Swing layout is done wrong

[Onra]

Hello,

I have a custom JPanel which represents a simple chat user interface.
With userlist, messages and input.
Here is the code so far:

public class ChatPanel extends JPanel{
	
	private JTextArea ta_chat;
	private JList l_users;
	private JScrollPane sp_chatscroll, sp_listscroll;
	private JTextField tf_chatenter;
	private Vector<String> m_userlist;
	
	public ChatPanel(){
		ta_chat = new JTextArea(20,50);
		m_userlist = new Vector<String>();
		l_users = new JList(m_userlist);
		tf_chatenter = new JTextField();
		initView();
	}
	
	private void initView(){
		this.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
		ta_chat.setAutoscrolls(true);
		ta_chat.setLineWrap(true);
		ta_chat.setEditable(false);
		ta_chat.setFocusable(false);
		sp_chatscroll = new JScrollPane(ta_chat);
		GridBagConstraints formatter = new GridBagConstraints();
		formatter.anchor = GridBagConstraints.FIRST_LINE_START;
		formatter.gridx = 0;
		formatter.gridy = 0;
		this.add(sp_chatscroll, formatter);
		l_users.setVisibleRowCount(20);
		l_users.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
		sp_listscroll = new JScrollPane(l_users);
		formatter.gridx = 1;
		this.add(sp_listscroll, formatter);
		tf_chatenter.setColumns(65);
		formatter.gridx = 0;
		formatter.gridy = 1;
		formatter.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
		this.add(tf_chatenter, formatter);
	}
}

As you can see, I am using a GridBagLayout to layout the components.
However, they are not being lain out as I want them to.

This is how it looks like:


I want the list, which is on the right, to be next to the textarea and additionally over the right part of the textfield, like you have it in generic chat UIs.

Can anyone help me?

[Ronin]

Onra,

Just quickly looking through but it looks like you have forgot to set gridwidth for the textfield.

Regards.

[Fubarable]

Myself, I'd skip using the complex GridBagLayout but instead nest JPanels, creating an innter JPanel using BorderLayout and having the JTextArea BorderLayout.CENTER and the list BorderLayout.EAST. Then the outer one can also use BorderLayout and place the inner JPanel BorderLayout.CENTER and the JTextField BorderLayout.SOUTH.

[Onra]

Myself, I'd skip using the complex GridBagLayout but instead nest JPanels, creating an innter JPanel using BorderLayout and having the JTextArea BorderLayout.CENTER and the list BorderLayout.EAST. Then the outer one can also use BorderLayout and place the inner JPanel BorderLayout.CENTER and the JTextField BorderLayout.SOUTH.

This works.

Any tip on how I can make a JList thinner? For a text area I can set less columns, but I can't find a useful method for JList.

[Fubarable]

You'll usually place a JList into a JScrollPane. I suppose you could set the preferred size of the JScrollPane.

[DarrylBurke]

As you can see, I am using a GridBagLayout to layout the components.
However, they are not being lain out as I want them to.

I want the list, which is on the right, to be next to the textarea and additionally over the right part of the textfield, like you have it in generic chat UIs.

Set colspan=2 for the constraint of the text field.

You may want to set weightx and weighty, which determine how any extra space is distributed when the GUI is resized.

db