Layout Managers

Layout Managers
• Each container has a layout manager, which controls the
way the components are positioned in the container.
• One of the advantages of using layout managers is that
there is no need for absolute coordinates where each
component is to be placed or the dimensions of the
component.
• The layout manager automatically handles the calculation
of these.
• Programmer only specifies relative positions of the
components within the container.
• Whenever the dimensions of the container change (e.g.
user resizes the window), layout manager recalculates the
absolute coordinates of components for them to fit the
new container size.
• There are four basic layout managers are
available in java.awt.package:
• FlowLayout
• BorderLayout
• GridLayout
• CardLayout
• GridbagLayout
 Flow Layout
• The Flow Layout manager arranges the components
left-to-right, top-to-bottom in the order they were
inserted into the container.
• Components are added to the container first come first
basis.
• When the container is not wide enough to display all
the components, the remaining components are
placed in the next row, etc.
• Each row is centered. And all components are sized to
preferred size and maintains a gap of 5 pixels.
• This layout is default layout for Panel, Applet.
 Grid Layout
• The Grid Layout manager lays out all the components in a
rectangular grid.
• All the components have identical sizes, since the manager
automatically stretches or compresses the components as to
fill the entire space of the container.
• Constructors are:
• GridLayout(r, c, hgap, vgap)
– r – number of rows in the layout
– c – number of columns in the layout
– hgap – horizontal gaps between components
– vgap – vertical gaps between components
• GridLayout(r, c)
– r – number of rows in the layout
– c – number of columns in the layout
– No vertical or horizontal gaps.
 Border Layout
• The Border Layout manager arranges components into five
regions: (4 borders + center)
– Top border – BorderLayout.NORTH
– Left border – BorderLayout.WEST
– Right border – BorderLayout.EAST
– Bottom border – BorderLayout.SOUTH
• This layout is so useful to arrange menubar at top, vertical
scrollbar at right border, and horizontal scrollbar at bottom
border.
• Components in the North and South are set to their natural
heights and horizontally stretched to fill the entire width of the
container.
• Components in the East and West are set to their natural widths
and stretched vertically to fill the entire width of the container.
• The Center component fills the space left in the center of the
container.
• This layout is default layout for Frame and dialog.
 Card Layout
• In card layout, components are added in layers.(one
component is on the top of another components, like pack of
cards)
• Using this layout, we can hide dome components which are
necessary to display.
• Cardlayout has different methods to switch from one card to
another card.
– public void next(Container parent): is used to flip to the next card
of the given container.
– public void previous(Container parent): is used to flip to the
previous card of the given container.
– public void first(Container parent): is used to flip to the first card of
the given container.
– public void last(Container parent): is used to flip to the last card of
the given container.
– public void show(Container parent, String name): is used to flip to
the specified card with the given name.
 Gridbag Layout
• We can arrange components in horizontal as well in vertical
direction or by positioning them within a cell of a grid
• Components need not be of same size in a row.
• Each row can contain dissimilar number of columns.
• GridBagConstraint contains the constraint which includes
the
– height, width of a cell, placement and alignment of components.
• GridBagLayout object maintains a rectangular grid of cell.
• Component can occupy one or more cells, a.k.a its display
area.
• ComponentOrientation class controls the orientation of the
grid.
• We need to customize GridBagConstraints objects to use
GridBagLayout effectively associated with its components.