I am developing a Java application, well, it's actually a small game. I want to build up the application as follows: when it starts, a window should appear which has a menu with four choices: 'Start game', 'Options', 'Highscores' and 'Quit'. If you then click game, the game starts, preferrably in the same window, if you click options, well you know the drill.
How should I program this? At the moment, I'm considering using a CardLayout, but I'm not sure this is the right way to do this.
Do you guys maybe have another proposition?
Basically you have four different views: the menu view, the game view, the options view and the highscores view. And you want only one to be displayed at any time. CardLayout fulfills that requirement - only one panel is visible at a time and you can switch between panels (like from menu to highscores, back to menu, then to game). Looks fine to me.
Functionally you can do this with any LayoutManager you choose. The only difference is going to be aesthetics. This is a very open ended question and GUI programming is a complex area. The best way to get better is with practice. Try it out with CardLayout and when you run into specific problems make sure to ask them.
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I am making project with GUI. The thing is, that I have a button and what I need to do is that after clicking this button I need to change Frame layout. For example, like when you are installing some program and you click "next" button, the Frame layout changes and you can see some different content. Basicly, dynamic wizard.
I have tried use another Frame, but it opens in another window and that is not what I want. I want to open it in the same window.
Another thing I have tried is set visibility of these components I don't want to be displayed to false, but I find it unprofessional and it is overlook in making a desing, when I have components over themselfs.
So do you guys have any idea? Thank you.
Most of the times for a wizard like GUI, you should have JFrame and a set of JPanels. In each step you can pass the shared data as constructor arguments to each panel, and when you are making one of them invisible and make another one visible, you can get some date from the previous step panel and pass it to the next step panel(if needed).
It is very common that your panels extend the JPanel and have some argument in their constructor(s). You use these data for initializing your panel and managing the state of the overall progress.
There is no a total plan for all situations. So you should decide what to do which is best fit for your case.
Try not to have multiple JFrames.
Hope this would be helpful.
So I have this project to make and I'm somehow stuck. I have an encyclopedia to make and I do not know how to make the pages.
For example, I have a JFrame with two buttons, called Back and Next. When I press that button, I want my program to switch to the next page, same as an e-book.
I thought of creating a new JPanel, get the X and the Y of the first frame and close the first frame when this one opens, reopen it only when I press back. How can I do that?
You have several options:
Create new JPanels for each "page" and swap them via a CardLayout.
Create a single JPanel for displaying page information, and then swap content on pressing the button. I favor this solution if at all possible as the simplest and the one best suited to a good MVC solution.
As an aside, if you're new to the Swing GUI library, then I suggest that you put the GUI-builder to the side for a bit til you learn the underpinnings of the library. This will help prevent you from painting yourself in a corner should you use the GUI builder later.
I have a general question that is Java related.
I am writing an application that has a GUI menu. I am trying to change one part of the GUI menu based on the selection of a Radio button.
Do I need to:
Redraw the whole window or just update that part with:
setVisible(true)?
If I just use the statement from #1 above .. the GUI is fine -- until I move the mouse over it and then I see the previous button choice. What am I doing wrong?
Swing components have a repaint(), revalidate(), and doLayout() method. One of those should probably be able to redraw whichever pieces you want. However, doLayout is not something that you should be taking responsibility for, that's the layout engines responsibility.
You may also want to check out this post, the first response has a pretty good explanation, and links to an article with more detail.
In terms of the second part of your question, I'm not sure, but we may need to see some code to get an idea. Is the 'replaced area' actually being removed from the view?
..in my application the user select which device platform type they want top test (that choice is a set of two radio buttons on the left). When the user selects either Android or iOS, the center grouping of check boxes changes to reflect a group of android devices they can test or a group of iOS devices that they can test.
Put a panel in the 'center grouping'.
Use a CardLayout for the panel.
Add both iOS & Android controls to the panel with the card layout.
Flip between them as needed.
Call revalidate() on the top level component.
I have developed my Java code in Netbeans, and now I want to develop the GUI for my application.
The application communicates with a server, so it's going to have a login frame for sure. After that there will be a main frame. From the main frame the user can choose where to go and as you can understand there will be a lot of frames.
I have already developed a version of the application where there are a lot of frames and using the "setVisible()", but I want something better looking. I want a stable frame and inside it, changing the panels or something similar.
How would I do this?
You might use JInternalFrames if you like them, or simply use a main panel with a CardLayout, and display the appropriate card depending on the clicked menu item, or the selected JTree node (as it's done in Windows Explorer and similar applications).
Use the Swing tutorial to get you started.
You can, at any time, make any Container object a JFrame's ContentPane. You can also add and remove Containers from any other Container. If you want a user to be able to jump to any of a dozen panels at any time, CardLayout, as suggested in another answer, is easily the best route. If, however, you intend to lead the user along a somewhat controlled path, you can start with a login JPanel. When that's done, you can create the next panel (a JPanel or something else), add it, and dispose of the first one. And so on until the user exits.
If the transition from one panel to another affects nothing else in the program besides the two panels and the parent Container (JFrame or descendant), this is probably the way to go. If a bunch of other places in the program need to know about the change, you'll want a more centralized mechanism, maybe using CardLayout.
Android has many useful tools when coming to views and screens and layouts.
Description: While playing my game (running around as a zombie bear eating humans) I would like to allow the player to access an items menu via sliding a menu from the right side/edge of the screen. Or at the least be able to access a game options menu (not game settings which would be the menu button).
What would be the best fit for description?
P.S How would I make a question like this less like a discussion and more like a straight forward programming question when I don't really know what's available to do this.
Also, if this is the case, please point me to another location to ask a question that may require a discussion.
Thank You!
Try looking at the SlidingDrawer class.
PS I personally don't see a problem with how you have worded your question if you are looking for ideas of views/widgets you need to perform a specific function/effect.
My first thought, and for a simple approach (this wouldn't be animated or dragged really), would be using a RelativeLayout where the portion representing the menu was initially set so that it's visibility were GONE, except for a small tab or arrow or something. When that tab/arrow is touched, the visibility of the View for the menu could be toggled to VISIBLE.
With visibility set to GONE, a view is not drawn or considered in any part of the layout pass when the screen is drawn.
You could populate a listview with some icons and when an particular icon is selected, then figure out which one was selected and then execute some function and hide the sidebar using an animation. I've never developed a game, so I'm not too sure how far it deviates from the standard, but I wish you the best of luck :) ! If you post the source let me know would love to test your game and see how you work with the source!