Lesson: Laying Out Components Within a Container
Examples Index
This lesson tells you how to use the layout managers
provided by the Java platform. It also tells you how to use absolute positioning (no layout manager)
and gives an example of writing a custom layout manager.
For each layout manager (or lack thereof),
this
lesson
points to an example
that you can run using JavaTM Web Start.
By resizing an example's window,
you can see how size changes affect the layout.
Note: This lesson covers writing layout code by hand, which can be challenging. If you are not interested in learning all the details of layout management, you might prefer to use the GroupLayout layout manager combined with a builder tool to lay out your GUI. One such builder tool is the
NetBeans IDE. Otherwise, if you want to code by hand and do not want to use GroupLayout, then GridBagLayout is recommended as the next most flexible and powerful layout manager.
This section shows examples of the standard layout managers
and points to the how-to section for each one.
This section gives general rules
on using the standard layout managers.
It includes how to set the layout manager,
add components to a container,
provide size and alignment hints,
put space between components,
and set the orientation of the container's layout
so that it is appropriate for the locale
in which the program is running.
It also has some tips for choosing the right layout manager.
This section goes through a typical layout sequence
and then describes what happens when a component's size changes.
This series of sections tells you how to use
each of the general-purpose layout managers
that the Java platform provides.
Instead of using one of the Java platform's layout managers,
you can write your own.
Layout managers must implement the LayoutManager interface,
which specifies the five methods every layout manager must define.
Optionally, layout managers can implement LayoutManager2,
which is a subinterface of LayoutManager.
If necessary, you can position components
without using a layout manager.
Generally, this solution is used to specify absolute sizes and positions
for components.
Some of the most common layout problems
involve components that are displayed too small —
or not at all.
This section
tells you how to fix these and
other common layout problems.
Try these questions and exercises to test what you have learned in this lesson.
