Can I set the size of individual panels in a CardLayout?

Question

When I create my GUI I use a cardlayout to hold my different panels as I'm sure many know. This sets my screen to the width and height of my largest panel. This causes problems with the aesthetics of my first to screens, which are much smaller than SudokuPanel and CalkuroPanel.

I have tried setting the preferred size when I change to the larger screens, but to no avail.

Any help with links to good info or anything that will just generally help would be greatly appreciated :).

Please find my main class (where I draw the GUI) below:

import java.awt.*; import javax.swing.*; import java.util.*;

public class puzzleGUI{
  private static JPanel screens;
  public static String username;
  static public void main (String[] args){
  JFrame puzzle = new JFrame ("Sudoku/Calkuro Pro");

  ...

  PuzzleStartPanel startPanel = new PuzzleStartPanel();
  PuzzleChoosePanel choosePanel = new PuzzleChoosePanel();
  PuzzleSudokuPanel sudokuPanel = new PuzzleSudokuPanel(); 
  PuzzleCalkuroPanel calkuroPanel = new PuzzleCalkuroPanel();

  screens = new JPanel(new CardLayout()); 
  screens.add(startPanel, "start");
  screens.add(choosePanel, "choosePuzzle");
  screens.add(sudokuPanel, "sudoku");
  screens.add(calkuroPanel, "calkuro");
  screens.setPreferredSize (new Dimension(250, 80));

  puzzle.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
  puzzle.getContentPane().add(screens);
  puzzle.pack();
  puzzle.setVisible(true);
  puzzle.setResizable(false);
  puzzle.setDefaultCloseOperation (JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}

static public void getUsername(String str){
  username = str;
}

static public void openWindow(String newFrame){
  CardLayout cl = (CardLayout)(screens.getLayout());
  cl.show(screens, newFrame);
}
}

Edit

brainblast tried to pack the frame after resetting the preferred size when openWindow is called, and wolah, new frame size :D

static public void openWindow(String newFrame, int a, int b){
  CardLayout cl = (CardLayout)(screens.getLayout());
  cl.show(screens, newFrame);
  screens.setPreferredSize (new Dimension(a, b));
  puzzle.pack();
}

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

4

can i set the size of individual panels in a cardlayout

Certainly. But the layout will ignore them and make every card the same size. The best you can hope for is to add the smaller panels to another panel (with a layout) that allows the content to shrink.

This answer shows this technique using a single label. Swap the label for the 'small panels' and using the layouts on the right, it will be centered.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

Community

1
1

answered Oct 20 '12 at 08:14

Andrew Thompson

168,117
40
217
433

is there any way for the frame to dynamically change size depending on the current panel – David Parsonson Oct 20 '12 at 08:16
*"frame to dynamically change size"* `pack()` might work in some circumstances, but not this one. So 'no'. As dread as I am to admit it, if that is the required functionality, you might have to add and remove the panels as needed, which in itself requires some extra lines of code to make it work as expected. – Andrew Thompson Oct 20 '12 at 08:20
turns out repacking the frame after resetting the preferred size of the panel worked fine :D – David Parsonson Oct 20 '12 at 08:33
Glad you got it sorted. That solution was quite inspired. :) – Andrew Thompson Oct 20 '12 at 08:54

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 17 '16 at 12:40

I had a similar problem and I resolved it by a little cheat ("dirty code"). I had two panels: SmallOne and HugeOne. I set visibility of HugeOne to false. In this case the SmallOne sets the size of whole CardPanel. You can make a method that is called when user selects HugeOne panel and in this method you put HugeOne visibility on true. And CardPanel will resize.

Works like a charm :)

Can I set the size of individual panels in a CardLayout?

2 Answers2