Multiple tabs in JTabbedPane using a single JPanel?

Question

Is it possible to use a single JPanel for multiple tab items in JTabbedPane?

EG:

JTabbedPanel tabs=new JTabbePanel();

JPanel panel=new JPanel();
JButton but=new JButton("TEXT");
but.addActionlistener(this);
panel.add(but)

tabs.add("First",panel);
tabs.add("Second",panel);

An ActionListener is added to the JTabbedPane to notify the program of tab changes (change cur_tab to tab number)

public void actionPerformed(..)
{ System.out.println("Now in "+cur_tab); }

already tried, using multiples tabs.add() with 1 panel results in only 1 Tab — Akash, Sep 19 '11 at 14:29
*"Multiple tabs in JTabbedPane using a single JPanel"* Panels are cheap. Why not use as many as needed? — Andrew Thompson, Sep 19 '11 at 14:38
have a complex layout and for different tabs, just minor changes are needed (eg: changing the textbox text) — Akash, Sep 19 '11 at 14:41
JTabbedPane and CardLayout is very similair, CardLayout is with very simple usage..., — mKorbel, Sep 19 '11 at 16:05

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 19 '11 at 14:39

5

The same component cannot be used for several tabs

taken from here

answered Sep 19 '11 at 14:39

Mansuro

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score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '11 at 14:51

Sounds like you need a subclass of JPanel. Just create an abstract class that handles the complex layout and have the subclasses create the necessary GUI elements that are required.

If you are just inserting a single text box, button, etc, you may not even need subclasses per tab. Just create multiple instances of the base class and add the component you need.

New panels and other GUI items are relatively cheap. Performance issues in a Swing GUI are more likely to come from event handling or firing too many events rather than how complex or how many components it has. Make things easier to maintain and understand, then worry about performance.

Related examples [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7054466/changing-the-shape-of-a-jtabbedpane-tab/7056093#7056093), [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2349005/jtabbedpane-swing-update-error/2349106#2349106) and [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3483485/java-jprogressbar-or-equivalent-in-a-jtabbedpane-tab-title/3484251#3484251). — trashgod, Sep 19 '11 at 15:01

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 19 '15 at 15:18

I had a panel with memory-intensive components on it which I only wanted to create one instance of, but change the behaviour of it using the attractive JTabbedPane.

I did it by creating empty panels for each tab, and a third panel that contains my (single) complicated components. On the StateChange event for the JTabbedPane, I remove the third panel from whichever of the first two it was in, and add it to whichever one is newly selected.

Bit hacky, but it works fine.

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 19 '11 at 14:30

2

if you'll create class that returns JPanel then yes that's possible

but Notice:

there are long time Bug that two Tabs can't contains same component schemas, with schemas I means for example one Tab contains JPanel + JTextField + JButton, but then second JPanel must contains another Numbers or Type of JComponents

unfortunatelly (nothing special) BugsDatabase isn't accesible in this moment

answered Sep 19 '11 at 14:30

mKorbel

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you're talking about [this](http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4286825) bug? – Mansuro Sep 19 '11 at 14:33
Is this bug still extant? See also this related [example](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7054466/changing-the-shape-of-a-jtabbedpane-tab/7056093#7056093). – trashgod Sep 19 '11 at 15:04
@trashgod you got ***, good joke, hehehe, but if I remember correctly required more JComponents there, and this is Lottery Bug, N-times works correctly, and once time ... – mKorbel Sep 19 '11 at 16:01
@Mansuro - that looks fixed. The description here sounds weird (even after applying the mKorbel-weirdness factor ) – kleopatra Sep 20 '11 at 07:17

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 16 '16 at 20:30

You are wrong. Just set a panel on the first tab in function initComponents() like that:

 p.add("1", MainPanel);

Then use:

p.add("2", p.getTabComponentAt(0));

Using this metode you will have the same component on 2 tabs.

You can use StateChanged Event to change actions in this tabs. For example:

JTabbedPane p = (JTabbedPane)Tabbar;
int idx = p.getSelectedIndex();
   if(idx==0){
     Do something...
    }
   if(idx==1){
     Do something different...
    }

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 29 '16 at 11:19

The following will allow you to add the same component with different titles to a JTabbedPane:

JTabbedPane tabbedPane = new JTabbedPane()
    {
      boolean adding = false;
      @Override
      public void removeTabAt(int index)
      {
        if(!adding)
        {
          super.removeTabAt(index);
        }
      }

      @Override
      public void insertTab(String title, Icon icon, Component component, String tip, int index)
      {
        adding = true;
        super.insertTab(title, icon, component, tip, index);
        adding = false;
      }
    };

Multiple tabs in JTabbedPane using a single JPanel?

6 Answers6