Develop Reference

JLabel does not fully allign with JFrame

I have a JFrame with a JLabel on top called "coloredLabel", an instance of the class it's in is running on both of them. a random amount of objects move around on the frame and label and don't directly interact with them.
The only problem is that there is a bit of the frame visable above the label, what I want is that the label fully alligns with the frame, without pasting over the objects (which are painted in with an override paint method and mentioned as "game.newBall" and "game.moveBall". "test" is the name of the class.
Here is how my main thread looks, the frame and the label are declared within it:
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Bounce 2.0");
JLabel coloredLabel = new JLabel("");
test game = new test();
frame.add(game);
frame.setSize(300, 400);
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
coloredLabel.setOpaque(true);
coloredLabel.setBackground(game.backgroundColor);
coloredLabel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(1000000,1000000));
frame.getContentPane().add(coloredLabel,BorderLayout.LINE_START);
game.add(coloredLabel);
for(int a = randInt(0,9); a<10; a++)
game.newBall(randInt(0,300),randInt(0,400));
while (true) {
double height = frame.getContentPane().getSize().getHeight();
double width = frame.getContentPane().getSize().getWidth();
int n = 0;
while(game.exists(n)==true){
game.moveBall(n,width,height);
n++;
}
game.repaint();
Thread.sleep(10);
}
}
So my question is:
How do I allign the JLabel with the JFrame? so there is no space in between the JLabel and the frame.
I searched for this on this site, but couldn't find the same problem or something similar enough so I could fix this.
solved - game.setBackground(...);

The only problem is that there is a bit of the frame visable above the label,
game.add(coloredLabel);
I'm guessing "game" is a JPanel. By default a JPanel uses a FlowLayout and by default the FlowLayout has horizontal and vertical gaps of 5 pixels.
Get rid of the gap in the FlowLayout. Read the API for the constructors/methods of the FlowLayout to customize its behaviour.
But of course the bigger issue is the design of your app. I don't understand your point of using the label and attempting to take up all the space of the frame. Just set the background of the game panel by using:
game.setBackground(...);
Also class names should:
start with an upper case character and
be descriptive.
"test" is neither.

JPanel(null) not displaying JLabels

I am adding JLabels from an Arraylist to a JPanel and they will only display if i set a layout on the panel but i want to set the location of the labels myself when i try panel = new JPanel(null); all labels are not displayed.
Frame:
public static void Frame(){
panel = new JPanel(null);
JFrame frame = new JFrame("New");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.pack();
frame.setSize(400,400);
frame.add(panel);
}
ArrayList iteration that adds labels to panel
private static void printArray() {
for(int i = 0; i < food.size(); i++){
component = new JLabel(new Food(food.get(i).getColor(),
food.get(i).getIconHeight(), food.get(i).getIconWidth(),
food.get(i).getLocationX(), food.get(i).getLocationY()));
panel.add(component);
component.setLocation(food.get(i).getLocationX(),
food.get(i).getLocationY());
}
}
I can see from Debug it is definitely getting the location information, so why is it not putting it in this location.

The reason to set layout as null is so i can update the position of the label so i can "move" it around with keyboard input
The first thing you need to do is understand what job the layout manager actually does, because if you're going to remove it, you're going to need to take over it's work.
Layout managers are responsible for determining both the size and position of the components. They do this through a variety of means, but can make use of the getPreferred/Minimum/MaximumSize methods of the components.
So this would suggest you need to make your own determinations about these values, for example...
component = new JLabel(new Food(food.get(i).getColor(),
food.get(i).getIconHeight(), food.get(i).getIconWidth(),
food.get(i).getLocationX(), food.get(i).getLocationY()));
component.setSize(component.getPreferredSize());
component.setLocation(food.get(i).getLocationX(), food.get(i).getLocationY());
I'd also recommend using the Key Bindings over KeyListener, it doesn't suffer from the same focus related issues

Offsetting GUI grid of gifs in java?

so I'm trying to make a battleship game, and I implemented a 10x10 grid containing gifs of some pixelated water. Now, what I'm trying to do is offset the grid one cell down and to the right so I can place the numbers and letters along the side and top like in a real battleship game. The problem is that when I try to offset it, it removes either the entire right side column of cells and reduces the window accordingly, and visa versa with the bottom. Here's my code:
EDIT 3: I have replaced the gif so that it can be used by everyone, simply copy the code and run it.
public class ButtonGrid {
JFrame frame=new JFrame(); //creates frame
JLabel[][] grid; //names the grid of buttons
public ButtonGrid(int width, int length) throws MalformedURLException{
URL urlPic = new URL("http://i47.tinypic.com/14wswi9.gif");
ImageIcon urlPicture = new ImageIcon(urlPic);
frame.setLayout(new GridLayout(width,length)); //set layout
grid=new JLabel[width][length]; //allocate the size of grid
for(int y=0; y<length; y++){
for(int x=0; x<width; x++){
grid[x][y]= new JLabel(urlPicture); //creates new button
frame.add(grid[x][y]); //adds button to grid
}
}
grid[1][1].setForeground(Color.red);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(270, 400);
frame.pack(); //sets appropriate size for frame
frame.setVisible(true); //makes frame visible
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws MalformedURLException{
new ButtonGrid(11,11);//makes new ButtonGrid with 2 parameters
}
}
EDIT: It seems that I may not have made this really clear. On a real battleship game, there is a row of numbers and a column of letters. The rest of the grid is simply water with the ships inside of it. With the code I have provided, the entire grid is water, and I want to offset to place a row of numbers and a column of letters just like in a real battleship board. If I try to place anything on top of the current grid, it doesn't change anything. I tried to change the foreground color and even changed the picture of one of the cells to something different, and the grid still remained the same; a 11 x 11 grid of animated pixel water.
Second EDIT: I have rewritten my code to draw a grid on top and on the left of the window, but now I am getting a null pointer exception. I don't exactly know what is wrong with this:
EDIT FOUR: Removed un-needed code.

One way to get what you need is to use the same technique I used in the Chess GUI with the columns (A-H) and rows (8-1) as seen below. Have a look over the code and see if you can implement that in your own code.
Failing that, post an MCVE (Minimal Complete and Verifiable Example) of your own (as opposed to uncompilable code snippets). One way to get image(s) for an example is to hot-link to the images seen in this answer (again as the linked code does).

Not sure I really understand the question, but I would think you should be using a GridLayout if you want to display components in a Grid.
//frame.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
frame.setLayout( new GridLayout(0, 11) );
Or maybe you would do something like this
JPanel topPanel = new JPanel( new GridLayout(1, 11) );
// use a loop to create 11 labels for the letters and add the labels to the panel
JPanel leftPanel = new JPanel( new GridLayout(10, 1) )
// use a loop to create 10 labels for the letters and and the labels to the panel
Use your current loop to create your "gamePanel" with the 10 x 10 grid of labels.
Then you add the 3 panels to the frame using:
frame.add(topPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
frame.add(leftPanel, BorderLayout.WEST);
frame.add(gamePanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);

GridLayout hgap vgap "not working" on JPanel?

JPanel grid = new JPanel();
GridLayout layout = new GridLayout (6,7,0,0);
grid.setLayout (layout);
slot = new ImageIcon ("");
for (int x = 0; x < 42; ++x)
{
slotbtn = new JButton(slot);
slotbtn.setContentAreaFilled (false);
//slotbtn.setBorderPainted (false);
slotbtn.setBorder (BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder (0,0,0,0));
slotbtn.setFocusPainted (false);
grid.add(slotbtn);
}
This is the output I get:
I am creating a 6x7 grid. The output I need is for there to be no space in between the rows and columns, everything should be compressed together. I tried pack and it didn't work. What am I doing wrong?
-- I tried FlowLayout but I had to resize the frame and I have other buttons on the frame so I don't think I'd prefer resizing it to make the buttons fit in their proper places.
-- I placed this JPanel inside another jpanel(which uses borderlayout and contains two other panels) and I placed it at the center, the two other panels North and South.

this issue because you divide the grid (the whole size of grid) to 7*6 so if you re-size the window you will see this gaps changed so if you wan't to remove this gab
calculate the size of the window (ex: width = 7* width of your image , hight = 6*hight of your mage)
or re-size your image

JButton employs a margin property to provide additional padding to the content area of the button, you could try using...
slotbtn.setMargin(new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0));
I would also try using something like slotbtn.setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.RED)); to determine if the spacing is from the button, icon or layout
GridLayout will also provide each cell with equal amount of space, based on the available space to the container, this means that the cell may increase beyond the size of the icon.
While a little more work, GridBagLayout would (if configured properly) honour the preferred size of each component.
Have a look at How to use GridBagLayout for more ideas.

I get no margins using your code, with any image I use. Check your image. And maybe post a runnable example replicating the problem. Maybe there's something going on you're not showing us. I'd start by checking the image for margins. Check it against this. If it still has margins, than its your image. Also, Don't set the size to anything! You may be stretching the panel unnecessarily, which will cause the gaps. Also if there an of your other panels are larger than the grip panel, it will also cause it to stretch. But take all your set(Xxx)sizes out and see what happens. Just pack()
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestButtonGrid {
public TestButtonGrid() {
ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/resources/stackoverflow3.png"));
JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(6, 7));
for (int i = 0; i < 42; i++) {
JButton slotbtn = new JButton(icon);
slotbtn.setContentAreaFilled(false);
//slotbtn.setBorderPainted (false);
slotbtn.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(0, 0, 0, 0));
slotbtn.setFocusPainted(false);
panel.add(slotbtn);
}
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.add(panel);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new TestButtonGrid();
}
}

How to layout multiple panels on a jFrame? (java)

I am in the process of making my own java socket game. My game is painting alright to the full screen (where it says "paint graphics here", but im painting to the whole jframe at the moment). I want to add a textbox with a scroll bar for displaying only text, not taking any input and another textbox to take text inputs from the user and then a button to send the text, for chat purposes. But onto my question, how do I even start to lay this out? I understand I need a layout, but can someone help me on this? Here is my code at the moment (this code only sets up painting to the whole screen at the moment, need to divide the screen up now like I have in the picture above):
public class Setup extends JFrame implements Runnable{
JPanel panel;
JFrame window;
public Setup(Starter start, JFrame window){
window.setSize(600,500);
window.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
window.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
window.setResizable(false);
panel = new Display(start);
this.window = window;
}
public void run(){
window.getContentPane().add(panel);
window.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
window.setVisible(true);
}
}
"new Display(start)" - this extends jpanel, its basically where I paint everything graphics wise.
In addition, I've seen people add in different panels but I cant have them be the same size. Like in the picture, the "paint graphics here" panel is the biggest one, and so on.

The JPanel is actually only a container where you can put different elements in it (even other JPanels). So in your case I would suggest one big JPanel as some sort of main container for your window. That main panel you assign a Layout that suits your needs ( here is an introduction to the layouts).
After you set the layout to your main panel you can add the paint panel and the other JPanels you want (like those with the text in it..).
JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
mainPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(mainPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
JPanel paintPanel = new JPanel();
JPanel textPanel = new JPanel();
mainPanel.add(paintPanel);
mainPanel.add(textPanel);
This is just an example that sorts all sub panels vertically (Y-Axis). So if you want some other stuff at the bottom of your mainPanel (maybe some icons or buttons) that should be organized with another layout (like a horizontal layout), just create again a new JPanel as a container for all the other stuff and set setLayout(new BoxLayout(mainPanel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS).
As you will find out, the layouts are quite rigid and it may be difficult to find the best layout for your panels. So don't give up, read the introduction (the link above) and look at the pictures – this is how I do it :)
Or you can just use NetBeans to write your program. There you have a pretty easy visual editor (drag and drop) to create all sorts of Windows and Frames. (only understanding the code afterwards is ... tricky sometimes.)
EDIT
Since there are some many people interested in this question, I wanted to provide a complete example of how to layout a JFrame to make it look like OP wants it to.
The class is called MyFrame and extends swings JFrame
public class MyFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame{
// these are the components we need.
private final JSplitPane splitPane; // split the window in top and bottom
private final JPanel topPanel; // container panel for the top
private final JPanel bottomPanel; // container panel for the bottom
private final JScrollPane scrollPane; // makes the text scrollable
private final JTextArea textArea; // the text
private final JPanel inputPanel; // under the text a container for all the input elements
private final JTextField textField; // a textField for the text the user inputs
private final JButton button; // and a "send" button
public MyFrame(){
// first, lets create the containers:
// the splitPane devides the window in two components (here: top and bottom)
// users can then move the devider and decide how much of the top component
// and how much of the bottom component they want to see.
splitPane = new JSplitPane();
topPanel = new JPanel(); // our top component
bottomPanel = new JPanel(); // our bottom component
// in our bottom panel we want the text area and the input components
scrollPane = new JScrollPane(); // this scrollPane is used to make the text area scrollable
textArea = new JTextArea(); // this text area will be put inside the scrollPane
// the input components will be put in a separate panel
inputPanel = new JPanel();
textField = new JTextField(); // first the input field where the user can type his text
button = new JButton("send"); // and a button at the right, to send the text
// now lets define the default size of our window and its layout:
setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 400)); // let's open the window with a default size of 400x400 pixels
// the contentPane is the container that holds all our components
getContentPane().setLayout(new GridLayout()); // the default GridLayout is like a grid with 1 column and 1 row,
// we only add one element to the window itself
getContentPane().add(splitPane); // due to the GridLayout, our splitPane will now fill the whole window
// let's configure our splitPane:
splitPane.setOrientation(JSplitPane.VERTICAL_SPLIT); // we want it to split the window verticaly
splitPane.setDividerLocation(200); // the initial position of the divider is 200 (our window is 400 pixels high)
splitPane.setTopComponent(topPanel); // at the top we want our "topPanel"
splitPane.setBottomComponent(bottomPanel); // and at the bottom we want our "bottomPanel"
// our topPanel doesn't need anymore for this example. Whatever you want it to contain, you can add it here
bottomPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(bottomPanel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS)); // BoxLayout.Y_AXIS will arrange the content vertically
bottomPanel.add(scrollPane); // first we add the scrollPane to the bottomPanel, so it is at the top
scrollPane.setViewportView(textArea); // the scrollPane should make the textArea scrollable, so we define the viewport
bottomPanel.add(inputPanel); // then we add the inputPanel to the bottomPanel, so it under the scrollPane / textArea
// let's set the maximum size of the inputPanel, so it doesn't get too big when the user resizes the window
inputPanel.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE, 75)); // we set the max height to 75 and the max width to (almost) unlimited
inputPanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(inputPanel, BoxLayout.X_AXIS)); // X_Axis will arrange the content horizontally
inputPanel.add(textField); // left will be the textField
inputPanel.add(button); // and right the "send" button
pack(); // calling pack() at the end, will ensure that every layout and size we just defined gets applied before the stuff becomes visible
}
public static void main(String args[]){
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run(){
new MyFrame().setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}
Please be aware that this is only an example and there are multiple approaches to layout a window. It all depends on your needs and if you want the content to be resizable / responsive. Another really good approach would be the GridBagLayout which can handle quite complex layouting, but which is also quite complex to learn.

You'll want to use a number of layout managers to help you achieve the basic results you want.
Check out A Visual Guide to Layout Managers for a comparision.
You could use a GridBagLayout but that's one of the most complex (and powerful) layout managers available in the JDK.
You could use a series of compound layout managers instead.
I'd place the graphics component and text area on a single JPanel, using a BorderLayout, with the graphics component in the CENTER and the text area in the SOUTH position.
I'd place the text field and button on a separate JPanel using a GridBagLayout (because it's the simplest I can think of to achieve the over result you want)
I'd place these two panels onto a third, master, panel, using a BorderLayout, with the first panel in the CENTER and the second at the SOUTH position.
But that's me