Question

I made a swing application in which i have a grid layout on a Panel, now i have 8 custom buttons on that panel, and two button on left and right for the navigation.

Now my problem is that when i clicked on that navigation buttons i want to move the button in the sliding fashion, for that purpose i set each button location,

But the Jpanel not refresh itself, so it is not visible, If i add the dialog box and click ok then it look as buttons are moving.

How can i do this, i used the revalidate(), and repaint() but it not works.

function which execute on next button click

java.net.URL imageURL = cldr.getResource("images/" +2 + ".png");
                    ImageIcon aceOfDiamonds = new ImageIcon(imageURL);
                    button = new MyButton("ABC", aceOfDiamonds, color[3]);
                    Component buttons[] = jPanel1.getComponents();
                    ArrayList<MyButton> buttons1=new ArrayList<MyButton>();
                    for(int i=0;i<buttons.length;i++)
                    {
                        buttons1.add((MyButton) buttons[i]);
                    }
                    Point p=buttons[0].getLocation();
                    Point p1=buttons[1].getLocation();
                    int dis=p1.x-p.x;
                    System.out.println("Distance-->"+dis);
                    button.setLocation(buttons[buttons.length-1].getLocation().x+dis,buttons[0].getLocation().y);
                    jPanel1.add(button);
                    buttons1.add(button);
                    for(int i=0;i<dis;i++)
                    {
                        for(int btn=0;btn<buttons1.size();btn++)
                        {
                            int currX=buttons1.get(btn).getLocation().x;
                            currX--;
                            buttons1.get(btn).setLocation(currX, buttons1.get(btn).getLocation().y);
                        }
                        try
                        {
                            Thread.sleep(500);
                        }
                        catch (InterruptedException ex)
                        {
                            Logger.getLogger(TestPanel.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
                        }
                        //JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"fds");
                        jPanel1.validate();jPanel1.repaint();
                       }

![enter image description here][1]

Answer 1

Don’t set locations. Remove all buttons from the container and re-add them in the new order, then call revalidate() and repaint().

Edit
If you want to animate sliding the buttons over, then consider placing them in a JScrollPane, one without scrollbars, and then programmatically scroll the buttons. And I agree that you shouldn’t use Thread.sleep(...) on the EDT but rather use a Swing Timer.

Edit 2
For example:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;

public class SlideButtons extends JPanel {
   private static final int PREF_W = 600;
   private static final int PREF_H = 200;
   private static final int MAX_BUTTONS = 100;
   private static final int SCROLL_TIMER_DELAY = 10;
   public static final int SCROLL_DELTA = 3;
   private JPanel btnPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 0, 10, 0));
   private JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(btnPanel);
   private JButton scrollLeftBtn = new JButton("<");
   private JButton scrollRightBtn = new JButton(">");
   private BoundedRangeModel horizontalModel = scrollPane.getHorizontalScrollBar().getModel();
   private Timer scrollTimer = new Timer(SCROLL_TIMER_DELAY, new ScrollTimerListener());
   public String btnText = "";

   public SlideButtons() {
      scrollPane.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
      scrollPane.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
      for (int i = 0; i < MAX_BUTTONS; i++) {
         String text = String.format("Button %03d", (i + 1));
         JButton btn = new JButton(text);
         btnPanel.add(btn);
      }
      ScrollingBtnListener scrollingBtnListener = new ScrollingBtnListener();
      scrollLeftBtn.addChangeListener(scrollingBtnListener);
      scrollRightBtn.addChangeListener(scrollingBtnListener);

      JPanel northPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
      northPanel.add(scrollLeftBtn, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
      northPanel.add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
      northPanel.add(scrollRightBtn, BorderLayout.LINE_END);

      setLayout(new BorderLayout());
      add(northPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
   }

   @Override
   public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
      return new Dimension(PREF_W, PREF_H);
   }

   private class ScrollingBtnListener implements ChangeListener {
      @Override
      public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
         JButton btn = (JButton)e.getSource();
         ButtonModel model = btn.getModel();
         //actionCommand  = model.getActionCommand();
         btnText = btn.getText();
         if (model.isPressed() && model.isEnabled()) {
            scrollTimer.start();
         } else {
            scrollTimer.stop();
         }
      }
   }

   private class ScrollTimerListener implements ActionListener {
      @Override
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
         if (btnText == null) {
            return;
         }
         int max = horizontalModel.getMaximum();
         int min = horizontalModel.getMinimum();
         int value = horizontalModel.getValue();

         if (btnText.equals(">")) {
            if (value <= max) {
               value += SCROLL_DELTA;
            } else {
               value = max;
            }
         } else if (btnText.equals("<")) {
            if (value >= min) {
               value -= SCROLL_DELTA;
            } else {
               value = min;
            }
         }
         horizontalModel.setValue(value);
      }
   }

   private static void createAndShowGui() {
      SlideButtons mainPanel = new SlideButtons();

      JFrame frame = new JFrame("SlideButtons");
      frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
      frame.getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
      frame.pack();
      frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
      frame.setVisible(true);
   }

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