How to switch bewteen panels in WindowBuilder (Java) - java

i'm using Windowbuilder in Eclipse indigo.
I have a main JPanel, and I want to add a new Panel which will popup when I click a button.
How can I see the new Panel insted of the main panel in the Design frame?
thanks!

There should be a window that is part of the Structure View called "Components". Click on the new JPanel from there. I did this a while ago but I do not currently have windowbuilder installed so I am not 100% positive. I will confirm it when I can.
Edit: Ok i took a look at it. Here's how it works. If you made a new Application Window, make sure the palette view is open (Window->Show View->Palette). Now I am pretty sure the best way to switch between panels is by using a card layout. So drag the card layout from the palette to the window. Now if you drag JPanels from the palette to getContentPane() in the components window, you can switch between those panels with buttons and such.

Each panel should be created as its own subclass of JPanel in its own file. It is a very bad idea to use inner classes for something like this. WB intentionally does not support that style.

Related

Open elements and struct of jFrame in another like a menu

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

How to set JLabel over(in) JLabel in Netbeans only using designer

Can you tell me please how to put Jlabel over/in another JLabel, but only using
Netbeans designer.
I make new form, drag 1st JLabek into it, i set icon (background image), and now
I want to drag new JLabel to be shown over 1st JLabel.
I need just a tip now to do this in designer. I have a code for this, but as I said i would like to know is it possible to do with designer
thanx
Yes, actually you can do it pretty easy with designer BUT you're going to need JPanel with null layout
Create form using netbeans (right click on package, new - JFrame Form...
Drag and drop panel
MOST IMPORTANT: right click on panel from navigator -set Layout -null Layout
now you can drag and drop your labels and put it one on another

Draw a JPane in JFrame

I have search on internet and found a lot of information about drawing in Java. But when I add new JFrame class in Netbeans then I cannot add a own JPane in the JFrame. Hopefully somebody can help me with this issue/question.
Drawing the JPane is possible when I make a new JFrame in a class, but I would like to use the design view in Netbeans. That is not possible when I make a new JFrame.
I look forward to receiving an answer.
It looks like you made a JFrame instance yourself, and then tried to add a JPane(l) to it using NetBeans swing builder. This wont work. Try creating a new swing class using the swing builder and let netbeans make the Jframe.
Also, make sure you set a correct layout for your JFrame.
Also, like BenCole said, I think you mean a JPanel, not a JPane.
As an alternative, create your own top level container and add your designer panel to its content pane. Here's a simple example. In this way you can limit the use of the designer to a single panel, while you explore other layouts.

Need to create a WIZARD on Netbeans (jDialog vs CardLayout)?

I would like to create a "wizard" on a JDialog using the CardLayout, triggered by user pressing the New button from the menubar. In Netbeans I have created a JDialog through which I have a series of jPanels in CardLayout format. In my "New" menu item I wrote the following code to initiate the jDialog as follows,
CardLayout cl = (CardLayout) jDialogNew.getLayout();
cl.preferredLayoutSize(jDialogNew);
cl.show(jDialogNew, "card1");
However, the compiler comes up with the following error,
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.ClassCastException:
java.awt.BorderLayout cannot be cast to java.awt.CardLayout
If anyone is out there that can take me through creating a wizard on "Netbeans" I'd be eternally grateful
Your jDialogNew has a BorderLayout set as its layout and and not a CardLayout, meaning that when you call getLayout() to try to fit it into a variable that cant hold a BorderLayout an exception is thrown. The classes are different so you cannot cast from one to another, causing a ClassCastException.
A possible solution to this is to set your own layout for the jDialogNew. I dont have code infront of me so I cant check myself, but try looking for a method like setLayout(), and pass in a new layout of your choice.
you can do with following
create JFrame -> Add "CARD LAYOUT"
add JPanels to project. Design JPanels. Customize init code of JFrame. Insert JPanels with this.add(jpanel name). for all jpanels setVisible(false) - then setVisible true which jpanel you want to start with.
The way I did it in Netbeans was very easy! All I had to do was to was to introduce a separate JFrame in my resources package (being a part of my overall package) and in that JFrame I created a JPanel with the CardLayout, under which I created all my other JPanels relating to that top JPanel. Now having the JFrame I could set my fixed canvas plus everything else I needed to construct and activate my CardLayout "Wizard" dialogue box! Then I had to call the new JFrame from with my application whenever the event was triggered. It made life a whole lot easier and it works just great!

Netbeanw does not refresh JPanel after adding new components

this title may not best describe my problem. I'm using Netbean GUI builder to create a JFrame and several JPanels. I create each JPanel in a seperate class, then I drag the JPanel class to JFrame. The problem is after dragging the JPanel to JFrame, if I add components to JPanel, it does not show the additional components in the JPanel contained in JFrame. I tried "clean and build" but the new component still not showing in JFrame -> JPanel.
Matisse keeps a cached copy of any component you add to the palette. So, subsequent changes are not automatically picked up. To pick up the changes:
save and close your JFrame source
Make sure the JPanel component is compiled.
Click Tools > Palette > Swing/AWT Components
Right click on the tree and choose Refresh
Open your JFrame component. It should now be showing the updated components
I know what you mean; Matisse (NetBeans' GUI editor) lets you drag and drop self-assembled Containers (e.g. JPanels) into other Containers (e.g. JFrames), but any subsequent changes in the former will not be reflected in the latter. As far as I know, that's just the way it works, unfortunately.
It's one of the reasons I think Matisse can only be used for quick prototyping and toying around. For anything serious, the GUI must be hand-coded.
Had the same problem, all you have to do is:
1) re-compile the new JPanel subcomponent
2) close the form associated with the parent JPanel
3) re-open the parent Jpanel again from the Project tree
The refreshed subpanel should now be shown. Matisse only renders the subpanel when you either open a form or add the new subpanel. So, the only way to refresh the display without removing and re-adding the subpanel is to close and reopen it.

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