trouble with my gui

[Jason McKinley]

Hello all,

I new here and needed some help on a simple program I am writing to help me learn java. It's a small and simple address book program, I am making the gui and was testing it out to see what it looks like. My problem is that when I run it to test the gui everything pops up in the middle. Could someone tell me what I am doing wrong/ not doing to cause this. I would like to see everything at the top. I have tried changing the gbc.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL from horizontal to northwest to see if that worked but it just caused other problem. Anyway here the code:

package addressbook;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

public class AddressBook extends JFrame {
    public static void AddressBook(Container pane){
        JLabel Name;
        pane.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
        GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
        gbc.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        
        Name = new JLabel("Name:");
        gbc.weightx = 0.5;
        gbc.gridx = 0;
        gbc.gridy = 0;       
        pane.add(Name, gbc);
        
        JTextField textName = new JTextField();
        gbc.weightx = 0.5;
        gbc.gridx = 1;
        gbc.gridy = 0;
        pane.add(textName, gbc);
        
        JLabel HPhone = new JLabel("Home Phone #:");
        gbc.weightx = 0.5;
        gbc.gridx = 2;
        gbc.gridy = 0;
        pane.add(HPhone, gbc);
        
        JTextField textHPhone = new JTextField();
        gbc.weightx = 0.5;
        gbc.gridx = 3;
        gbc.gridy = 0;
        pane.add(textHPhone, gbc);
       
       JLabel CellPhone = new JLabel("Cell Phone #:");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 0;
       gbc.gridy = 1;
       pane.add(CellPhone, gbc);
       
       JTextField textCPhone = new JTextField();
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 1;
       gbc.gridy = 1;
       pane.add(textCPhone, gbc);
       
       JLabel Address = new JLabel("Address");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 2;
       gbc.gridy = 1;
       pane.add(Address, gbc);
       
       JTextField textAddress = new JTextField();
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 3;
       gbc.gridy = 1;
       pane.add(textAddress, gbc);
       
       JLabel City = new JLabel("City:");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 0;
       gbc.gridy = 2;
       pane.add(City, gbc);
       
       JTextField textCity = new JTextField();
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 1;
       gbc.gridy = 2;
       pane.add(textCity, gbc);
       
       JLabel State = new JLabel("State:");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 2;
       gbc.gridy = 2;
       pane.add(State, gbc);
       
       JTextField textState = new JTextField();
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 3;
       gbc.gridy = 2;
       pane.add(textState, gbc);
       
       JLabel Zip = new JLabel("Zipcode:");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 0;
       gbc.gridy = 3;
       pane.add(Zip, gbc);
       
       JTextField textZip = new JTextField();
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 1;
       gbc.gridy = 3;
       pane.add(textZip, gbc);
       
       JLabel Country = new JLabel("Country:");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 2;
       gbc.gridy = 3;
       pane.add(Country, gbc);
       
       JTextField textCountry = new JTextField();
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 3;
       gbc.gridy = 3;
       pane.add(textCountry, gbc);
       
       JButton exit = new JButton("Exit");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 3;
       gbc.gridy = 5;
       pane.add(exit, gbc);
       
       JButton save = new JButton("Save");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 2;
       gbc.gridy = 5;
       pane.add(save, gbc);
       
       JButton open = new JButton("Open");
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 1;
       gbc.gridy = 5;
       pane.add(open, gbc);
       
       JSeparator sep = new JSeparator();
       gbc.weightx = 0.5;
       gbc.gridx = 0;
       gbc.gridy = 6;
       gbc.gridwidth = 4;
       pane.add(sep, gbc);
    }

    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
       JFrame frame = new AddressBook();
        frame.setTitle("My Address Book");
        frame.setSize(400, 400);
        frame.setResizable(false);
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.setVisible(true);
        AddressBook(frame.getContentPane());
    }
}

Thanks in advance for the help and if you need anything else let me know.

[Ranganathan Kaliyur Mannar]

Hi Jason,
Welcome to the Ranch!

You can use one dirty trick to achieve this - set the weighty to 1.0 just before the last component, like:

gbc.weighty = 1.0;
JSeparator sep = new JSeparator();
...

[Jason McKinley]

Ranganathan Kaliyur Mannar wrote:Hi Jason,
Welcome to the Ranch!

You can use one dirty trick to achieve this - set the weighty to 1.0 just before the last component, like:

gbc.weighty = 1.0;
JSeparator sep = new JSeparator();
...

I tried what you suggested but the only problem with that is that it puts the separator halfway down the program.

[Darryl Burke]

Play around with the other fields of the GridBagConstraints ... like anchor

[Ranganathan Kaliyur Mannar]

Jason McKinley wrote:I tried what you suggested but the only problem with that is that it puts the separator halfway down the program.

I ran it again and I don't have that problem. i.e. the separator appears right after the buttons for me.

Btw, I just found that you call the AddressBook at the end after calling setVisible(true). This is not the right way to build GUI in Swing. You build the GUI and call make it visible at the end.
(and btw, AddressBook() is a bad name for a method- same as class name and static-you should really change that)

[Jason McKinley]

Darryl Burke wrote:Play around with the other fields of the GridBagConstraints ... like anchor

Went to bed thinking about what you said and woke up and had the fix right in my head lol. it works great now, time to move on to my other part of the gui.

[Jason McKinley]

Ranganathan Kaliyur Mannar wrote:

Jason McKinley wrote:I tried what you suggested but the only problem with that is that it puts the separator halfway down the program.

I ran it again and I don't have that problem. i.e. the separator appears right after the buttons for me.

Btw, I just found that you call the AddressBook at the end after calling setVisible(true). This is not the right way to build GUI in Swing. You build the GUI and call make it visible at the end.
(and btw, AddressBook() is a bad name for a method- same as class name and static-you should really change that)

That's strange, every single time I ran it, it came up in the middle. At any rate, as I stated above, I got it fixed now. Also thanks for the advice you gave me, I am totally new to all java and programming as a whole and am learning this on my own. Any help I can get, I am grateful for.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the help.

[Ranganathan Kaliyur Mannar]

You're welcome.