How to set a position to an AnchorPane (not declared)?

Question

I spent a long time searching for how to add a position to an AnchorPane (not declared means like that: setMethode(new AnchorPane());). Adding Layout (x,y), Setting Pref(Width and Height) etc.

I tried that but it didn't work:

           .someMethode(new AnchorPane(
                   .setLayoutX(12);
                   .setLayoutY(222);
                   .setPrefWidth(1026);
           ));

Can anybody help me?

Answer 1

What you're probably refering to is the double brace initialization (see What is Double Brace initialization in Java?). You'd need to write it like this:

.someMethode(new AnchorPane() {{
               setLayoutX(12);
               setLayoutY(222);
               setPrefWidth(1026);
       }});

However I consider this a bad practice, since you create a new anonymus class by using the double brace initialisation.

Alternatives:

• Use a variable

  AnchorPane pane = new AnchorPane();
  pane.setLayoutX(12);
  pane.setLayoutY(222);
  pane.setPrefWidth(1026);
  ...
  <some expression>.someMethode(pane);
  

• create a method doing this:

  static AnchorPane createAnchorPane(double layoutX, double layoutY, double prefWidth) {
      AnchorPane pane = new AnchorPane();
      pane.setLayoutX(layoutX);
      pane.setLayoutY(layoutY);
      pane.setPrefWidth(prefWidth);
      return pane;
  }
  ....
  <some expression>.someMethode(createAnchorPane(12, 22, 1026));
  

• Create a builder for AnchorPanes
• Use fxml and FXMLLoader, which allows you to create a node structure from a file. It may be easier to create a bigger node structure that way. This would be a fxml file for your AnchorPane

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<?import java.lang.*?>
<?import java.util.*?>
<?import javafx.scene.*?>
<?import javafx.scene.control.*?>
<?import javafx.scene.layout.*?>

<AnchorPane prefWidth="1026" xmlns="http://javafx.com/javafx/8" xmlns:fx="http://javafx.com/fxml/1" layoutX="12" layoutY="222" >
    <!-- add something else here??? -->
</AnchorPane>