I have a JComponent that I draw on using openGL. It is enclosed in a panel with some side panels and a jmenu. It is getting cramped so I want to make the next set of controls into a window the user can show/hide/move around.
How do I make an option in my JMENU that when I click it a window is spawned that resides in my application as if that will reside within my jframe but be draggable, non modal, closable, always on top?
When I minimize my app or my app loses focus it should not be visible.
Essentially, I want a toolbar that the user can show/hide/move themselves.
I ended up using a draggabletoolbar object.
See this question for example implementation.
Related
I am designing a game for a project in Java Swing using a JForm. I know that you have to use the code
jPanel1.setVisible(true);
I used this for all panels, even in the init() method in the source.
I am using the "Layered Panel" option for every panel I add. I placed the image on the first panel:
There are radio buttons in my second panel. I want the user to click on the option while looking at the picture, kind of like clicking on an icon (radio button) on desktop (background image).
Like this:
When I try to look at my design preview, it just shows me Panel2 (only radio buttons), not 1.
Is it possible to fix this (make two panels visible at once), or should I just make a button to switch between the panels?
i have 5 jFrames in my java project. And i want to make like a Main Menu.
I mean, i want that the program starts with a jFrame and when i click a button insteand of open the jFrame, all the elements like labels, buttons and tables are being shown in my principal jFrame.
And if i click other button the main frame will clean and charge other jframe.
It is possible? im programming with java jdk 8 and netbeans.
Thanks
Edit:
I think who marked duplicate didn't understand my question. I don't want to open or close the frame, or other frames, I want to load the structure and components of several in the same frame. Please read my question before you start complain that is duplicated
i have 5 jFrames in my java project.
And that's a problem.
And i want to make like a Main Menu. I mean, i want that the program starts with a jFrame and when i click a button insteand of open the jFrame, all the elements like labels, buttons and tables are being shown in my principal jFrame. And if i click other button the main frame will clean and charge other jframe.
Yes this can be solved by getting the contentPane (usually a JPanel) from the JFrame whose content you want to display within the currently displayed JFrame, and making it the contentPane of the displayed JFrame, for example:
// create the new JFrame, the one whose content you wish to display
NewJFrame newJFrame = new NewJFrame();
// get its contentPane
Container newContentPane = newJFrame.getContentPane();
// add this content pane into the displayed JFrame
displayedJFrame.setContentPane(newContentPane);
// revalidate and repaint the JFrame so that its new data is well displayed
displayedJFrame.revalidate();
displayedJFrame.repaint();
// displayedJFrame.pack(); // and you might need to do this if sizes are way off
But this extra gymnastics is bulky, prone to bugs and unnecessary. You are painting yourself in a corner by having your class extend JFrame, forcing you to create and display JFrames, when often more flexibility is called for. In fact, I would venture that most of the Swing GUI code that I've created and that I've seen does not extend JFrame, and in fact it is rare that you'll ever want to do this. More commonly your GUI classes will be geared towards creating JPanels, which can then be placed into JFrames or JDialogs, or JTabbedPanes, or swapped via CardLayouts, wherever needed. This will greatly increase the flexibility of your GUI coding.
For this situation what I recommend is that you do that, that your GUI classes create JPanels, and that you add the ones that you want to swap to a JPanel that uses a CardLayout. And then whenever you want to show a different "card", call show(...) on the CardLayout object, passing in the JPanel that uses it, as well as the String key that was used when adding the "card" JPanel to the CardLayout-using JPanel. This is all well-explained in the CardLayout Tutorials.
Other useful links:
For rationale on why to avoid manually swapping please see: What's so special about CardLayout vs manual adding/removal of JPanels?
For using a CardLayout to help control a "multi-page" application with multiple classes, please see: How to Integrate Multi-page Java Desktop Application from Multiple GUI Classes
Is it possible to switch from screen to screen by just using one JFrame?
Do i need to create another JFrame or use JPanels and turn it on/off on button presses to create an illusion of jumping from screen to screen?
Or is there any other more efficient way to do this with other containers like
JDesktopPane, JLayeredPane, JInternalFrame and etc in netbeans ide?
What is the purpose and difference in usage of Swing Containers & Swing Windows?
When to use Containers and when to use windows?
By the way, i'm trying to build an Inventory System App Interface.
you can use JInternalFrame which is make how many child Frames you want in a JFrame and you can do also iconified,closable,resizable ... by make them true in child Frames until you can use JPanel instead of JFrame and switch between them(child Frame's) by just one click!
Edited------------
For Example:
JInternalFrame jInternalFrame = new JInternalFrame("Hello!",true,true,true,false);
jInternalFrame.setSize(160,200);
getContentPane().add(jInternalFrame);
jInternalFrame.add(panel);
jInternalFrame.setVisible(true);
And when you click the back button, it will return to the initial menu without popping out a dialog or changing the size or location of the window.
Sound like you can use a CardLayout. Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Card Layout for more information and examples.
I am trying to make a game for my semester project. I want to show a transition when user clicks on options button of my game menu or when user clicks on credits button. I want to show transition when one panel replaces another. Is it even possible? I am using java swing library.
You should use a CardLayout to swap views (JPanels) in your GUI. To get a fade effect is not the most simple thing to do, but it can be done with a little work. I've done it successfully here where I create a special class called SwappingImgPanel that extends JPanel, and that fades one image into another using a Swing Timer. Specifically, the program does this:
The program adds all the swapping components to the CardLayout using JPanel.
It also adds a single SwappingImgPanel, a JPanel created to draw two images, one of the component that is fading out, and one of the component that is fading in.
When you swap components, you create images of the two components, the one currently visible, and the one that will next be visible.
You send the images to the SwappingImgPanel instance
You call swap() on the SwappingImgPanel instance.
The SwappingImgPanel will then draw both images but uses a Swing Timer to change the Graphic object's composite value. This is what causes an image to be partially visible.
When the SwappingImgPanel's Timer is done, a done() method is called which sets the SwappingImgPanel's State to State.DONE.
The main GUI is listening to the SwappingImgPanel's state value, and when it achieves State.DONE, the main GUI shows the actual next component (and not an image of it).
I always wondered on how can I make a program with multiple JFrames. I mean I just want one class to handle all the GUIs and stuff but how can I effectively do this? A lot of tutorials say that we make JFrame by inheriting from JFrame. But what If I want many frames?
Ex:
Title of Application in one frame with some options
Menu is one frame
Main working application is one frame
Like in a game.
But I am not sure if I am pertaining to JPanel? I am completely puzzled with the 2. I just want one un-moving frame but basically the content of the frame is changing.
When I click START for example, it will change to the gaming style of frame.
you are looking for a JFrame with a CardLayout. Some background:
A JFrame is the physical window. It comes with a title bar and three buttons: minimize, maximize, and close. Think of this as a picture frame.
A JPanel is a "content holder" of sorts. Typically, you put your other components (buttons, animations, whatever) on a JPanel, and then slap that JPanel into a JFrame. Using our picture frame example, a JPanel would be the photo paper you put in the picture frame. The other components would then be the actual contents of the picture itself, and what you have at the end is a nice picture...or in your case, an application.
Setting the JFrame to utilize a CardLayout essentially lets you have multiple JPanels inside the same JFrame at once, while still only showing one at a time. So for your application, you would have (at least) two JPanels: one for the menu, and one for the game. When the app starts, you show the MenuPanel. When the user clicks "start", you switch to the GamePanel. The MenuPanel will be put in the background and will be inaccessible until you call it to the foreground again.
If, on the other hand, you create multiple JFrames, you will have two or more physically separate windows that can be dealt with individually. This can actually be kind of cool for game development. Although it takes more time to build and link the GUI for the second window, you can then have that window affect game settings in realtime (rate of fire, bullet strength, player speed, etc.)
I think that what you are after is the Card Layout:
A CardLayout object is a layout manager for a container. It treats
each component in the container as a card. Only one card is visible at
a time, and the container acts as a stack of cards. The first
component added to a CardLayout object is the visible component when
the container is first displayed.
You can see how it is used here.
This layout manager allows you to manage situations where your frame needs to be shared across various functions. In your case for instance, you could have a functionality to handle the settings section of the game and another one to handle the actual game itself.
You could then use the manager to switch between these particular items.
you can also use Desktopane() and InternalFrame() for multiple frame.
Internalframe quite similar to Jframe but it need to setVisible(true) or show() everytime.
Which ever IDE you are using, you can create multiple JFrames in the same package, and have separate codes for each of them.
If you want to link each frame, you will have to create instances from each JFrame. for example, if when the button is pressed, we need to invoke a new Frame (that we have already created)
NewJFrame1 frame1=new NewJFrame1();
frame1.setVisible(true);
then you can decide what to with your current JFrame.
eg : (Hide, Close)