Question about layout

[david arnold]

Hi,

I want to create a GUI like the attachment. Well, I am thinking of using BorderLayout (which I am only familiar with) to do it. But I found it kind of troublesome. I created many pane to draw the GUI, any good idea about how to achieve this?

Thanks.

[Michael Dunn]

> Well, I am thinking of using BorderLayout (which I am only familiar with) to do it. But I found it kind of troublesome.

only 2 borderLayout panels are required, so it has to be a lot easier (less troublesome) than a GridBagLayout.

simple demo (titledBorder code only to show where they are)

    
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
class Testing
{
  public void buildGUI()
  {
    JPanel panel1 = new JPanel();
    JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
    JPanel panel3 = new JPanel();
    JPanel panel4 = new JPanel();
    JPanel panel5 = new JPanel();

    panel1.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(150,25));
    panel2.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(25,125));
    panel4.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(25,75));
    panel5.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(75,25));

    panel1.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(panel1.getBorder(),"1",TitledBorder.CENTER,TitledBorder.BELOW_TOP));
    panel2.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(panel2.getBorder(),"2",TitledBorder.CENTER,TitledBorder.BELOW_TOP));
    panel3.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(panel3.getBorder(),"3",TitledBorder.CENTER,TitledBorder.BELOW_TOP));
    panel4.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(panel4.getBorder(),"4",TitledBorder.CENTER,TitledBorder.BELOW_TOP));
    panel5.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(panel5.getBorder(),"5",TitledBorder.CENTER,TitledBorder.BELOW_TOP));

    JPanel holdingPanel1 = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
    JPanel holdingPanel2 = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());

    holdingPanel2.add(panel3,BorderLayout.CENTER);
    holdingPanel2.add(panel4,BorderLayout.EAST);
    holdingPanel2.add(panel5,BorderLayout.SOUTH);

    holdingPanel1.add(holdingPanel2,BorderLayout.CENTER);
    holdingPanel1.add(panel1,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    holdingPanel1.add(panel2,BorderLayout.WEST);


    JFrame f = new JFrame();
    f.getContentPane().add(holdingPanel1);
    f.pack();
    f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    f.setVisible(true);
  }
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
      public void run(){
        new Testing().buildGUI();
      }
    });
  }
}

[edit]
and holdingPanel1 could be the contentPane instead

[david arnold]

Wow, that is cool, much better than what I did. Thank you Michael very much for the help. I really appreciate it.

Actually I was thinking to use GridBagLayout, which only needs one layer to create this UI, but it looks complicated for me. The reason I want to use it is that I am not sure if I want to update panel 3 which will show a scanned image, do I also need to update holdingPanel 2 which hold panel 3? Thanks.

[Michael Dunn]

> The reason I want to use it is that I am not sure if I want to update panel 3 which will show a scanned image,
> do I also need to update holdingPanel 2 which hold panel 3?

if I'm reading this correctly, all you'd probably need to do is make panel3 a BorderLayout or a Gridlayout(1,1),
then add to panel3 a JLabel to display your image, using label.setIcon(..) to change/update the image.

[david arnold]

I see. Thanks again for your help, Michael!

Regards.