Making textTextField's and JPasswordField's Visible on Event

I have come across what seems like it should be a trivial problem in my project:

I have set some of my fields on my GUI to invisible (with .setVisible(false);) in post-creation code. When I run the GUI the items are indeed invisible but when I click on my button which has myTextField.setVisible(true); nothing happens. I can get the button to print out something to the terminal everytime I click on it but I can work out how to make the fields appear upon user request.

Any help is greatly appretiated,

Regards,

Dave Gardner
3rd Year BSc Computer Science, University of Exeter

Post your SSCCE showing the problem.

Code:

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private void btnStartServerActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                             
       
        System.getProperties().setProperty("java.rmi.server.hostname", txtHostname.getText());
        System.out.println("file:/" + txtServerDirectory.getText());
        System.getProperties().setProperty("java.rmi.server.codebase", "file:/" + txtServerDirectory.getText());

        String comport = txtComport.getText();
        boolean error = false;
        errorText.setText("");
        errorText.setVisible(false);

     
            /* Set up server */
            SpotlightsServer server = new SpotlightsServer();
            try {
                server.startController(comport);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                errorText.setVisible(true);
                errorText.setText("Cannot Find the Specified COM Port");
                error = true;
            }
}

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On the errorText field. I use postcreation code (through properties in Netbeans) to do:

Code:

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errorText.setVisible(false);

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That is NOT a SSCCE.

Code:

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/*
 * TestFrame.java
 *
 * Created on 14-Mar-2010, 19:57:57
 */

//package BackEnd;

/**
 *
 * @author Dave Gardner
 */
public class TestFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    /** Creates new form TestFrame */
    public TestFrame() {
        initComponents();
    }

    /** This method is called from within the constructor to
    * initialize the form.
    * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
    * always regenerated by the Form Editor.
    */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Generated Code">
    private void initComponents() {

        testTextField = new javax.swing.JTextField();
        testTextField.setVisible(false);
        makeVisibleBtn = new javax.swing.JButton();

        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        testTextField.setText("Test");

        makeVisibleBtn.setText("Make Visible");
        makeVisibleBtn.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                makeVisibleBtnActionPerformed(evt);
            }
        });

        javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
        getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
        layout.setHorizontalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addGap(158, 158, 158)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING, false)
                    .addComponent(testTextField, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                    .addComponent(makeVisibleBtn, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE))
                .addContainerGap(153, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );
        layout.setVerticalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addGap(74, 74, 74)
                .addComponent(makeVisibleBtn)
                .addGap(30, 30, 30)
                .addComponent(testTextField, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                .addContainerGap(153, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );

        pack();
    }// </editor-fold>

    private void makeVisibleBtnActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
        testTextField.setVisible(true);
    }

    /**
    * @param args the command line arguments
    */
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new TestFrame().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    private javax.swing.JButton makeVisibleBtn;
    private javax.swing.JTextField testTextField;
    // End of variables declaration

}

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Don't forget to revalidate (and often to repaint) the Container that holds the newly visible component:

Code:

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  private void makeVisibleBtnActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
    testTextField.setVisible(true);
    ((JPanel)getContentPane()).revalidate();
    getContentPane().repaint();
  }

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