Simple java layout question

[Paul Statham]

Hi Folks,

I'm still getting used to layout managers etc, I have a JPanel that is quite large in size, I'm wanting to add another panel to it that looks something like below (the contents of the frame)



However when I add this Panel to a bigger Panel, it screws it



And here's the pretty simple test code I've been using

public class ProfileTest extends JPanel {
   public ProfileTest() {
      super(new BorderLayout());

      JPanel profilePanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
      JPanel buttonsPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2,2));
      JLabel optBatchLabel = new JLabel("Optimum Batch Size");

      JTextField tf = new JTextField();

      JRadioButton pagesRadio = new JRadioButton("Pages",true);
      JRadioButton notificationsRadio = new JRadioButton("Notifications",false);

      buttonsPanel.add(pagesRadio);
      buttonsPanel.add(tf);
      buttonsPanel.add(notificationsRadio);
      buttonsPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,100)); //Thought this might have worked but no

      profilePanel.add(optBatchLabel,BorderLayout.NORTH);
      profilePanel.add(buttonsPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
      profilePanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(900,900));

      add(profilePanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
   }
   private static void initLayout() {
      JFrame frame = new JFrame("Simple Profile");
      frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

      ProfileTest newContentPane = new ProfileTest();
      newContentPane.setOpaque(true);
      frame.setContentPane(newContentPane); 

      frame.pack();
      frame.setVisible(true);
   }
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
         public void run() {
            initLayout();
         }
      });
   }   
}

Thanks,
Paul

[Rob Camick]

When you add the panel to a BorderLayout the size of the component is automatcally changed to take up all the space in the BorderLayout. Since a GridLayout also expands to take up all the space all the components get resized. You can prevent this by wrapping your panel into another panel that uses a layout manager that respects the preferred size of the components. Something like this:

JPanel wrap = new JPanel() // automatically uses a FlowLayout
wrap.add( profile );
add(wrap, BorderLayout.CENTER);

[Paul Statham]

Rob Camick wrote:When you add the panel to a BorderLayout the size of the component is automatcally changed to take up all the space in the BorderLayout. Since a GridLayout also expands to take up all the space all the components get resized. You can prevent this by wrapping your panel into another panel that uses a layout manager that respects the preferred size of the components. Something like this:

JPanel wrap = new JPanel() // automatically uses a FlowLayout
wrap.add( profile );
add(wrap, BorderLayout.CENTER);

Thanks