Have Swing GUI elements, without large spaces

Question

My issue is, rather than the elements being on top of each other neatly, there are huge blocks of space unnecessarily in between each element of the gui that I use in the program.

I'm trying to have it like this:

label
textfield, button
textarea

But instead it's coming out like

label
(blotch of space)
textfield, button
(blotch of space)
textarea

when I run it. Any help is appreciated, I've really been trying to figure it out by myself. package guiprojj;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.swing.*;

import com.eclipsesource.json.JsonObject;
import com.google.gson.JsonParser;
import com.json.parsers.JSONParser;
import com.json.parsers.JsonParserFactory;


public class gui {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        JFrame maingui = new JFrame("Gui");
        JButton enter = new JButton("Enter");
        final JTextArea movieinfo = new JTextArea(5,20);
        final JTextField movietext = new JTextField(16);
        final JScrollPane scrolll = new JScrollPane(movieinfo);
        final JLabel titlee = new JLabel("Enter movie name here:");
        JPanel pangui = new JPanel();
        JPanel pangui2 = new JPanel();
        maingui.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, 0));
        maingui.add(titlee);
        pangui.add(movietext);
        pangui.add(enter);
        pangui2.add(scrolll);
        //scrolll.add(movieinfo);
        //pangui.add(movieinfo);
        maingui.setResizable(false);
        maingui.setVisible(true);
        movieinfo.setLineWrap(true);
        movieinfo.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        movieinfo.setEditable(false);
        maingui.add(pangui);
        maingui.add(pangui2);

        scrolll.getPreferredSize();
        //pangui.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 150));
        //pangui.add(scrolll, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        //movieinfo.add(scrolll);
        maingui.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        maingui.pack();
        enter.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)  
            {
                System.out.println(Test.getMovieInfo(movietext.getText()));
                 JsonParserFactory factory=JsonParserFactory.getInstance();
                 JSONParser parser=factory.newJsonParser();
                 Map jsonData=parser.parseJson(Test.getMovieInfo(movietext.getText()));
                 String Title = (String)jsonData.get("Title");
                 String Year = (String)jsonData.get("Year");
                 String Plot = (String)jsonData.get("Plot");
                 movieinfo.setText("Title: "+Title+"\nYear: "+ Year +"\nPlot: "+Plot);
            }
            });

        }
}

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 17 '13 at 22:20

3

This is how GridLayout works: all grid cells are the same size, probably the largest preferredSize of its components. Better to do what I suggested in my last answer: nesting BorderLayout using JPanels.

answered Sep 17 '13 at 22:20

Hovercraft Full Of Eels

283,665
25
256
373

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 18 '13 at 00:58

You need to use a layout manager that works the way you expect it to. There are several managers included with Java and I recommend you start here:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/layout/visual.html

This will give you a good visual introduction to the various layout managers and should give you the foundation you need to pick the right one.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 18 '13 at 08:19

0

if u need to put them separately or with variable space , just use GridBag Layout or use absolute layout i.e. no layout, with manual positioning

it would be easy using for loop for aligning in absolute layout (using setBounds(x,y,width,height)

answered Sep 18 '13 at 08:19

Gagan93

1,826
2
25
38

Have Swing GUI elements, without large spaces

3 Answers3