I'm fairly new to Java and I'm trying to create a GUI application with some labels, buttons, and textfields. The program is pretty simple and I just wanted to use a default layout, which is FlowLayout. I managed to place and size everything fine, but the only thing seem to be not working is the alignment. I want to place buttons and textfields with certain alignments, but whenever I set an alignment, it moves the text inside of whatever the object rather than the object itself. For example, I wrote:
button.setHorizontalAlignment(JButton.RIGHT);
but it seems like it aligns the text inside the button instead of the button itself.
Is there any way to align the button itself rather than the text inside of it?
I know the alignment stuff could be easier with some other type of layout (e.g. BoxLayout), but I just want to use the FlowLayout for this one, unless it is impossible to align them using the FlowLayout (which I don't think so).
Thanks in advance.
See the constructor FlowLayout(int align).
Constructs a new FlowLayout with the specified alignment and a default 5-unit horizontal and vertical gap. The value of the alignment argument must be one of FlowLayout.LEFT, FlowLayout.RIGHT, FlowLayout.CENTER, FlowLayout.LEADING, or FlowLayout.TRAILING.
It seems you are after a FlowLayout.RIGHT as seen in this answer (the combo and check box at the top).
I don't think you can do this with a FlowLayout alone.
My suggestions would be:
Consider switching to MigLayout which is a much more powerful layout mechanism. MigLayout basically lets you position you components within a flexible grid, and you can set the specific alignment of a component within each grid cell.
When you want alignment of subcomponents, it also often makes sense to put them inside a nested JPanel. You can then use a separate layout for this JPanel (BorderLayout perhaps?) which will enable you to get the exact alignment that you want.
setHorizontalAlignment of AbstractButton sets the horizontal alignment of the icon and text not the position of the button. AbstractButton's default is SwingConstants.CENTER.
If you want to align the button..set the position while adding it to the panel or frame..something like this....
p.add(button, BorderLayout.SOUTH);//using `BorderLayout`
Flow layouts are typically used to arrange buttons in a panel. It will arrange buttons left to right until no more buttons fit on the same line.
Related
I have used borderlayout to specify where the content of my java GUI shall be placed, I have then chosen to place it on EAST and then made two boxlayouts to show two columns of buttons. I now have to place something underneath it and not beside it. How would you suggest or advice me to do so, using any layout but preferably boxlayout and not absolute layout(null). Thanks in advance.
Image:
The arrow points to the place I want another JPanel to be.
You could...
Wrap both of the button panels in a JPanel
Whatever component goes at the arrow, wrap in a JPanel with GrigbagLayout (just to center it).
Create another JPanel with BorderLayout that will hold the above panels. Use CENTER and SOUTH.
Give an EmptyBorder to the SOUTH panel, only specifying the top region and space it accordingly.
Really there are many ways to accomplish this. The key though is to nest JPanels and make use of the different layout managers with each, use EmptyBorders or stuts for empty spaces til you get your desired effect. The possibilities are endless. I don't think there's one right answer. Since we don't have a runnable example, I say just try the above, and mix and match will you get what you want.
I'm trying to build a simple interface for an assignment, in which multi-line word-wrapped input boxes can be stacked vertically in a single, fixed-width column. then the whole stack (if tall enough) has to scroll vertically inside of a scroll pane with the same fixed width and a fixed height.
The active box has to change height dynamically to fit the amount of text as it is being typed/deleted. This means the y position of all subsequent inputs in the column should change accordingly. A layout manager's job, right?
I started reading about the swing layouts, and it seemed like only the GridBagLayout could do this. Since this is my app's only interface window, it seemed like a clunky layout to achieve something simple.
So, which swing layout should I use, along with which text input class for word-wrapping and auto height adjustment? Thanks.
A BoxLayout might be what you are after for this use-case.
On my Java Swing application I have two components. On the left side is a navigation (JList) and on the right side is a JTable. I would like to leave the possibility to increase the size of the window, without increasing the size of both components.
The proportion of 50/50 is kept, through ought the whole sizing. I use GridLayout. Is this behavior rooted into the LayoutManager or is a property which has to be set?
GridbagLayout will allow you to achieve this. However, have you also considered using a JSplitPane where the left-hand side contains your navigation panel and the right hand side contains the table? You could configure it so that all additional space is allocated to the right hand side by calling setResizeWeight(0.0). However, you still retain the flexibility of allowing the user to manually resize the navigation area if required. You also have the option to hide your navigation panel completely by calling setOneTouchExpandable(true) on the split pane.
From what I know the GridLayout manager resizes all cells to the same size. Knowing this you might use it anyway just add the component you want to stay unchanged to a panel and then add this panel to a cell instead.
Or use a different layout manager mine favourite is TableLayout, where you can set which columns/rows should fill the empty space where the rest will stay in their preferred size.
Good luck, Boro
Suggestion: Don't us GridLayout. Instead use other layouts such Borderlayout or GridBagLayout or a combination of layouts. For instance if you used BorderLayout, you could but the JTable BorderLayout.CENTER and the JList in one of the other positions. Or if you use GridBagLayout, then by setting your GridBagConstraint weightx and weighty values correctly and the fill values (only you know what you currently desire), would allow selective enlargement of the components added to the container.
Guys, I need to put some buttons in a jscrollpanel, but the JScrollPane won't create a scroll vertically. I'm using a JPanel inside the JScrollPane which is using the simple FlowLayout layout. How can I make the JScrollPanel to scroll only in the vertical??
Problem:
Desired Solution:
Check out the Wrap Layout
The fact you use a JScrollPane changes quite a few things concerning the internal FlowLayout. indeed, when the FlowLayout tries to layout contained JButtons, it use for that the available space. In your case, you don't have limits to the space in the "scrollable client" of your JScrollPane. As a consequence, considering your FlowLayout has infinite space, it uses this space to display items according to it.
So the solution would be to change your scrollable client in order to limit its viewable area to the same than your JScrollPane's JViewport.
However, you would not even in this case have your line returns, as FlowLayout don't really well handle this case.
Were I to be you, I would of course choose an other layout. As GridLayout don't really well handles borders, i think the only reasonible standard layout you can use is GridBagLayout, althgough I fear your dynamic content constraints may require you something even more customizable.
JTextArea c = new JTextArea();
c.setLineWrap(true);
c.setWrapStyleWord(false);
This will wrap anything in a text area to the next line without creating a Horizontal Scroll.
Use the modified Flow Layout that I posted in this answer: How can I let JToolBars wrap to the next line (FlowLayout) without them being hidden ty the JPanel below them?
It will wrap to the next line and your scrollbar should scroll vertically.
scrollbar = new Scrollbar(Scrollbar.VERTICAL);
Or you could use a JList.
See this site for more info: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/list.html
the example class: ListDialog uses only a vertical scrollbar, when the window is resized or the elements don't fit the view.
I have to build a rather large form with many controls. The controls are divided in basic controls/settings and extended controls/settings. The user can decide if he wants to see only the basic or both basic and extended controls.
I've dropped all extended controls onto their own JPanel so that I can easily switch between the two views by showing or hiding this panel.
Currently I'm using GroupLayout and what happens is that the controls on different panels are not aligned:
Label aaa: Text field
Label a: Text field
Label aaaaaa: Text field
----------------------------
Label b: Text field
Label bbb: Text field
Label bb: Text field
Unfortunatly I found now way to "synchronize" the layouts of the two panels (except using AbsoluteLayout and fixed control coordinates)
Is there any way to achive this?
Is my whole design flawed?
EDIT: If it is possible I would like to keep the GroupLayout manager.
As far as I know, no Swing LayoutManager (from JRE or open source) can span several panels.
I am currently working on such a feature (which I called "layouts synchronization") for my DesignGridLayout project, but it is not something easy to implements (I have started about 2 weeks ago and I still don't see exactly if and when I will get to something interesting, but I still have high hope for it;-))
One option you could check would be to add all components to the same panel (with just one GroupLayout then) and hide/show them based on user's selection. Hopefully, GroupLayout will adapt the size to the situation (after calling pack()).
If GroupLayout behaves well, then it would just be a matter of calling pack() each time after user changes his selection to show/hide extended fields.
Else you would have to manually set the size of your panel every time the user changes his selection.
Probably the easiest (good) way to do it is to add all the components to the main panel. Set the subpanels to non-opaque, and add the also to the main panel. The main panel the needs optimised drawing to be switched off.
Another technique is to add a spacer component. To the bottom panel add a component in the same column as the labels which dynamically takes the width component of its various size methods from the top labels. Do the same in reverse to the top panel.
I think there is no way to do it with the standard layout managers. You'll probably have to write your own layout manager, but it shouldn't be too hard if you subclass GroupLayout.
You could use GridLayout instead of GroupLayout which will give you uniform spacing between the columns
If you want to keep them in separate panels with separate layouts:
Iterate over all of the labels that you add, and find the maximum preferred width of each.
Iterate a second time, and set the preferred size to that each label's preferred height, but the maximum width.
This is the explanation of th GridLayout. This will set every component to the size, you expect it. With the GridData object you can specify how the components are ordere.
Examples
(source: sun.com)