Ok, this will be rather noobish - I'm making a GUI with the Eclipse Visual Editor (a JFrame with stuff in it), basically on the left side there are some buttons and textfields etc. and the right side contains 4 JPanels (with some graphics in them).
The problem is, when I resize the gui (the JFrame) during runtime the components inside stay the same (size wise) and I'd want those 4 JPanels to resize with the JFrame, is it possible?
Simple answer - use layout management, including nesting multiple panels with different layouts to get the result you want. You've essentially got two choices: (a) use a layout manager to manage component location and sizing, or (b) do it all manually. You really don't want to do (b).
You might want to start with the layout manager tutorial.
Using a table based layout can make layout significantly easier than the standard layout managers distributed with Java; there are many available for free. Mine is at www.SoftwareMonkey.org.
Here's an example (from the help in MatrixLayout, but I don't recall if I ever actually compiled the example code... I expect I did once):
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | + Name : |________________________________________________________________| | + | + Address : |________________________________________________________________| | + | + |________________________________________________________________| | + | + |________________________________________________________________| | + | + City : |____________________| State |__| Zip |_____| - |____| | + | + Phone : |___|-|___|-|____| | + | + Notes : | | | | | + | | | | | + | | | | | + | | | | | + | | | | | + |______________________________| |______________________________| | + [BOTTOM-LEFT] [ BOTTOM-RIGHT ] | + | + [ Yes ] [ No ] [ Abort ] | + | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
private void createContent(Container main){
String[] rows,cols; // row/column specification arrays
JPanel phnpnl,cszpnl,btnpnl; // special nested panels
// create components here...
// CREATE MAIN PANEL WITH DESIRED ROWS AND COLUMNS
rows=MatrixLayout.arrayOf(10,"Size=Pref CellAlign=Middle CellInsets=5,0"); // standard row spec
rows[6] ="Size=100% CellAlign=Top CellInsets=5,0"; // note: row 7 ([6] is index)
rows[7] ="Size=Pref CellAlign=Top CellInsets=5,0"; // note: row 8 ([7] is index)
rows[8] ="Size=Pref CellAlign=Top CellInsets=5,0"; // note: row 9 ([8] is index)
cols=MatrixLayout.arrayOf(3 ,"size=Pref CellAlign=Right CellInsets=5,0"); // standard column spec
cols[1] ="Size=50% CellAlign=Left CellInsets=5,0"; // note: col 2 ([1] is index)
cols[2] ="Size=50% CellAlign=Left CellInsets=5,0"; // note: col 3 ([2] is index)
con.setLayout(new MatrixLayout(rows,cols,"Row=Cur Col=Next"));
// CREATE SPECIAL NESTED PANELS
phnpnl=MatrixLayout.singleRowBar(5,false,new DctComponent[]{phnPart1,phnPart2,phnPart3 });
cszpnl=MatrixLayout.singleRowBar(5,1 ,new DctComponent[]{city,createLabel("State"),state,createLabel("Zip"),zip,zipext});
btnpnl=MatrixLayout.singleRowBar(5,true ,new DctComponent[]{yes,no,cancel });
phnpnl.setName("PhonePanel");
cszpnl.setName("CityStateZipPanel");
btnpnl.setName("ButtonPanel");
// ADD COMPONENTS TO MAIN PANEL
con.add(createLabel( "Name :"),"row=Next col=1"); con.add(name ," hAlign=Fill hSpan=2 ");
con.add(createLabel("Address :"),"row=Next col=1"); con.add(address1," hAlign=Fill hSpan=2 ");
con.add(address2,"Row=Next Col=2 hAlign=Fill hSpan=2 ");
con.add(address3,"Row=Next Col=2 hAlign=Fill hSpan=2 ");
con.add(createLabel( "City :"),"row=Next col=1"); con.add(cszpnl ," hSpan=2 ");
con.add(createLabel( "Phone :"),"row=Next col=1"); con.add(phnpnl ," hSpan=2 ");
con.add(createLabel( "Notes :"),"row=Next col=1"); con.add(notes1 ,"Row=Cur Col=2 hAlign=Fill vAlign=Fill ");
con.add(notes2 ,"Row=Cur hAlign=Fill vAlign=Fill ");
con.add(notes3 ,"Row=Next Col=2 hAlign=Left hGroup=NoteButtons");
con.add(notes4 ,"Row=Cur hAlign=Right hGroup=NoteButtons");
con.add(btnpnl ,"row=Next col=1 hAlign=Right hSpan=3");
main.setBorder(new DctEmptyBorder(10));
main.setBackground(SystemColor.window);
}
It depends on how you add your components to the frame, and what layout manager you use. in this example, the four buttons will resize with the window.
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
Container cp = frame.getContentPane();
cp.setLayout(new GridLayout(2, 2));
cp.add(new JButton("one"));
cp.add(new JButton("two"));
cp.add(new JButton("three"));
cp.add(new JButton("four"));
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
you can use many different layout managers however. read this.
Use a layout manager. If you don't use it you'll have to resize it your self ( which would include setting the new location each time )
LayoutManagers seems problematic and actually they are.
In Java 1.6 the GroupLayout manager was added and I think it is quite useful and simple enough.
The power of the layout managers is released when used in conjunctions with others. Here's a A Visual Guide to Layout Managers.
If you post an screenshot of your application I'm pretty sure we can came up with a basic layout that you can work from.
Ok, yeah I know I should use a layout manager etc. but still I chose to build it with the Eclipse Visual Editor (which doesn't have all the layout managers there are) is because I don't have much time for this project and I thought it would be faster that way.
Basically this screen shows how the program should look - some random input/buttons on the left (added random ones for the time being) and the 4 JPanels on the right - they are quite important to me.
