i am decent with java programming, but very new to GUI development. i wanted to make a console blackjack game i made years ago into one where people can play via a GUI i build using netbeans. i think that without a GUI, most people won't take the game seriously when i add it to my working portfolio
i created a JFRAME with the size set to 1000X700 pixels and on top of that is a JPanel with a background of dark green to simulate a blackjack table.
on top of the the dark green JPanel I have a small 60X93 JLabel with the icon set to be the back of a playing card. this represents the dealer and i wanted to CENTER it horizontally and vertically on top of the JPanel on which it rests.
however, in the netbeans tool bar for the particular GUI the "center horizontally" and "center vertically" options are greyed out and not clickable even when i select the JLabel which is the dealer. i even tried shift clicking to select both the JLabel AND the JPanel on which it rests but still the "center horizontally" and "center vertically" options are greyed out.
can someone please help me or offer guidance please? thank you... i have spent 2 days googling and i don't understand how others have not run into this same problem.
Interesting question. I've been working with NetBeans for years, and to be honest I've never even noticed those icons before until you just pointed them out. I'm unable to make them do anything either.
However, if you're new to GUI development in Java... you should read about layout managers, and spend some time with the GridBagLayout tutorial. GridBagLayout is by far the most popular layout manager in Swing development. You could get by using it exclusively if you wanted, as there are really only a handful of real-word situations in which it makes more sense to use another layout manager.
For your immediate purposes: In your Inspector view, right-click on the JPanel and select "Set Layout -> Grid Bag Layout". You'll now see your layout manager in the Inspector tree view right below your JPanel. Right-click on it and select "Customize". A window will pop-up, and there you can click on any component you're interested in and adjust all kinds of settings (e.g. margins, padding, etc). The setting in which you are interested is "Anchor", and the value you want is "Center". With your JLabel selected, you can adjust this setting either from the pull-down menu at the top-left... or graphically at the top-bottom.
One way or the other, if you're going to do any kind of Java GUI development beyond the most trivial of "Hello World" examples... you're going to be using GridBagLayout very soon. So you might as well dive in!
Let me provide some explanation about the tool button options "Center Horizontally" and "Center Vertically"
All the six toolbar buttons provided on the Matisse Designer are for alignment of the components related to each other. Those buttons only get activated when you select more that one component on the designer.
When we select two or more components on the designer window, may it be JPanel or JFrame, and click the "Center Horizontally" button all the selected controls (components) are aligned one below the other such that the center points of all the components are in one vertical line. That means they are moved in the horizontal direction to make them align exactly one below the other.
The "Center Vertically" button does this alignment in the vertical direction. So to answer your question the tools you are using for centering a component in JFrame are incorrect tools. They are for aligning components relatively to each other and not the container.
If you select a JPanel and a component inside the JPanel the tool buttons get disabled. The alignment setting buttons are available only when components are selected in the same container, in other words the components who are under same container.
To arrange a component in the center of the JFrame you may have to add some custom code or use some other layout manager other that Group Layout which is used by default by the designer.
with regards
Tushar Joshi, Nagpur
Related
I have a JPanel that uses a horizontal Box layout and contains a JLabel that I would like to keep in the exact same position as other components within the JPanel are setVisible(false). Currently, the JLabel moves to the left as other components become invisible.
What's the easiest way to go about this?
EDIT: Pics added
So this is what the JPanel look like with all components visible
When I set the three JTextFields on the right to invisible, the JLabel set to text X moves to the left like this:
But I would like it to stay where it was like this:
EDIT2: I'm actually using Netbeans GUI editor's Free Design for this particular JLabel. I'm sorry for the mistake - I've been using a lot of BoxLayouts recently and I got confused!
Currently, the JLabel moves to the left as other components become invisible.
Yes, layout managers are designed to only work with visible components. I'm not sure if any of the default layout manager will work, but I would look into using the GridBagLayout, since this layout is based on a grid structure so as long as you have components in that grid on another row the label should not shift.
Otherwise, you could dislay the "other components" in a panel using a CardLayout. Then instead of making the components invisible, you swap the panel with an empty panel.
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use CardLayout for more information and working examples.
Edit:
Based on your picture the easiest solution is to use "glue":
panel.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue);
panel.add(xLabel);
Now the label will always be displayed at the far right of the panel. Read the tutorial on How to Use BoxLayout for more information about "glue".
I have jLabel with an icon wanna put in right top corner , in Netbeans design view I place it to a desired position , After running program it is stay there fine ! But when I maximize the window it doesn't horizontally move to the corner and keep its position. It becomes like in the middle.
Thanks
Don't use a design tool to create the GUI. Its sounds like Netbeans is using a absolute layout which is not what your want.
Use a proper layout manager. Maybe a FlowLayout that is right aligned.
Read the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use Flow Layout for more information and working examples.
For a project I have an almost working code, but I do not have the GUI. I want to make a screen that consists of clickable labels and has the following design:
I was thinking about first making the middle GridBagLayout with with a dimension of 6 by 2. Then 'wrapping' that up and adding the two buttons to the side, and then 'wrapping' that and adding the two buttons below.
I am inexperienced with Swing, and I have no idea how to start. I hope someone can give me some hints in the right direction.
Several approaches to a very similar layout using GridBagLayout and/or nesting are shown here. Consider using JButton for each clickable area, rather than JLabel. If you go with a nested layout,
Use BorderLayout for the enclosing panel.
Add buttons to EAST and WEST for the leftmost and rightmost areas.
Add a GridLayout(1, 2) of buttons to SOUTH for the bottom row.
Add a GridLayout(2, 6) of buttons to CENTER for the central twelve areas.
Addendum: A critical issue will be what you want the resize behavior to be.
as said in the comments above you could (should ?) use the WYSIWYG Window Builder plugin available for Eclipse; it's simple to use.
However, that doesn't answer your question, so to do so, here is how I would structure the UI if I were to make one like that :
http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=902716gZHkK26.jpg
I basically use BoxLayout because that's the one I'm most familiar with. Every Rectangle is a JPanel. I think the image is pretty self eplanatory.
I'm developing a graphic interface using Java and Swing, and I'm having a hard time getting the JButtons to stay in their position while changing from one panel to another.
There are three buttons in a row aligned in the left bottom of each panel, all the panels the same size, but somehow they manage to change their position a little when I run the application (on the design preview they show up in the right place). It's getting a bit annoying. I'd appreciate any help
Are you trying to do tabs? If you are, a JTabbedPane will do this much better than a button.
Since you are using the Netbeans GUI Builder, look at the options in the Component panel on the left. It has Swing tabbed panes and AWT panes if you really want.
Been developing a game for a while, and currently re working the GUI, or at least trying to. Had the massive problem of not being able to resize the frame (without issues), as I didn't understand layout managers very well. A few projects later, and time to come back and do some more on the game, and I hit a problem...
The basic layout of the main frame is, mainPane, containing one gameScrollPane and one controlPanel. The scroll pane is a scroll pane, and the control panel a normal panel. The scroll pane contains the main game panel.
As I wanted the scroll pane to take up most of the screen, with the control panel taking up a small lower area, much the same as many Sim like games, so chose the Border layout for the mainPane. I added the scroll pane and set the constraints CENTER and the control panel added and constriants SOUTH. This didn't show the scroll pane, so I played around trying different constraints, and it seems that only when I set the scroll pane constraint to North, does it display at all.
To demonstrate this, I have created a quick video...
http://screenjel.ly/q5RjczwZjH8
As you can see, when I change the value of NORTH to CENTER and re run, it's like its not there!
Bonus points for anyone who can see a clear second problem which I may start another question for after this issue is solved!
I thank you for your time to read this.
Thanks in advance for any ideas or thoughts :)
Rel
If you'd posted some code to start with then you might have gotten a really quick answer. Luckily, you posted a link in the comments to the other response.
The setContentPane() stuff is weird, especially after doing some things to it that will then get wiped out. However, that's not your problem.
The issue is that you are adding levelMaker and personMover right to mainPane without any constraints. These will then be blowing away anything you set for CENTER... in this case the previously set gameScrollPane.
That's why you see it for NORTH and not for CENTER.
I can't get the video to show. It's been buffering for ages.
My guess would be that the scrollpane is in fact filling the center; it's just your game panel that's not being shown.
Your game panel needs to return reasonable values for getPreferredSize().
Update
Another thing you may want to do is have your game panel implement the Scrollable interface. You can then override getScrollableTracksViewportWidth and ...height to return true so your panel will be forced to the scrollpane's dimensions.