Develop Reference

Is there a way to put JPanel on a JPanel?

I'm trying to put a JPanel inside OR on a JPanel, whichever may be the case, ultimately I just want this to work like this
As you can see on the picture, the red line is a JFrame and it has 2 JPanels inside it, on the green JPanel there are some different JPanels.
I need help with the green JPanel and the little JPanels inside it. Is there any way to make it work like this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
==============EDIT 1==============
So here is some code, to show you what I've done so far with the help of #hfontanez.
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.IOException;
public class Main
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
//JFrame
JFrame jframe = new JFrame();
jframe.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
jframe.setSize(1920, 1080);
jframe.setResizable(false);
jframe.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
jframe.setVisible(true);
//parentJpanel - This is the main panel
JPanel parentJpanel = new JPanel();
parentJpanel.setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
parentJpanel.setSize(1920, 1080);
parentJpanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
//smallPanel - This is the little panel on the bottom
JPanel smallPanel = new JPanel();
smallPanel.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
smallPanel.setSize(1920, 300);
smallPanel.setLocation(0, 780);
smallPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(smallPanel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
parentJpanel.add(smallPanel);
jframe.add(parentJpanel);
}
}
I expected the top part to be yellow, and the small part on the bottom to be green, yet the whoel thing turned green. What did I do wrong?

The pictured GUI is created using three panels.
The YELLOW panel is the game play area. It has no layout, no components (which define their own preferred sizes) and is custom painted, so it defines a sensible preferred size to report to the layout manager.
The GREEN panel contains controls. It uses a FlowLayout.
The RED panel uses a BorderLayout, and puts the YELLOW panel in the CENTER and the GREEN panel in the PAGE_END.
Code
This is the code that made the screenshot seen above.
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
import java.awt.*;
public class GameLayout {
GameLayout() {
// The main GUI. Everything else is added to this panel
JPanel gui = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(5, 5));
gui.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(4, 4, 4, 4));
gui.setBackground(Color.RED);
// The custom painted area - it is a panel that defines its preferred size.
gui.add(new GamePanel());
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEADING));
buttonPanel.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
for (int ii = 1; ii<5; ii++) {
buttonPanel.add(new JButton("B " + ii));
}
gui.add(buttonPanel,BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
JFrame f = new JFrame("Game Layout");
f.setContentPane(gui);
f.setLocationByPlatform(true);
f.pack();
f.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Runnable r = () -> new GameLayout();
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(r);
}
}
class GamePanel extends JPanel {
GamePanel() {
setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
}
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(400, 100);
}
}

You need to use a LayoutManager so when you put the JPanel inside the other JPanel it will have the correct look. If you simply put panels inside the others, the parent JPanel will use its default layout manager, which is FlowLayout.
For the look of it, it seems you need to use Border Layout for the parent (yellow) panel. For the green, you have options, but I think your best bet is to use Box Layout with a PAGE_AXIS Component Orientation.
In general, you need to be familiarized with two things: 1) Layout Managers and how they behave, and 2) the default layout behavior of JComponents.

How can I resolve these sizing issues with JToggleButtons, JPanels, and JScrollPanes?

I'm trying to develop a form of an accordion menu. There are a small number (2-12) options that can be toggled on/off. When toggled on, there will be a JPanel with additional settings that become visible. When toggled off, the additional settings will not be visible.
I've created a SelectableExpandablePanel class that extends JPanel and implements ActionListener and ComponentListener. The panel holds two things - a JToggleButton and a child Component (which will typically be a JPanel, but I don't want to limit myself for future reuse of this concept) in a BoxLayout to enforce one column. When the toggle button is selected, the child becomes visible. When the toggle is deselected, the child is hidden.
When I use this component, I intend to put it on a JPanel inside of a JScrollPane, as demonstrated in the sample main method.
There appear to be two problems that I'm having trouble overcoming:
If I don't specify a JFrame size, it's only large enough for the width of each child and tall enough for three buttons. When I click on the button, I would expect the JScrollPane to do its thing and generate a vertical scroll bar. This isn't happening.
I'd like the toggle buttons to be the full width of the JPanel that contains them. I thought what I did in the constructor plus the Component Listener would handle that, but it doesn't.
What is provided below compiles and has a main method. If compiled and executed, it drives the component I'm building to provide a test frame and the ability to reproduce the issues I'm talking about.
import javax.swing.BoxLayout;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JToggleButton;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ComponentEvent;
import java.awt.event.ComponentListener;
public class SelectableExpandablePanel extends JPanel implements
ActionListener, ComponentListener {
private JToggleButton titleButton;
private JComponent childComponent;
public SelectableExpandablePanel(JComponent child) {
this(child, null, null);
}
public SelectableExpandablePanel(JComponent child, String title) {
this(child, title, null);
}
public SelectableExpandablePanel(JComponent child, String title,
String tooltip) {
super();
if (child == null) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Child component cannot be null");
}
childComponent = child;
titleButton = new JToggleButton();
titleButton.setText(title);
titleButton.addActionListener(this);
titleButton.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(getSize().width, titleButton
.getPreferredSize().height));
titleButton.setToolTipText(tooltip);
setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
setPreferredSize(new Dimension(childComponent.getPreferredSize().width,
titleButton.getPreferredSize().height));
setSize(new Dimension(childComponent.getPreferredSize().width,
titleButton.getPreferredSize().height));
add(titleButton);
this.addComponentListener(this);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (titleButton.isSelected()) {
add(childComponent);
setSize(new Dimension(childComponent.getPreferredSize().width,
titleButton.getPreferredSize().height
+ childComponent.getPreferredSize().height));
} else {
remove(childComponent);
setSize(new Dimension(childComponent.getPreferredSize().width,
titleButton.getPreferredSize().height));
}
invalidate();
revalidate();
}
public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent arg0) {
// Do nothing
}
public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent arg0) {
// Do nothing
}
public void componentResized(ComponentEvent arg0) {
titleButton.setSize(this.getWidth(),
titleButton.getPreferredSize().height);
}
public void componentShown(ComponentEvent arg0) {
// Do nothing
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane();
// These panels simulates a complex, multi-line configuration panel.
JPanel testPanel = new JPanel();
testPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(testPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
testPanel.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel"));
testPanel.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel 2"));
testPanel.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel 3"));
JPanel testPanel2 = new JPanel();
testPanel2.setLayout(new BoxLayout(testPanel2, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
testPanel2.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel"));
testPanel2.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel 2"));
testPanel2.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel 3"));
JPanel testPanel3 = new JPanel();
testPanel3.setLayout(new BoxLayout(testPanel3, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
testPanel3.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel"));
testPanel3.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel 2"));
testPanel3.add(new JLabel("Test JLabel 3"));
// This panel simulates the panel that will contain each of the
// SelectableExpandablePanels.
JPanel testHolder = new JPanel();
testHolder.setLayout(new BoxLayout(testHolder, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
testHolder.add(new SelectableExpandablePanel(testPanel, "Test"));
testHolder.add(new SelectableExpandablePanel(testPanel2, "Test 2"));
testHolder.add(new SelectableExpandablePanel(testPanel3, "Test 3"));
// We add the test holder to the scroll pane. The intention is that if
// the expansion is too big to fit, the holding JFrame won't expand, but
// the scroll pane will get scroll bars to let the user scroll up and
// down through the toggle buttons and any enabled items.
scrollPane.setViewportView(testHolder);
JFrame testFrame = new JFrame("Expandable Panel Test");
testFrame.getContentPane().add(scrollPane);
testFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
testFrame.pack();
testFrame.setVisible(true);
}
}

Don't try to manage the sizes yourself:
//titleButton.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(getSize().width, titleButton.getPreferredSize().height));
titleButton.setToolTipText(tooltip);
setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
//setPreferredSize(new Dimension(childComponent.getPreferredSize().width, titleButton.getPreferredSize().height));
//setSize(new Dimension(childComponent.getPreferredSize().width, titleButton.getPreferredSize().height));
Also, get rid of the setSize() code in the ActionListener. This will be ignored anyway as the layout manager will determine the size.
The scrollbars will appear when the preferred size of the panel is greater than the size of the scrollpane. If you hardcode the preferred size then you default the purpose of the layout manager and the preferred size won't change as you add/remove components.
Note for something like this I generally use a BorderLayout. Put the button in the PAGE_START and the other panel in the CENTER. The components will automatically fill the space available.

Remove all the setSize/setPreferredSize calls and let the LayoutManager do its thing.
To allow the JButtons to fill the width of the panel, you can use a BorderLayout (for instance, add the button to CENTER, and the child container to SOUTH and remove all those setSize values to let the LayoutManager handle it).

Java: Extra space in AbsoluteLayout

Is it possible to have some extra space around the edges of a JFrame that uses AbsoluteLayout? When I have a button as the downwardsmost component on the JFrame, it gets positioned right up against the bottom edge of the JFrame window, and it looks bad. I would like to know if there's a way to add a little extra space between components and the edge of the JFrame while using AbsoluteLayout.

Suggestions:
When you add a component to a JFrame, you're actually adding it to the JFrame's contentPane. To give the contentPane a "buffer" border, consider giving it an EmptyBorder(...) with the parameters being int constants for the amount of border desired around the component.
Avoid using "absolute" layouts for anything, and especially for placing components at easy to place locations for the layout managers, such as at the bottom of the GUI.
For example, note in the GUI created in the code below how the center and bottom JPanel's don't go out to the edge of the GUI because of the empty border:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.*;
public class ButtonAtBottom {
private static void createAndShowGui() {
JPanel bottomPanel = new JPanel();
bottomPanel.add(new JButton("Bottom Button"));
bottomPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Bottom Panel"));
JPanel centerPanel = new JPanel();
centerPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Center Panel"));
JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
mainPanel.add(centerPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
mainPanel.add(bottomPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
// **** here I add the border to the mainPanel which I'll
// make into the contentPane
int eb = 25;
mainPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(eb, eb, eb, eb));
// don't set the preferredSize per Kleopatra, but am doing it
// here simply to make code shorter for this sscce
mainPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 400));
JFrame frame = new JFrame("ButtonAtBottom");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setContentPane(mainPanel);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowGui();
}
});
}
}

You can use Box.createRigidArea(dimensions) to create an empty space that you can add below the button.

Set an empty border on your content panel where SIZE is the amount of padding you want.
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel panel = new JPanel(null);
panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(SIZE,SIZE,SIZE,SIZE);
frame.setContentPane(panel);
//The rest
The arguments are for top, left, bottom and right padding so if you want different paddings on each edge, you can set it accordingly.

Overlay panel (above another)

I am learning how to use Swing and found myself quite difficult task.
What I am trying to accomplish: I want to have panel (call it menu panel) on the left side (let's say 100px width) and the second panel (call it content panel), which takes the rest of available place.
In menu panel there are 3 buttons. When I press on of them, to the right side of menu panel (over content panel) second menu panel (submenu) should appear (and it should start in the middle of button which was pressed).
It may be hard to understand, so I've created simple draft:
I tried JLayeredPane but there were problems with resizing window (elements in Layered Pane didn't resize).

JLayeredPane miss implementations for LayoutManager, you have to setPreferredSize or setBounds manually for sizing/place JComponents,
there is one possible workaround you can add ComponentListener to the JFrame, then on componentResized(ComponentEvent e) you can resize/replace JComponent(s) to the desired Bounds
for example
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
public class LayeredPaneWithOverlap {
private JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(2, 10);
private JPanel textPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
private JTable table = new JTable(30, 5);
private JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(table);
private JLayeredPane layer = new JLayeredPane();
private JFrame frame = new JFrame("Frame with resiziable JLayeredPane");
public void makeUI() {
textArea.setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.DARK_GRAY));
textArea.setText("Frame with resiziable JLayeredPane");
textPanel.setOpaque(false);
textPanel.add(textArea, BorderLayout.NORTH);
Font font = textArea.getFont();
FontMetrics fontMetrics = textArea.getFontMetrics(font);
int h = fontMetrics.getHeight() + frame.getInsets().top +
textPanel.getInsets().top + textArea.getInsets().top
+ textArea.getInsets().bottom;
scroll.setBounds(0, h, 400, 300);
layer.add(textPanel, new Integer(2));
layer.add(scroll, new Integer(1));
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(600, 400);
frame.addComponentListener(new ComponentAdapter() {
#Override
public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
resizeAll();
}
});
}
});
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.add(layer);
resizeAll();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
void resizeAll() {
Insets insets = frame.getInsets();
int w = frame.getWidth() - insets.left - insets.right;
int h = frame.getHeight() - insets.top - insets.bottom;
textPanel.setSize(w, h);
scroll.setSize(w, h - scroll.getY());
layer.revalidate();
layer.repaint();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new LayeredPaneWithOverlap().makeUI();
}
});
}
}

You can set a layoutmanager for the layered pane, javax.swing.OverlayLayout uses the full available space and allows resizing.
JLayeredPane layer = new JLayeredPane();
layer.setLayout(new OverlayLayout(layer));
You probably don't want the submenu to occupy the fullspace. To avoid it you can override its get…size-methods. Or you can add a second LayeredPane (for it's transperancy and it's layoutmanager), set a normal BoxLayout and use a spacer.
JPanel normalContents = new JPanel();
layer.add(normalContents, JLayeredPane.DEFAULT_LAYER);
JLayeredPane subMenuAuxiliaryLayer = new JLayeredPane()
subMenuAuxiliaryLayer.setLayout(new BoxLayout(subMenuAuxiliaryLayer, BoxLayout.LINE_AXIS));
layer.add(subMenuAuxiliaryLayer, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);
JPanel submenuContents = new JPanel();
subMenuAuliliaryLayer.add(submenuContents);
subMenuAuxiliaryLayer.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());

contentPanel.setLayout(null); // Absolute positioning of children.
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
final JButton btn = (JButton) evt.getSource();
final int buttonY = btn.getY(); // Must be final for usage in new Runnable object.
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() { // Return fast from event handling.
#Override
public void run() {
JPanel child = new JPanel();
child.setBackground(Color.RED); // So we'll see it.
child.setBounds(0, buttonY, 100, 300);
contentPanel.removeAll(); // Clear content panel of prior additions.
contentPanel.add(child); // Add a new panel.
contentPanel.repaint(10L);
}
});
}

The JLayeredPane works by defualt with no Layout manager, which means that you are using absolute positioning and no resizing. You could add a resize listener and adjust positions and size of inner components from code, as you see fit.
If you don't want to do this from code, you will need a layout manager, nothing fancy, just something to fill the container as it resizes. But here's the thing... if you add a layout manager, it will layout the components as if they are all in one layer, but most layout managers don't overlap their children so they are useless. The only one you could use is the OverlayLayout - it can also resize children. But using an OverlayLayout with JLayeredPane is overkill. You can just use OverlayLayout with a JPanel. So, yes, JLayeredPane is kind of useless. I recommend using a JPanel with an OverlayLayout instead.
Here is how to set things up so that you can have great control over almost any overlapping UI scenario out there: Using a JPanel with an OverlayLayout, have a separate transparent JPanel for each layer. In this way you can combine various LayoutManagers on different layers, by setting a diferent layout manager for each pane, including absolute positioning if necessary. Then add your visible components inside the panels representing the layers. Don't add them directly to the OverlayLayout panel. Just make sure that all of the JPanels you are using as layers have setAlignmentX and Y to center (0.5f) so that they fill the entire OverlayLayout panel as it resizes.

JPanel layout Issue

So I have a slight issue with adding two JPanels to a main main panel. I've put it as a quick example of what I want to do since you don't want to be looking through loads of lines of unnecessary code :). I want panel one to be added first (north) and then panel two (south). I've tried using Border layout and positioning them invoking north and south on BorderLayout when adding the panels but still no luck.
Thanks in advance.
private JPanel one,two;
public Example(){
one = new JPanel();
one.setSize(new Dimension(400,400));
two = new JPanel(new GridLayout(7,8));
two.setSize(new Dimension(400,400));
one.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
two.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
JPanel mainpanel = new JPanel();
mainpanel.setBackground(Color.orange);
mainpanel.add(one);
mainpanel.add(two);
add(mainpanel);
setSize(500,500);
setVisible(true);
}

If you want to use BorderLayout, then BorderLayout.CENTER takes up as much space as it can, and the other directions take only what they need. If you add extra stuff to the JPanels, they will get bigger, based on the needs of the objects they contain.
If you want to just divide the space evenly within the main JPanel, try this:
JPanel mainpanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 1));
That creates a GridLayout with 2 rows and 1 column...

Try this code. There was issue that apparently if you install grid layout on a panel and you add no components it will not take space.
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
public class Example extends JFrame
{
private JPanel one, two;
public Example()
{
one = new JPanel();
two = new JPanel();///new GridLayout(7, 8));
one.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
two.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
JPanel mainpanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
mainpanel.setBackground(Color.orange);
mainpanel.add(one, BorderLayout.NORTH);
mainpanel.add(two, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
setContentPane(mainpanel);
setSize(500, 500);
setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
Example f = new Example();
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

GridLayout ignores the values set in setSize method of contained components. If you want to control the size of each component, consider using GridBagLayout.