I am using netbeans 7.0.1 to build a simple JFrame application
I am putting a textarea and a couple of buttons on using the gui builder
the buttons are on the same vertical level and the right hand button shifts right on resize of the window - that is fine but I would like the text area to do the same - i.e. resize to fit the relevant width of the window.
For the life of me I cannot see how this is done - I have looked around and I can find code for a hand coded app but not for netbeans gui builder
Update: Ah sorry, didn't read the full question, you really want to do it with netbeans.. :) Well, well, now you have this post how to do it hand-crafted aswell! :)
I wouldn't use an GUI builder for this task. It is easy to create such layout with FlowLayout and BorderLayout:
Screenshot was produced by this code:
public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
buttonPanel.add(new JButton("Hello"));
buttonPanel.add(new JButton("World!"));
frame.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
frame.add(new JTextArea("Hello World!"), BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(600, 400);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
It's all about the layout you're using. I would personally use GridBagLayout, probably because I am accustomed to it. Basically, you should follow these steps:
Change the layout of the container which owns the textarea to GridBagLayout. You can do that by right-clicking on the container(being it the JFrame, a panel, whatever) and there you will see the Layout menu. It contains a GridBagLayout option.
In the component inspector select the JScrollPane that owns the JTextArea. Check out the "Layout" section in the properties tab. It contains the GridBagConstraints which command the layout behaviour of the JScrollPane and thus commands the JTextArea.
Play with the layout properties :). Basically you should set the X and Y weight to 1, and the Fill to "Both". This will tell the JScrollPane to fill any vertical and horizontal space there is on the Frame, and the X and Y weight will pull any other components as far as possible.
You can read more about GridBagLayout here: http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/java/gbcustomizer-basic.html
Learning GridBagLayout could take a couple of hours, getting used to it could take a couple of days, but it's worth learning. Just my 2 cents.
Related
I have a project to copy the google sign-in GUI here . So far I'm still searching on what I'm gonna start with, but after some research I think it is possible on BorderLayout to do this. Im getting how it works by readjusting everything through borders, and I kind of like it because it is quite responsive compared to having null layout and coding every setBounds for each component.
I've been imagining using a background panel, a panel for the fill up form,
and creating panels for each pair of label and textfields to properly create the space and stacking (or nesting) them on top of the other. Our teacher just told us to snip out the image, she just wants if we know how to design something out of scratch. That and also saving the input into a text file.
However, I can't seem to grasp the concept of increasing the component size inside the borders to imitate the gaps between the text fields, like some sort of a padding between components? Using setSize doesnt work and so far my search only results into resizing borders, or perhaps I still have not entered the right searachable term for it?
Also, Ive been looking for another way and I think this project will also work using GridBaglayout. However many people say GridBagLayout is too complicated. What do you think would be easier?
In my experience almost every (99%) of the panels using GridBagLayout can be designed by using all other layouts. So, someone could say that GridBagLayout is optional
In your situation, avoiding the use of a GridBagLayout is easy. Take a look at the following code:
public class NoGridBagLayout extends JFrame {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> new NoGridBagLayout().setVisible(true));
}
public NoGridBagLayout() {
super();
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setExtendedState(MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
JPanel borderPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
borderPanel.setBorder(new TitledBorder("borderPanel - BorderLayout"));
JLabel label = new JLabel("Create a google account.");
label.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);
label.setFont(label.getFont().deriveFont(25f));
borderPanel.add(label, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
setContentPane(borderPanel);
JPanel gridPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 2));
gridPanel.setBorder(new TitledBorder("gridPanel - GridLayout"));
getContentPane().add(gridPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
JPanel leftBoxedPanel = new JPanel(); // Fill it with panels using BoxLayout.X_AXIS
leftBoxedPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(leftBoxedPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
leftBoxedPanel.setBorder(new TitledBorder("leftBoxedPanel - BoxLayout.Y_AXIS"));
gridPanel.add(leftBoxedPanel);
JPanel rightBoxedPanel = new JPanel(); // Fill it with panels using BoxLayout.X_AXIS
rightBoxedPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(rightBoxedPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
rightBoxedPanel.setBorder(new TitledBorder("rightBoxedPanel - BoxLayout.Y_AXIS"));
gridPanel.add(rightBoxedPanel);
}
}
Preview:
I am extremely new to Java Swing, and I'm having quite a bit of issues getting a nice layout going. I have checked out google, and even other answers on this website, but no information I find seems to solve the issue. Here is the result of my efforts:
As you can see, the label, text field, and button are all out of alignment. It is my goal for all of them to have the same left-hand border, and for the button and text field to have the same right-hand border, with these left and right hand borders being each the same distance from the left and righthand sides of my window.
Here are the important parts of my code:
public void run()
{
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Arduino Server");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
InstancePanel = new ServerGUIPanel();
frame.getContentPane().add(InstancePanel);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
And, in ServerGUIPanel.java:
public ServerGUIPanel()
{
setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 500));
setBorder(new EmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));
StatusLabel = new JLabel("STATUS: BOOTUP");
add(StatusLabel);
PortField = new JTextField();
PortField.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(5000, 20));
PortField.setMaximumSize(PortField.getPreferredSize());
PortField.setActionCommand("PortChanged");
add(PortField);
ConnectionButton = new JButton();
ConnectionButton.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(5000, 20));
ConnectionButton.setMaximumSize(ConnectionButton.getPreferredSize());
ConnectionButton.setActionCommand("ConnectionClicked");
add(ConnectionButton);
}
Does anyone have a simple solution to this? What am I doing wrong here?
Thank you very much!
--Georges Oates Larsen
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use BoxLayout for the basics of using a BoxLayout as well as a section on alignment issues.
Basically you need to make sure the alignmentX value of all components is set to be left aligned.
Also:
Don't use setPreferredSize() to set the size of a component. Each Swing component will determine its own preferred size.
Use Java naming conventions. Variable names should NOT start with an upper case character.
I would not recommend using setPreferredSize() AND setMaximumSize(). The latter will cause problems when stretching your main frame. [Your components will likely not want resize]
You should be using layout managers to handle all the alignments itself. I would stay away from using BoxLayout in this case, as different components want to size differently, and that will sway the alignment when added into your BoxLayout panel.
Moreover, you might want to give your main frame a layout as well.
Can you post how you used your GridBagLayout?
How can I position a JButton under a JTable? What kind of layouts? How? I have a JTable table what is scrollable, and the table is in a frame.
There are many layouts to fulfill this need.
The simplest is using BorderLayout:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
Container contentPane = frame.getContentPane();
contentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
contentPane.add(new JScrollPane(jtable), BorderLayout.CENTER);
contentPane.add(button, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
If you want this button to be not resized just add JPanel to contentPane. This JPanel should contain your button centered using almost any layout.
If you would like to use more sophisticated layout - the best in my opinion is MigLayout
To correct LoveToCode's well-meaning but misleading advice, you would never want to give a JTable itself a layout. The solution to your problem is not to set the JTable's layout but to set the layout for the JPanel that holds both the JTable's JScrollPane and the JButton. Likely a BorderLayout would work best with the JScrollPane being placed BorderLayout.CENTER and the JPanel that holds the JButton BorderLayout.SOUTH.
Note, if you're adding these components to the JFrame, then know that its contentPane already uses BorderLayout (the tutorials will tell you this -- please read them). So just add these guys to the contentPane as described above.
If hard coding of swing and awt is not mandatory, try using the WindowsBuilder Pro, a Free tool now from google, install its plugin in to eclipse, then Use
GroupLayout - Introduced by NetBeans team in 2005 integrated in WindowsBuilder Pro, is one of the most convenient way create a good gui in less time in Java.
It seems that you can set the layout of a jtable the same way in which you can set the layout of a jframe or a jpane:
table.setLayout(new grideLayout(4, 3)
would give it a grid layout with 4 rows and 3 columns.
the scrollable feature allows you to 'scroll' through your table with the moving bar. It may be a default feature, or it may be that you must use it, try seeing what methods your table gives you.
Lastly, your table should be in a frame, so that you can view it on your window, make you class extend JFrame and it will automatically be a frame upon which you can simply add a table!
I want to add a Jpanel on a jscrollpane; also I want to have only vertical scrolling. I want to set layout of my jPanel "flowLaout" and add several components to my jPanel in my code by jpanel.add(component) method. The result is that all components are placed in just one row that excide width of jpanel and are not shown. I have used this tricks and both failed:
jScrollPane1.setHorizontalScrollBar(null);
jScrollPane1.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(ScrollPaneConstants.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
Wrap Layout should work for you.
I am unsure of the particulars for your current project, but i would recommend MigLayout. It has never served me wrong.
I am currently writing a touchscreen interface with nested MigLayout panels up to 4 or five layers deep, and have not had a single problem.
Please use the below policy to turn on vertical scrolling and turn off horizontal scrolling(Works with Java SE 7):
Panel graphicPanel = new Panel();
JScrollPane scrollbar = new JScrollPane(graphicPanel);
scrollbar.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED);
scrollbar.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
scrollbar.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(1300, 600));
scrollbar.setVisible(true);
add(scrollbar, BorderLayout.CENTER);
I'm trying to create a JDialog like the Symbol dialog in Microsoft Word that you get by choosing Symbol... from the Insert menu. Basically, it's an n x m (n and m are not known until runtime) grid of small buttons. I've got a first version of this working nicely using a GridLayout. The problem is that when you resize the dialog (and there is a requirement that you should be able to resize it), the size of the buttons changes. I need the size of the buttons to remain constant.
But I want the dimensions of the grid containing the buttons to change. For example, if the dialog gets wider, but stays the same height, the number of rows should lessen, while the number of columns increases.
I've thought of a couple of ways to fix this:
When the dialog is resized, create a new GridLayout and repopulate it with the buttons. I'm going to try this and see how it looks, but it seems like a clumsy way of doing it.
Use some other type of layout such as a FlowLayout. I took a stab at this, but it put all n x m buttons in one row. I do not want to use horizontal scroll-bars and the buttons ran off the right edge. Anyway, it's supposed to be a 2-dimensional grid of buttons.
What is the best way to solve this layout problem?
Create a buttons panel with GridLayout and set a fixed size (could be calculated at runtime of course) to it. The buttons panel should be contained in a panel of BoxLayout.
Check out the BoxLayout Tutorial
Very Very basic example:
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
JPanel containerPanel = new JPanel();
buttonPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,2));
buttonPanel.add(new JButton("1"));
buttonPanel.add(new JButton("2"));
buttonPanel.add(new JButton("3"));
buttonPanel.add(new JButton("4"));
buttonPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 400));
containerPanel.add(buttonPanel);
frame.getContentPane().add(containerPanel);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
if the dialog gets wider, but stays the same height, the number of rows should lessen, while the number of columns increases.
Wrap Layout might be what you are looking for.
I had a similar issue with a single column of buttons, and found that MiGLayout (third-party, available here) was simple and effective for this. It helped both with making a grid and with setting button sizes, although it took me a day or two to get used to its syntax.
But the key is really setting button sizes; GridLayout certainly seems like the way to go for a layout that is, well, a grid. I haven't tested, but I suspect that the built-in setXSize() methods would work just as well. The GridBagLayout tutorial has examples of some things you can do with sizing/positioning.
FlowLayout would be the way to go but you might have some configuration problems. What layout manager does the parent component use?