JLabel on top of JLabel

[Gregg Bolinger]

I have a JPanel that I am adding JLabels onto that contain an ImageIcon. There are times when I need to place a new JLabel on top of another JLabel but without removing one.
The one I place on top always get's placed underneath the first JLabel. I have tried Integer.MAX_VALUE and Integer.MIN_VALUE but it isn't working.
Any ideas?

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Happy Coding,
Gregg Bolinger

[Gregg Bolinger]

Still waiting to see if anyone knows the answer to this. If you do, please reply. It would be greatly appriciated.
Thanks

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Happy Coding,
Gregg Bolinger

[Vinod Venugopal]

Hi Greg,
Even im trying to to get a soln this problem, I know its too late, but I found ur messg using the Search option, I'm using labels with images, & the new label gets added below the first one..any ideas?

[Peter Phung]

Why do u try to add one label on top of another label?
wouldn't it be easier to just change the icon and the text in the label?

[Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi]

I'm not really sure if this will help you but cant you use CardLayout to display different Components.
Bascially if you want to display 3 different sets of Components then you will create 3 "Cards". These cards can take the same space in a Component but only one will be displayed.
So if you want to have a label on top of another then create different "Cards" and display the one you want.
Hope this helps.

[Vinod Venugopal]

No guys,
What I want to do is display a component over a component..its like a chair over a floor, i need to display the floor as well as the chair, but with JLabels having an image,the chair goes under the floor..hope u all get the idea

[Gregg Bolinger]

My whole reasoning was for cards layed out over each other but cascading.

[Peter Phung]

In my limited experience with Java, it is not possible to display one component on top of another in the same panel/container.
I believe it is possible to place the two components into two panels and switch between the panels using cardlayout.
I hope this helps.

[Nathan Pruett]

Look at the JLayeredPane API... it was made for just this kind of thing... run the example code below to see a JLayeredPane in action...

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
public class LayeredPoop extends JFrame {
    
    private JLayeredPane content;
    private JLabel[] label;
    
    public static void main( String[] arg ) {
        new LayeredPoop();
    }
    
    public LayeredPoop() {
        super( "LayeredPoop" );
        content = new JLayeredPane();
        content.setOpaque( true );
        label = new  JLabel[ 10 ];
        setContentPane( content );
        for ( int i = 0; i < label.length; i++ ) {
            label[ i ] = new JLabel( "Label " + i );
            label[ i ].setBorder( BorderFactory.createBevelBorder( BevelBorder.RAISED ) );
            int w = label[ i ].getPreferredSize().width;
            int h = label[ i ].getPreferredSize().height;
            int x = 10 * i;
            int y = x;
            label[ i ].setBounds( x, y, w, h );
            label[ i ].addMouseMotionListener( new LabelDragger() );
            label[ i ].setOpaque( true );
            content.setLayer( label[ i ], i );
            getContentPane().add( label[ i ] );
        }
        setSize( 400, 400 );
        setDefaultCloseOperation( EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
        show();
    }
    
    private class LabelDragger implements MouseMotionListener {
        public void mouseDragged( MouseEvent e ) {
            JLabel l = (JLabel)e.getSource();
            Point p = e.getPoint();
            SwingUtilities.convertPointToScreen( p, l );
            l.setLocation( p );
            SwingUtilities.invokeLater( new RefreshThread() );           
        }
        
        public void mouseMoved( MouseEvent e ) {}
    }
    
    private class RefreshThread extends Thread {
        public void run() {
            content.revalidate();
            content.repaint(); 
        }
    }
}

-Nate