I have a JLabel with unknown content and I have two things I want to do:
I want to set a maximum or perhaps even static width of the label. And if the text is larger than the label it would somply shorten it, like this:
Verylonglabel
becomes
Veryl
Is it a bad idea to use static width on components in a gui? If that is the case, what is the alternative? Please give me advice!
When you hover over the label I want a tooltip with the full length string to appear. So in our case, if i hover over the label that says "Veryl", a tooltip displaying "Verylonglabel" would appear. However, it should display a tooltip with the full length string even if it was not shortened.
Help with either of these is greatly appreciated.
So far I've just messed around a bit and tried things like this without sucess. It doesn't seem to care about the size at all.
JLabel label = new JLabel("Verylonglabel");
label.setSize(15, 5);
Best regards, Goatcat
The size of your JLabel is determined by the LayoutManager of the parent container. Consult the tutorial for more information.
Note that the JLabel has already the behavior you are looking for
When the text is too long, the text which is cut-off will be replaced by "..." . So in your example, the "Verylonglabel" would be replaced by e.g. "Verylo..."
You can use the setToolTipText method to specify the tooltip, which will be shown when hovering over the JLabel
This is what you need:
JLabel label = new JLabel("Verylonglabel");
// Create tool tip.
label.setToolTipText(label2.getText());
// Set the size of the label
label.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(80,40));// Width, Height
setMaximumSize will only be effective if the LayoutManager you use honors components' desired/max sizes. You may want to check out BoxLayout as a LayoutManager. Unlike several other Swing LayoutManagers, BoxLayout honors the size settings of its components.
This still leaves you the question of what size to set as the maximum size. The width will be whatever you are targeting as your fixed value, but the height should be big enough for whatever font is being used. Here is the code I would use to make the height flexible but the width fixed to 50 pixels:
label.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(10000, 50));
Finally, the tooltip will show the full label text with a line like:
label.setToolTipText(labelText);
Related
I'm trying to set up a few JLabels to use as buttons inside a BoxLayout, stacked on top of each other. The layout is fine, but I'm finding that I can't resize the labels to the dimensions I want. I'm using the following code to size them:
JLabel fileAddBtn = new JLabel("Add File", SwingConstants.CENTER);
fileAddBtn.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
fileAddBtn.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, fileAddBtn.getMinimumSize().height));
and
JLabel fileRemBtn = new JLabel("Remove File", SwingConstants.CENTER);
fileRemBtn.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
fileRemBtn.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, fileRemBtn.getMinimumSize().height));
As of now I have two labels, with one being longer than the other. They are both taking the width of the longer label, which is good, but the labels are hugging the edges of the text right to the nearest pixel. Is there any way to make the labels a little bigger so that there is a bit of a border around the labels? I've tried using setSize() but it doesn't take. I've also added straight values into the above code, but it doesn't change them either. I tried adding an EmptyBorder() around them, which worked for sizing, but it hid my line border which surrounds them. Any thoughts?
Is there any way to make the labels a little bigger so that there is a bit of a border around the labels?
Sure. Add an EmptyBorder.
But since the code is already adding a border to the labels, to retain that line border, make a CompoundBorder consisting of the empty border and the line border, and set the compound border to the label.
See also Should I avoid the use of set(Preferred|Maximum|Minimum)Size methods in Java Swing? (Yes.)
of course sorry for my bad English. I'm working on a window in which I have a panel and the panel within a form. The panel uses the distribution manager "GridBagLayout" I could properly distribute the components. My problem is that when filling a text field, type in the (JTextField) enlarges the field and does not retain its size. As you can see from the picture the more letters introduce the "Brand" field is becoming bigger. I'm working with NetBeans if someone happened or know what can be the problem Thanks in advance. Cheers
I am not sure about how to do this with a window editor like they have in NetBeans, but for GridBagLayout the power comes with how you configure your GridBagConstraints when you add another Component. If you want to keep every Component on a given row to keep their ratios fixed, then you need to define each of their GridBagConstraints.weightX fields to sum up to 1. So if you want something like:
|Label|TextField|Blank|
I would add Label with GridBagConstraints.weightX=0.3, TextField with GridBagConstraints.weightX=0.3, and a final "empty" Label("") as a buffer with GridBagConstraints.weightX=0.4. Total = 1.
There are of course tutorials available GridBag Tutorial
I am making a game, and i'm in the menu, however, I have to put one button. And, to make this, I created a JLabel with one image, and I used the MouseListener, but I have to prescribe the proportion of this JLabel, how can I do this? Thanks for the answer, and sorry my bad english.
Use a layout manager to control the position and size of the components. Take a look at Laying Out Components Within a Container for more details
Use a Border (like EmptyBorder) to affect the "padding" to the label, which will change it's overall size. Take a look at How to Use Borders for more details
Consider using an undecorated button instead of a JLabel. See How to Use Buttons, Check Boxes, and Radio Buttons for more details
JLabel j = new JLabel();
j.setSize(x,y);
where X is the width in pixels and Y is the height in pixels.
JLabel#setPrefferedSize is probably what you're looking for, but I recommend looking into Layout Managers that will set the size for you.
I'm trying to get the Layout of a JDialog of mine to fit a particular look that a program in which I'm porting to Java has, I've used several LayoutManagers before with great success yet for some reason I cannot seem to get this working at all. My goal is to have the Right (East) side of the JDialog contain a "Find Next" and "Cancel" button in a top-down order and then any extra space below so that the two buttons are always at the top of the JDialog, yet for some reason BoxLayout is continously ignoring any attempts at changing (this is where I'm lost) the width of a JButton. Code follows.
JButton findNext = new JButton("Find Next");
JButton cancel = new JButton("Cancel");
cancel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension((int)findNext.getPreferredSize().getWidth(),
(int)cancel.getPreferredSize().getHeight()));
JPanel example = new JPanel();
example.setLayout(new BoxLayout(example, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
example.add(findNext);
example.add(cancel);
example.add(Box.createGlue());
No matter what I try, cancel always retains it's normal size. I've tried setMinimumSize() and setMaximumSize() with the same parameters as setPreferredSize with no luck. I've even tried cancel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 500)); and the buttons height was the only thing adjusted, it STILL retained the default width it was given.
To clear up any questions, here is what it looks like (now that I've finished it) and you'll see that the "Find Next" and "Cancel" buttons are not the same size.
I know this is an old question but I don't really see a good explanation. So for the sake of searchers that stumble upon this I will add my two cents.
There are three methods associated with sizing components in Swing: setPreferredSize(), setMinimumSize(), and setMaximumSize(). However, the important point is that it is up to the particular layout manager being used as to whether or not it honors any of these methods.
For BoxLayout (the layout the original poster is using):
setMinimumSize() -- BoxLayout honors this
setMaximumSize() -- BoxLayout honors this
setPreferredSize() -- if X_AXIS is being used width is honored, if Y_AXIS is being used height is honored
The OP is using a Y_AXIS BoxLayout which is why only his height was being changed.
Update: I put together a page with this same information for all of the layout managers. Hopefully it can help some searchers out: http://thebadprogrammer.com/swing-layout-manager-sizing/
You may not want Box.createGlue(), which "grows as necessary to absorb any extra space in its container." Instead, use Box.createVerticalStrut() between the buttons, as shown below and in the ControlPanel of this simulation.
example.setLayout(new BoxLayout(example, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
example.add(findNext);
Box.createVerticalStrut(10);
example.add(cancel);
Addendum:
adding in setMaximumSize() made it work.
This is the expected behavior for components having identical maximum widths in a vertical BoxLayout, as described in Box Layout Features. The preferred width of the container becomes that of the (equally wide) children, and the X alignment becomes irrelevant.
example.setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
JButton findNext = new JButton("Find Next");
JButton cancel = new JButton("Cancel");
Dimension d = findNext.getMaximumSize();
cancel.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(d));
example.add(findNext);
example.add(cancel);
As mentioned in the comments on the question, you were able to fix it by switching to setMaximumSize(). However, as you noted, setPreferredSize() doesn't work. So, what's up with that?
With many things Swing, the properties used to determine the actual component size when using the BoxLayout are somewhat random (in my opinion). When determining how to render the components, Swing calls layoutComponent() on the layout manager, which is figures out where to position everything.
BoxLayout's implementation of layoutComponent() involves a call to a method that creates SizeRequirements objects for the width and height of each of the components you add to the JPanel, based on their getMinimum/Preferred/MaximumSize() methods.
Later, it calls SizeRequirements.calculateAlignedPositions() for determining the correct width values for each component, because your orientation is BoxLayout.Y_AXIS (The heights are calculated using a different method). Taking snippets from the source, the relevant implementation of this method is as follows:
for (int i = 0; i < children.length; i++) {
SizeRequirements req = children[i];
//...
int maxAscent = (int)(req.maximum * alignment);
int maxDescent = req.maximum - maxAscent;
//...
int descent = Math.min(totalDescent, maxDescent);
//...
spans[i] = (int)Math.min((long) ascent + (long)descent, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
}
Note that totalDescent is the available width, so descent is always set to maxDescent, which is based on SizeRequirements.maximum, which was taken from JButton.getMaximumSize(). The value of spans[i] is then used later in a call to JButton.setBounds() as the width. As you'll note, getPreferredSize() was never involved here, which is why setting it has no impact in this case.
Usually if want to ensure a size of the component in Swing you need to call setMinimumSize(), setMaximumSize(), and SetPrefferedSize() with the same value.
button.setMaximumSize(getMaximumSize());
If you put your buttons in a GridLayout panel they will be the same width.
This problem looks trivial, but I can't find the solution.
When I create a form it contains a JTextArea. I want to put large constant text in it. If the text is say 1000 lines long, I want my JTextArea to be 1000 lines high (to be large enough to display the entire text without scrollbars). JTextArea is inside a panel which can have scrollbar so it is not a problem when it gets too large (there are two JTextArea in that panel.. something like in a diff tool). Does anybody knows how can I achieve this? Thanks.
The BorderLayout will handle the scrollbar out of the box if you simply put your JTextAreain a JScrollPane before you add it to your JPanel. FlowLayout, on the other hand, does not. It will not display the scroll bar unless, as #Xorty intimates, you call setPreferedSize() on your JScrollPane and give it the dimension that you would like.
You can also use something like this (limited width, height depending on text, useful when showing info messages):
public JTextArea createTextAreaFitToText(String message, Dimension minimalSize){
JTextArea aMessagePanel = new JTextArea();
aMessagePanel.setText(message);
/*for modelToView to work, the text area has to be sized. It doesn't matter if it's visible or not.*/
aMessagePanel.setPreferredSize(minimalSize);
aMessagePanel.setSize(minimalSize);
Rectangle r = aMessagePanel.modelToView(aMessagePanel.getDocument().getLength());
Dimension d = new Dimension(minimalSize.width, r.y + r.height);
aMessagePanel.setPreferredSize(d);
return aMessagePanel;
}
To increase or decrease the height of JTextArea. When a text is entered, call for getPreferredSize() of JTextArea- it'll give you the size needed to display the whole text.
After that use setPrefferedSize() of JScrollPane to set the size of JTextArea
Well, first of all : it's JTextArea not jTextArea.
Now - put JTextArea into JScrollPane. When a text is entered, call for getPreferedSize() of JScrollPane - it'll give you precise size needed to display whole text. Also, I never use other LayoutManager than 'Free Design' from NetBeans Swing builder - so I am not sure how other LayoutManagers will behave there.