Draw a Jpanel's border without resizing content (Java) - java

I have a column of JPanel instances that has content in it, that when it is clicked, the selected Panel is set to have a border (in order to distinguish it), and only 1 at a time has the border.
The problem is that when it sets the border, it sets the outer section of the panel to the border, and shrinks the content inside. Although it seems minor it is not very professional, and I would much rather have it add more like an overlay, where the content will not shrink.
I am thinking maybe there is some method of graphics that will let me do this? I haven't been able to find any way of doing this.

Start by setting all the components to have a EmptyBorder set to a single pixel inset.
When you select a panel, simply set the newly selected panel's border as you are (presumably using a LineBorder) and the set the previously selected panel's border to the single pixel EmptyBorder.
If you're clever, you could get away with a single instance of EmptyBorder ;)

Related

Can't resize JLabels in BoxLayout

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.)

Java Swing, making a gridlayout fill parent?

I just recently started using Swing to create GUIs for programs, and it's been pretty fun to mess around with so far. However, I'm having an issue with a JPanel with the layout set to gridLayout. Right now it looks like this:
The grid on the right is a JPanel set to a GridLayout, with each cell being a bordered JLabel. The options on the left are also inside a JPanel, and the left JPanel and right JPanel are nested in a GridBagLayout set on a JFrame.
Essentially, my problem is that I want to "scale" the grid on the right so that each cell is a certain height and width. The grid itself will have a variable number of rows and columns, which are set when the program first starts up. Eventually, I plan to have the right JPanel in a JScrollPane (if that's how that works...), so I'm not really concerned about whether or not all of the grid shows up onScreen.
I tried setting the fill value for the gridLayout to "BOTH" and it gave me the following result:
This is closer to my intention, but I wanted the actual ImageIcon in the JLabels to fill the entire JLabel. Additionally, I would want the JLabels to be the same height and width. However, I don't know exactly how to do that. I've been messing around with it for a while now, and I'm not sure if I'm just too much of a noob with Swing, or if I'm missing something in the documentation.
In the end, I'd like the grid cells to be a fixed height and width, no matter the number of cells, and no matter whether it goes offscreen or doesn't fill it.
(Also, I just thought, maybe it's not the best idea to code this and then shove it in a JScrollPane later and expect it to perform the same.... I guess I'll just see what happens.)
but I wanted the actual ImageIcon in the JLabels to fill the entire JLabel.
Check out Darryl's Stretch Icon which will allow the icon to resize to file the space available for the JLabel.

JBorder doesn't display right

I have an application that uses a JLabel and a JPanel. These components have a MatteBorder. When the components are created, the border is the default. When I click on the components, I set the border to a different thickness to make a select appearance. The problem comes when I want to unselect and I set the border to another thickness. This time the border is not modified and looks the same.
I'm not seeing what the problem is, because the first modification of the border thickness works fine.
Although this might be a hacky approach, try to repaint() the view, sometimes it just glitches.
I read this:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/border.html
when working on my program.

How do I make a Swing JComponent a bigger mouse target?

I have a JPanel that contains a bunch of Swing JComponents, including some JSeparators that may be only one or two pixels wide. I want to let my users drag the items around, but it can be rather difficult to hit a one or two pixel wide line. Is there a way that I can give those JSeparators a wider "target" region for mouse clicks? The only thing I've been able to think of is to have my mouse handler listen for clicks on the JPanel, and if it gets any, run through the list of JSeparators, looking to see if any of them are within a couple of pixels of the mouse click.
Should that work? Is there a better way?
Add a fat EmptyBorder to the component.
If it already has a border, you can set a compound border using the current border then the empty border, or simpler, add the empty border (and listener) to a panel that contains the component. The latter will work better for components such as JButton, which have borders that change according to state and focus.

Java's FlowLayout does not resize correctly

I created a JFrame initialized with a BorderLayout and a JScrollPane as its CENTER element.
The scroll pane is set with VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS and HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER policies. The intent of my frame is to have a controlled width, while the height should grow/shrink as data is added/removed.
Inside my scroll pane, I added a simple JPanel (lets call it the content panel) which is initialized with a FlowLayout (and LEADING policy).
In order to test this, I simply populate my content panel with 20 JLabel("Item " + n) components where n is the loop counter.
I would expect to see my labels shown on a single row if the frame is large enough and the labels wrap to other lines when I shrink the width. But instead, there is only a single line displayed with no wrapping... ever.
Does anyone know why the flow layout does not wrap when a scroll pane is involved?
If I remove the scroll pane all together and put the content panel directly in the frame, the desired wrapping effect occurs, but if the frame height is shrunk smaller than the content panel height it just disappears.
The idea is that I want my labels to be wrapped when necessary but also always be visible if it means having to scroll up/down.
Any suggestions on how to fix this?
Thanks.
Wrap Layout gives an explanation and a solution.
If you work with the designer, you have to set the prefferedSize property to null (delete what is set) then set the preferred size by clicking the triple dots [...] button next to the prefferedsize property name and put your preferred value.
I encountered the same problem and it works for me.

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