Question

I’m trying to write a scorekeeping app in Java that allows a server application to send scores to client applications. The clients will then display a list of teams, team IDs and their scores, sorted by score. Of course I could just use a swing JTable to display everything, but I want to achieve a unique effect: I want the text dynamically reorder itself every time a team moves up in the list. That is, it want to animate the text around the screen. I would also need to be able to update the contents of the labels after being added. What would be the best way to achieve this? Is there any component that allows you to add other components to it and place/move them freely?

Answer 1

You could use a JTable and change the contents of the rows as teams move up. Or you could arrange a series of labels and change the text whenever you want. To change the value displayed for a JLabel you simply use the JLabel.setText(“new value”); method.

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I’ve never done this but I think you need to use a panel with a ‘null’ layout manager. Meaning you are responsible for absolutely positioning your elements

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/layout/none.html

You would need some kind of SwingWorker or Timer running to update the gui layout. Make sure you actually make the GUI changes on the EventThread, which you can do by using SwingUtilities.invokeLater();