A individual class for each Card in java swing CardLayout

Question

For architecture and design purposes I would like to design my GUI with a class for each card in a Java Swing CardLayout. and then have a mainapp that builds the GUI. I am having trouble doing this right now.

I would like to example have a class for the main menu with all the button locations etc. and then just instantiate that card and add it to the layout in another class. Does anyone know how to achieve this?

Answer 1

Perhaps you want to give your class that uses the CardLayout a public loadCard method, something like

public void loadCard(JComponent component, String key) {
  cardHolderPanel.add(component, key);
}

where cardHolderPanel is the container that holds the cards.

Since your creating classes to act as cards, consider having them all extend from a base abstract class or an interface that has a method that allows this class to hold its own key String. Either that or simply use the JComponent name property to have a component hold its own key String, one that can easily be obtained via getName().

For a more detailed answer, you may need to give us more details on your current application and its structure.

Answer 2

very simple example that held Swing Objects generated from different Java Classes

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class OnTheFlyImageTest extends JFrame {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private JPanel cardPanel;
    private CardLayout cardLayout;

    public OnTheFlyImageTest() {
        JPanel cp = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        cp.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
        cardLayout = new CardLayout(5, 5);
        cardPanel = new JPanel(cardLayout);
        cp.add(cardPanel);
        for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {// Create random panels for testing.
            String name = "ImagePanel" + (i + 1);
            String image = (i & 1) == 0 ? "foo.gif" : "bar.gif";
            ImagePanel imgPanel = new ImagePanel(name, image);
            cardPanel.add(imgPanel, name);
            cardLayout.addLayoutComponent(imgPanel, name);
        }
        JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 2, 5, 5));
        JButton prevButton = new JButton("< Previous");
        prevButton.setActionCommand("Previous");
        prevButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                cardLayout.previous(cardPanel);
            }
        });
        buttonPanel.add(prevButton);
        JButton nextButton = new JButton("Next >");
        nextButton.setActionCommand("Next");
        nextButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                cardLayout.next(cardPanel);
            }
        });
        buttonPanel.add(nextButton);
        JPanel temp = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        temp.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.LINE_END);
        cp.add(temp, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        setContentPane(cp);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setTitle("Test");
        pack();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                new OnTheFlyImageTest().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }
}

class ImagePanel extends JPanel {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private String imgString;
    private JLabel imgLabel;

    public ImagePanel(String name, String imgString) {
        setName(name);
        this.imgString = imgString;
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        // Ensure size is correct even before any image is loaded.
        setPreferredSize(new Dimension(640, 480));
    }

    @Override
    public void setVisible(boolean visible) {
        if (visible) {
            System.err.println(getName() + ": Loading and adding image");
            ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(imgString);
            imgLabel = new JLabel(icon);
            add(imgLabel);
        }
        super.setVisible(visible);
        if (!visible) { // Do after super.setVisible() so image doesn't "disappear".
            System.err.println(getName() + ": Removing image");
            if (imgLabel != null) { // Before display, this will be null
                remove(imgLabel);
                imgLabel = null; // Hint to GC that component/image can be collected.
            }
        }
    }
}