I'm working on a POS system for a fast food restaurant. I've developed Adding, updating and deleting products using a MySQL Database. Now I need to create the POS GUI (using SWING) which the cashier uses to create the bill. The interface I have in mind is like what MacDonald's uses, there's a set of buttons with the product images. (I have stored BLOBS of products successfully)
example image :
I have no idea on how to accomplish this, it would be awesome if its possible to generate a set of dynamic Jbuttons which gets the image of a product along with the name and price. Is this the best way to accomplish this? and how do I achieve this? A few details to put me on the correct path will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.
You have at least four containers, the top row, the bottom row and each row containing a separate container in the middle (for the buttons).
The basic layout for the rows might be a GridLayout, each row would probably use a BorderLayout with the nav buttons in the WEST and EAST positions. CENTER container could use a GridLayout, but won't give you the look you're after. You could use a FlowLayout and even a GridBagLayout, but you'd need to ensure the size of the buttons where correct for your needs
On the left I see a JTable and two JPanels, containing the buttons, held together with a GridBagLayout.
On the right I see a JList. See How to Use Lists for more details. You'll probably also want to have a look at Concepts: Editors and Renderers and Writing a Custom Cell Renderer for details about how you could customise the look of the cells and How to Write a List Selection Listener for details about how to determine when the user changes the selection
Together, they are probably maintained by a GridBagLayout within a single container for ease of use
Along the button is probably another container using a GridBagLayout.
Altogether, they are probably held together by a GridBagLayout
Have a look at Laying Out Components Within a Container, How to Use GridBagLayout, How to Use BorderLayout and How to Use FlowLayout for more details
You will need to look into the GridLayout.
In your case, it might be a little bit more complex since you have multiple grids, some of which seem to be nested within each other.
You should be able to allocate the grid dynamically and then leave it to the layout manager to distribute things evenly over the page.
Depending on the complexity of your layout, it might also be a good idea to look into the GridPane provided by JavaFX.
Hi I look for you this problem and I find this solution ;
http://www.javasrilankansupport.com/2012/06/create-dynamic-jbutton-with-image-and.html
Related
I am very new to Vaadin. My requirement is like in my page I need to have 4 input component per row. There would be 4 rows like this. I need a layout which will allow me to define number of columns and keep align it.
There should not be any border like we have in table. Please suggest me any suitable layout and how can I customize that.
Thanks
You are probably looking for a GridLayout, it provides enough flexibility to size your grid 'cells', maintain consistency and set expand ratios for row and columns separately.
The other option for you is to use a CustomComponent and in case you are using Vaadin plugin for eclipse (and I don't have experience with Vaadin on any other IDE) you can use their WYSIWYG editor to translate your requirement to a custom component.
I'm trying to figure out how to manage this layout in order for it to work. I have some ideas, but rehauling the whole thing is quite a bit of work to do.
This is how it looks like (in JTextAreas: "component name (parent (parent))"):
I have explaind the structure at the end of the question, if you feel the need to know.
This GUI is supposed to be very dynamic. You should be able to add and remove chapters, pages, questions and answers.
The GUI in the image above is made using nested JPanels (up to six layers on the thickest parts!) which most don't have thier size specified so they can adjust to the changes in the document. However, a lot of time is consumed (about a second per page) when drawing the document because the program keeps recalculating sizes of all the JPanels until they fit. So, unless I can specify the initial size (MigLayout) of a component, this method won't cut it for me.
Only alternative I have come up with is trying to put it all in one layer using MigLayout, which is doable, but I don't know how well does it work with the dynamic part of the whole thing. Removing and readding all the components (document could have over a hundred pages!) doesn't really seem as an option. Since most of the components are nested one onto another and are to move as one, this makes this solution even more difficult.
Also, all widths are fixed, while all of the heights within a page are flexible.
I really don't know how to go about this. Should I modify one of the existing ideas to work, or are there maybe libraries which are used in this type of situations? Is there another way?
Any ideas?
Also, as promised, this is the structure explained:
So, the thing important here is the JPanel inside a tab. It contains the DOCUMENT.
Document itself is made up out of random number of CHAPTERS. Each CHAPTER contains random number of PAGES. PAGES have MARINGS and CONTENT. On the image, pink and red parts are the MARGNIS, while everything within is CONTENT(green). CONTENT contains a single TITLE(blue). TITLE is made out ofa single JTextArea. After the TITLE, CONTENT can contain a random number of QUESTION(orange). QUESTION contains a JLabel(number) and JTextArea in one row, and below is a it's ANSWER PANEL. ANSWER PANEL contains up to five ANSWERS(yellow). Each ANSWER has a JCheckBox, JLabel (letter) and a JTextArea all in the same row.
Here I have some things marked out:
You seem to have the design you need. Break down each section and apply the required layout to achieve that section. Each section should be a self contained component.
So to my mind, start by modelling the data. You need a Document model, which contains a list of Chapters, which contains a list of Pages, which is made up of a list of Titles, which is is made up of a list of questions.
I would then provide a view for each level of the model. This will allow you to concentrate on the individual needs of each view, in isolation and reuse the code logic. It also means if you need to make changes, they will be more easy to make and reflected through the entire program
You seem to have the right idea for the Document/Chapters, being laid out within tabs.
I'd follow through. Each Page would be a self contained component, possibly using something like a GridLayout.
Each Content section would be its own component, consisting of the title editor and then the questions.
Here I'd use a BorderLyout, placing the title editor at the north position and the question panel in the center. You could then use something like a GridLayout for the questions pane.
As for the margins, you can achieve hese through the use EmptyBorders
I've heard that putting the same-level component on top of another same-level component is bad practice.
I'm talking about JPanels in this case. I currently divide everything into separate JPanels where each has its own layout, and then I add them to the main content pane (JPanel). I feel like this way is much easier than having to configure a layout that will work for all my components that can be all over the place. Is my logic flawed?
There is nothing wrong with having panels inside of panels. However, if you are doing a lot of that, you may want to consider a layout manager (my favorite is MiGLayout) that supports fairly complex arrangement of controls without using tons of nested panels.
At the end of the day, use a composition that makes it easier for you to maintain your code. If you have groupings of controls that are independent of each other, then having them in separate panels is good design - it allows you to split that panel out (for testing, or even for creative windowing in the UI). If the sets of controls are intrinsically tied to each other, consider a single panel with an advanced layout manager.
In some cases, you'll have a small amount of binding between two panels (classic example is one panel with a list and another panel with a detail view for the selected item in the list). In this case, I generally use two separate panels, and two separate presentation models, then bind the current selected item in one model to the parent of the inspector panel. But if you find that you are using values from multiple panels for things like validation, data storage, etc... then you may have things split into too many panels.
I've done a lot of this over the years, and the position I've settled on is to compose my UIs along logical lines of the underlying presentation models that back the views. Very rarely do I let the layout of the UI drive how many panels I use, etc... - MigLayout (and I'm sure there are others) make even complex UI layouts fairly straightforward, and it's much better to design the classes for the view and model in a way that make the code easier to test and maintain.
I have a list of entities where each entity render into widget based on JPanel. Widgets have dynamic behaviour - once placed on panel it can be changed by underlying entity. This happens automaticaly. Moreover some widgets can be resized by different actions, on button click for example.
The question is how to organise them into something like JList but without rubber stamp technics. In other words I wanna JList where each item rendered with cellrenderer stay "alive".
Right now I have implemented quick-and-dirty component based on JPanel with vertical BoxLayout, it uses JList's renderer component and it's model... but my implementation is too dirty...
Um.. yeah, using JTable is not suitable too.
Do you have some ideas?
If you don't want rubber stamping to take place then you'll have to create your own JList implementation that uses actual components.
You could try and work around the rubber stamping effect by caching each component for each row in your renderer and bind values into it and return that instance when JList asks the renderer for it. This is pretty risky because if you have 20 rows being displayed you'll have to cache 20 instances in your renderer, and only when the row isn't visible can you reuse one. That would mean if you had 5 unique configurations (A,B,C,D,E) of components you might have 10 of type A, 5 of type B, 2 of type C, and 3 of type D, and 0 of type E being displayed. However, you can't simply reuse one of those components without knowing if its being displayed or not. So you'd have to take into account if the row is being displayed and if it's the right type for the row you are rendering. And you'll have to clean up after the row is hidden.
Another option is make a single component for the row that encapsulates all X variations you have and put those on a CardLayout. Then you can simply cache one per row being displayed, and simply swap the card being displayed upon rendering that row. I think that might be the simplest option for you.
The harder part is going to be routing events click mouse clicks, keyboard events, etc to those active components to have them respond like normal components. Re-rendering the buttons when the user clicks them, and so forth is going to be challenging. Not impossible, but tedious.
Finally, variable row height JList is a pain. Especially in your calculations to figure out if a row is displayed or not because you can't simply do easy math like: int rowHeight = jlist.getHeight / model.size(). It doesn't work. You have to calculate each row's height and them up to figure out if a row is visible or not.
Doing what you're talking about is a lot of work, and very tricky coding to work around some of the assumptions of JList to make it work. In the end you might find it easier just to implement your own List control that makes different design decisions. Either way its going to require you are good at Swing to get it to work.
Ok. I don't find any implementation of such component. Let it be first one.
https://github.com/wertlex/JActiveList
P.S. I don't think this is proper way implementation... but it works.
use JList and ActionListener XD
I'm using Java Swing and I have the following problem:
I have a class TnaiPanel that extends JPanel. In this class I am creating 3 components and then lay them out in a horizontal line using a BoxLayout.
Also, I have a class TnaimDinamimPanel that also extends JPanel. This class contains multiple occurances of TnaiPanel, layed out vertically using a BoxLayout.
Also, I have a class MainFrame that extends JFrame. This frame contains a menu-bar and one main panel. The main panel can change (when choosing a certain menu-item, I create a new panel and set it to show as the main panel of the frame).
Now, for some reason I get "BoxLayout can't be shared" when I add the newly created TnaimDinamimPanel to the components of the frame.
I don't mind using different layout objects.
The result I want to get is a sort of "table" of components, where each TnaiPanel will have fixed component sizes and spacing, essentially serving the role os a "row" in the "table".
Thanks,
Malki.
You probably create only a single BoxLayout instance. Create a new one each time you need one (i.e. one per TnaiPanel, one per TnaimDinamimPanel and probably one per MainFrame).
To answer the second part of your question, ie "having a table of components", I would say that you can't do it with different panels, except if you start setting the individual min, pref and max sizes of components and panels, which is highly unadvised.
If you need to have correct alignment as in a table of components, then you need to put all your components in one panel, which also means you need to use only one layout. However, the only default swing layout that can allow you to do what you want is the GridBagLayout. Actually the GroupLayout (java 6) would also fit the bill but it absolutely requires a graphical designer (eg the one within netbeans).
If, like me, you are allergic to builders, then you'd better use one 3rd-party LayoutManager that is intended to be use programmatically (I would not consider GridBagLayout to be in this category although I have already used it that way in the past).
MigLayout (as suggested by Skeptic) is one option. Another option is DesignGridLayout which might fit your purpose better and is easier to use than MigLayout.
Try MiGLayout instead.