Develop Reference

Swing Frame setSize

I've created a simple user interface in Swing but the setSize command does not appear to be working. Can anyone tell me what the problem is?
import java.awt.Container;
import javax.swing.*;
public class UserInterface1 {
private JTextField outputArea = new JTextField();
private JTextField errorReportArea = new JTextField();
private JPanel inputPanel = new JPanel();
public UserInterface1() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Fuel Station");
frame.setSize(500, 500);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
outputArea.setEditable(false);
errorReportArea.setEditable(false);
Container contentPane = frame.getContentPane();
contentPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(contentPane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
contentPane.add(outputArea);
contentPane.add(errorReportArea);
contentPane.add(inputPanel);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
UserInterface1 test = new UserInterface1();
}
}

Swing Frame setSize
The right answer to this is don't do that!
Even when we know the size of the content of a frame must be (e.g.) 500x500 px, we should not be guessing the size of the frame, which will vary by platform.
pack() knows how big to make the frame. We don't, so we should use it.
The size of the text fields can be specified using a font size and the number of columns.
The right size for inputPanel can be determined from the content within it.

Replace:
frame.setSize(500, 500);
by
frame.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(500, 500));

It's because pack() resizes the frame to fit the dimensions of its contents or the preferred size, so you can remove the pack() call, or add a preferred size with setPreferredSize() method

using both JTabbedPane and JScrollPane

As you see the code, I would like to implement the 2nd tab with a text area, scrolling, and a button down there. This (JScrollPane scr = new JScrollPane(secondTab(panel2));) code was in the function, private static JTextArea secondTab(JPanel panel) before but I took it out of the function and put that back to MainFrame. Because the scroll and text area didn't show up. Now that I moved the code to mainframe the tex tarea and scroll are visible, but I'm struggling with making the button showing up in the 2nd tab. Do you guys have any idea?
public MainFrame(String username)
{
JTabbedPane tab = new JTabbedPane();
mainFrame.add(tab, BorderLayout.CENTER);
JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
firstTab(panel1);
tab.add("babababa", panel1);
JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
JScrollPane scr = new JScrollPane(secondTab(panel2));
JButton saveButton = new JButton("Save");
panel2.add(saveButton);
saveButton.setBounds(190, 280, 80, 40);
tab.add("hahaha", panel2.add(scr));
mainFrame.setBounds(200,200,500,400);
mainFrame.setVisible(true);
}
private static JTextArea secondTab(JPanel panel) {
panel.setLayout(null);
final JTextArea nameTextArea=new JTextArea();
nameTextArea.setBounds(10,10,440,270);
nameTextArea.setLineWrap(true);
return nameTextArea;
}
}

You should avoid use of null layout as this makes for very inflexible GUI's that while they might look good on one platform look terrible on most other platforms or screen resolutions and that are very difficult to update and maintain. Not only that, JScrollPanes do not work well when the viewport view (the component that you display inside of the JScrollPane) uses null layout. Not only that, if you set the bounds or even the preferred size of a JTextArea, it will not expand inside the JScrollPane and you won't see scrollbars.
Solution:
Avoid using null layouts like the plague.
Learn and use the layout managers: The Swing Layout Manager Tutorials
Never set a JTextArea's size or preferredSize. Instead consider setting its columns and rows.
For example:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import javax.swing.*;
public class MainFrame2 extends JPanel {
private JTabbedPane tabbedPane = new JTabbedPane();
private JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(20, 40);
public MainFrame2() {
tabbedPane.add("Bahahahaha", new JPanel());
tabbedPane.add("TextArea Info", createTextAreaPane());
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
add(tabbedPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
}
private JComponent createTextAreaPane() {
JPanel btnPanel = new JPanel();
btnPanel.add(new JButton("Save"));
JPanel textAreaPane = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
textAreaPane.add(new JScrollPane(textArea), BorderLayout.CENTER);
textAreaPane.add(btnPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
return textAreaPane;
}
private static void createAndShowGui() {
MainFrame2 mainPanel = new MainFrame2();
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Main Frame");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowGui();
}
});
}
}

It's better to build each tab panel in each method.
private JPanel buildFirstTab() {
// create new panel
// add components to the panel
// return the panel
}
private JPanel buildSecondTab() {
// create new panel
// create JScrollPane
// create JTextArea
// add text area to scrollpane by calling scrollpane.setViewPort method
// add scrollpane to the panel
// create button
// add button to the panel
// return the panel
}
public MainFrame(String username) {
JTabbedPane tab = new JTabbedPane();
mainFrame.add(tab, BorderLayout.CENTER);
tab.add("1st tab", buildFirstTab());
tab.add("2nd tab", buildSecondTab());
mainFrame.setBounds(200,200,500,400);
mainFrame.setVisible(true);
}
Adding to the previous answer, try to use the simple layout like BoxLayout (adds components on top of each other), or FlowLayout (adds components next to previous component), then learn more complex layout like GridBagLayout (so far, this is the best layout for me, most of the time).

Add multiple jlabel on jpanel and on same line using box layout

Want to add two jlabel with some space on same line to jpanel, japnel layout is set to box layout,due to some constraints i can't change layout to another and property of box layout from Y_AXIS to LINE_AXIS, so please provide me with some solution, so i can put jlabel on same line..
contentPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(contentPane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
So please let me know the solution for the same mentioned above.

Wrap your labels in a JPanel with a Border layout. Add one to the West panel and another to the East panel. Set the alignment of the JLabels as needed. Then add the JPanel to your box layout.

It looks like you believe you can't change the layout because you're dealing with the content pane of a JFrame and you don't want to change the rest of the window.
If that's the case, you can use nested layouts by adding the two JLabels to a separate JPanel (let's call it labelPanel) and adding that to the content pane. It would look something like this:
JPanel labelPanel = new JPanel();
labelPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(labelPanel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
labelPanel.add(leftLabel);
labelPanel.add(Box.createGlue()); //creates space between the JLabels
labelPanel.add(rightLabel);
contentPane.add(labelPanel);

Try this out: JPanel with GridLayout, and JLabels left and right aligned. The frame is a Box still uses a box. What should interest you is the JPanel panel code. That's where I'm adding the labels. All you have to do is nest components and layouts
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.LineBorder;
public class TwoLabels extends JFrame{
public TwoLabels(){
Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 2));
panel.setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.black));
JLabel label1 = new JLabel("Hello");
JLabel label2 = new JLabel("World");
label1.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.LEADING);
label2.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.TRAILING);
panel.add(label1);
panel.add(label2);
box.add(new JPanel(){
public Dimension getPreferredSize(){
return new Dimension(300, 300);
}
});
box.add(panel);
add(box);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new TwoLabels();
}
}

Layout Manager preferredSize Java

I'm still trying to learn how layout managers work. I made a Frame with two JPanels.
The first one contains a textArea with a boxLayout.
The second one contains a flow layout with a button.
I set the preferredSize of each panel accordingly, packed them, but got unexpected results.
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class LayoutMgrTest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
TableBasic frame = new TableBasic();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.getContentPane().setLayout(new GridLayout(2,1));
JPanel controlPane = new JPanel();
JPanel buttonPane = new JPanel();
controlPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(controlPane, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
controlPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200, 200));
controlPane.add(new JScrollPane(new JTextArea()));
buttonPane.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT));
buttonPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,20));
buttonPane.add(new JButton("Button1"));
buttonPane.add(new JButton("Button2"));
frame.getContentPane().add(controlPane, BorderLayout.NORTH);
frame.getContentPane().add(buttonPane, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
frame.setSize(new Dimension(500,500));
frame.pack();
}
}
Whatever I do, if I use a grid Layout, it seems to always allocate half of the available space to each control. I have been told that:
The height of each row is dependent on the height of each component
added in each row.
The buttonpane's height is 20. It's allocating much more than that to it:
What's wrong with this code?
I would like to leave the two JPanels intact please. It's easy to simply add the textbox and the buttons directly to the frame, but I need to do it with JPanels (because I will be adding borders and other things).

That's the result of using GridLayout as layout manager. Change it to BorderLayout:
frame.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
For example, this code (I changed a little as possible from the original):
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class LayoutMgrTest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
//frame.setVisible(true);
//frame.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
JPanel controlPane = new JPanel();
JPanel buttonPane = new JPanel();
controlPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(controlPane, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
controlPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200, 200));
controlPane.add(new JScrollPane(new JTextArea()));
buttonPane.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT));
buttonPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,40));
buttonPane.add(new JButton("Button1"));
buttonPane.add(new JButton("Button2"));
frame.add(controlPane, BorderLayout.NORTH);
frame.add(buttonPane, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
//frame.setSize(new Dimension(500,500));
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
Generates this frame:

I set the preferredSize of each panel accordingly,
That is another problem. You should NOT set the preferred size. That is the job of the layout manager. Just add your components to the panels and let the layout manager do its job.
Most compnents have a default preferred size. For some you need to give it a little tip.
For example when using a text area you would give a "suggested" preferred size by using:
JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(rows, columns);

If you use LayoutManager, you should not set a size on a component except the frame.
the size for the components is calculated from the different layout managers.
you find more infos at http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/layout/howLayoutWorks.html
in your code, you can add the panel with the textarea to BorderLayout.CENTER. this should solve your problem. the component in BorderLayout.CENTER takes the whole space, except the space needed for the components in NORTH, EAST, SOUTH and WEST.

JScrollPane for a panel containing a set of labels with BoxLayout

I'd like to use a JScrollPane for a panel which has an arbitrary list of labels in it using box layout. I'm trying to get it so that the scrollbar would appear if there were too many items (labels) to display.
I tried adding a JScrollPane to the panel and then add the labels but then I don't see any scroll bar.
Any ideas?
TIA

For this kind of thing, you'd normally use a JList or JTable (if you need custom rendering).

Make sure that you call validate() or revalidate() on the JScrollPane after adding an item, to force the preferred size of the panel to be recalculated.

Here's how I did it.
JPanel midPanel = new JPanel();
midPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(midPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
midPanel.add(new JLabel("<html><u>Label</u>"));
Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();
for (Item item : data.getInventory()) {
inventory.add(box.add(new JLabel(item.getName())));
}
JScrollPane jscrlpBox = new JScrollPane(box);
midPanel.add(jscrlpBox);
add(midPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
From:
http://www.java2s.com/Code/Java/Swing-JFC/JScrollPanetoholdscrollablecomponent.htm

Did you remember to set the preferred size of the content panel?
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Scroll Demo");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
final Box textArea = Box.createVerticalBox();
final JScrollPane textAreaScroll = new JScrollPane(textArea);
textAreaScroll.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(80,150)); /* essential! */
JButton addButton = new JButton("ADD");
addButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
textArea.add(new JLabel("abc"));
textArea.revalidate();
}
});
frame.getContentPane().add(textAreaScroll, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
frame.getContentPane().add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(10,10)), BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.getContentPane().add(addButton, BorderLayout.NORTH);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
In this example, the scroll bar works correctly, but if you remove the line marked as "essential", it will not work anymore.