Question

I have a JFrame containing a set of JPanels in a CardLayout. Each JPanel has a different size and I want the JFrame to adapt to the size of the currently displayed JPanel (not the JPanel to adapt to the size of the JFrame).

How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

The general is: if you have a layout problem, always solve it with an appropriate LayoutManager. Never tweak a component’s sizing hint to reach your goal.

In this case, it’s particularly easy to adjust the CardLayout. By default, it calculates its prefSize to the max of prefSizes of all cards. Simply subclass and implement to return the prefSize (plus insets) of the currently visible card:

public static class MyCardLayout extends CardLayout {

    @Override
    public Dimension preferredLayoutSize(Container parent) {

        Component current = findCurrentComponent(parent);
        if (current != null) {
            Insets insets = parent.getInsets();
            Dimension pref = current.getPreferredSize();
            pref.width += insets.left + insets.right;
            pref.height += insets.top + insets.bottom;
            return pref;
        }
        return super.preferredLayoutSize(parent);
    }

    public Component findCurrentComponent(Container parent) {
        for (Component comp : parent.getComponents()) {
            if (comp.isVisible()) {
                return comp;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

}

Using that (borrowing @mKorbel’s example), the main method cleanly shrinks down:

private static void createAndShowUI() {
    final CardLayout cardLayout = new MyCardLayout();
    final JPanel cardHolder = new JPanel(cardLayout);
    final JFrame frame = new JFrame("MultiSizedPanels");
    JLabel[] labels = {
        new JLabel("Small Label", SwingConstants.CENTER),
        new JLabel("Medium Label", SwingConstants.CENTER),
        new JLabel("Large Label", SwingConstants.CENTER)};

    for (int i = 0; i < labels.length; i++) {
        int padding = 50 * (i + 1);
        Border lineBorder = BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
            BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.blue),
            BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(padding, padding, padding, padding));
        labels[i].setBorder(lineBorder);
        JPanel containerPanel = new JPanel();
        containerPanel.add(labels[i]);
        cardHolder.add(containerPanel, String.valueOf(i));
    }
    JButton nextButton = new JButton("Next");
    nextButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            cardLayout.next(cardHolder);
            frame.pack();
        }
    });
    JPanel btnHolder = new JPanel();
    btnHolder.add(nextButton);

    frame.add(cardHolder, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    frame.add(btnHolder, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.pack();
    frame.setLocation(150, 150);
    frame.setVisible(true);
}