component you add, in this case rightSideBox will occupy the first column, meaning it will be the LEFT one.
To add rightSideGender to mainPanel you need to :
mainPanel.add(rightSideGender);
The second component you add, in this case rightSideGender will occupy the second column, in this case the RIGHT one.

How to have one component on the left and one on the right by FlowLayout

In a part of my software I have a layout on bottom that holds couple of JButtons and a JLabel. I want to keep buttons one the right side of the panel, and label on the left side. I could manage to put buttons on the right, but do not know how to keep the JLabel on the left side.
Here is the code:
bottomPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
ftpBack = new JButton("Back");
ftpNext = new JButton("Next");
label = new JLabel("Text);
bottomPanel.add(label);
bottomPanel.add(ftpBack);
bottomPanel.add(ftpNext);
mainPanel.add(bottomPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
This is what I am trying to achieve:
Any idea how to make it ?
You can't do this with a FlowLayout.
You can use a horizontal BoxLayout:
Box box = Box.createHorizontalBox();
box.add(label);
box.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
box.add(backButton);
box.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(5));
box.add(nextButton);
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use BoxLayout for more information and examples.
Or another approach is to nest layout managers:
JPanel main = new JPanel( new BorderLayout() );
main.add(label, BorderLayout.WEST);
JPanel buttonPanel= new JPanel();
buttonPanel.add(back);
buttonPanel.add(next);
main.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.EAST);

Align two panels next to eachother

I am currently trying to create a script editor. But the lineNumber JPanel is not top aligned next to the JTextArea. The lineNumber JPanel appears at the center on the right side of the JTextArea.
It looks like this:
This is the class which instantiates both of these components:
private ScriptEditor() {
((FlowLayout) this.getLayout()).setVgap(0);
((FlowLayout) this.getLayout()).setHgap(0);
//This is the lineNumber JPanel which has no LayoutManager set.
lineNumPanel = new LineNumberPanel();
//I tried setAlignmentY but it did not work
lineNumPanel.setAlignmentY(TOP_ALIGNMENT);
//The text area.
scriptArea = new JTextArea(22,15);
scriptArea.setFont(new Font(Font.SANS_SERIF, Font.PLAIN, 15));
scriptArea.setMargin(new Insets(3, 10, 3, 10));
//This JPanel contains the two components: lineNumber JPanel and the JTextArea
JPanel temp = new JPanel();
temp.add(lineNumPanel);
temp.add(scriptArea);
//Set the scrollPane
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(temp);
scrollPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(width, height));
//Add the scrollPane to this JPanel.
add(scrollPane);
}
JPanel temp = new JPanel();
By default a JPanel uses a FlowLayout. a FlowLayout vertically centers the components added to the panel. If you don't like this behaviour then try a different layout manager like a horizontal BoxLayout, which will allow you to align the component at the top/center/bottom depending on the components vertical alignment.
However, using a JPanel is not the best approach. Instead you should be adding the line number component to the row header of the scroll pane. See Text Component Line Number for an example of this approach.

Java swing layouts and/or labels not in order

I have got a window that should display the following:
JLablel "Have you used GUI before?" on the top, centered
two radioButtons "Yes" and "No" below it, somewhat in the center, a little bit towards the left
a JButton "NEXT" in the bottom-right corner
All three elements should have green font and darkGrey background.
The problem is that the window which is showing up, does not look like I would like it to.
And this is my code:
yesButton = new JRadioButton(yes);
//yesButton.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_B); // doesn't work?
yesButton.setActionCommand(yes);
noButton = new JRadioButton(no);
// noButton.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_C); // doesn't work?
noButton.setActionCommand(no);
ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
group.add(yesButton);
group.add(noButton);
nextButton = new JButton("NEXT");
nextButton.setActionCommand(next);
yesButton.addActionListener(this);
noButton.addActionListener(this);
nextButton.addActionListener(this);
JPanel radioPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1));
radioPanel.add(yesButton);
radioPanel.add(noButton);
add(radioPanel, BorderLayout.WEST);
// setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20,20,20,20));
// radioPanel.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(250, 250, 20, 20));
// there is no difference between the above two, right?
String q = "Have you used GUI before?";
JPanel area = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
area.setBackground(Color.darkGray);
JLabel textLabel2 = new JLabel("<html><div style=\"text-align: center;\">"
+ q + "</html>", SwingConstants.CENTER);
textLabel2.setForeground(Color.green);
Font font2 = new Font("SansSerif", Font.PLAIN, 30);
textLabel2.setFont(font2);
//textLabel2.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(0, 0, 250, 0)); //top, left, bottom, right
area.add(textLabel2, BorderLayout.NORTH);
area.add(nextButton, BorderLayout.EAST);
add(area, BorderLayout.CENTER);
I feel I'm nearly there, thanks for any help!
--EDIT--
A screenshot:
You need to use nested panels.
for the BorderLayout.NORTH you can add the JLabel directly. You will need to set the horizontal text alignment to center.
for the radio buttons you can create a JPanel with a FlowLayout and then add the buttons to the panel and add the panel to the CENTER.
for the button you add the button to a panel using a FlowLayout that is right aligned, then add the panel to the SOUTH.
There are other choices. You could also use a Vertical BoxLayout as the layout of the main panel and then add child panels to it.
You won't be able to get much control with just a BorderLayout. Try something else like MigLayout or one of the other many many layout managers Java has (GridBag, Box, etc).
In MigLayout it would look something like:
area.setLayout(new MigLayout("fill"));
area.add(textLabel2, "wrap");
area.add(radioPanel, "wrap");
area.add(nextButton, "tag right");

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