Question

I’m using a JTabbedPane, and on each tab there’s a panel, which changes when the user does things like click buttons. The problem I’m getting is that elements from the previous panel get left behind. Usually you can’t see them until you run the mouse over them, but sometimes you can’t see elements of the new panel until you run your mouse over where they should be. So quite often at first only a little is visible, then:

when you run your mouse over more stuff it becomes visible

Then for some reason when you hit ‘multiple choice’, which is supposed to create the four new buttons, everything becomes perfectly visible.

I’ve got repaint(); as pretty much every other line, and before I change anything on the GUI I do removeAll(); first, but it all keeps coming back! Any suggestions? The code for this panel is below, if it might help…

package com.GC01.gui;

import java.awt.Color;

public class PracticeQuizPanel extends JPanel implements MouseListener {
    /**
     * This panel will allow the user to practice quiz questions.
     */
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

private User user = new User("misha");

boolean isMultipleChoice=false;
boolean usedClue=false;
boolean isStarted=false;

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
AnswerAnalysis aA = new AnswerAnalysis();   
private Quiz qz = new Quiz( Quiz.getQuestionsFromDisk(), 4, TabbedQuiz.getUser().getNumLogins() );

private JTextArea questionArea;
private JTextArea clueArea;
private JTextArea answerArea;

private JButton clueButton;
private JButton multiButton;
private JButton answerButton;
private JButton startButton; 

private int index=0;
private Calendar startCalendar, endCalendar;

private JPanel backPanel;

public PracticeQuizPanel(){
    add(new StartButtonPanel());
}

PracticeQuizPanel(int index) {
    createVisualElements(index);
}

public void offerAnswer(){
    endCalendar = Calendar.getInstance();
    aA.setTimeSpent((int) (endCalendar.getTimeInMillis()-startCalendar.getTimeInMillis()));
    aA.setRight(answerArea.getText());
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, aA.toString());
    answerArea.setEditable(false);
    qz.setAnswersAnalysis(index, aA);
    index++;
    removeAll(); 
    if( index<qz.getLength() ) createVisualElements(index);
    else {
        removeAll();
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, qz.toFriendlyString());
        addQuizResultsToUserProgress();
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, qz.toFriendlyString());
        UserProgress uP = new UserProgress(user);
        System.out.println(uP.toString());
    }
    repaint();
    startCalendar = Calendar.getInstance();
    //JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, isStarted);
}

public void addQuizResultsToUserProgress(){
    UserProgress userProgress = new UserProgress(user);
    ArrayList<AnswerAnalysis> asA = userProgress.getAnswersAnalysis();
    for (int i=0; i<qz.getLength(); i++){
        asA.add( qz.getAnswersAnalysis()[i]);
    }
    userProgress.setAnswersAnalysis(asA);
    userProgress.saveProgress();
}



/**
 * This method creates/recreates all the text boxes, buttons etc. without resetting the quiz and
 * the objects in memory.
 */
private void createVisualElements(int index){
    if (TabbedQuiz.getUser().getNumLogins()<0) 
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "There was an error. You may have done this quiz before.");
    removeAll();
    repaint();
    startCalendar = Calendar.getInstance();
    this.index=index;
    setBackground(new Color(112, 128, 144)); 
    setBounds(0,0,728,380);
    setLayout(null);

    questionArea = new JTextArea();
    questionArea.setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(20));//new Font("Courier New", 0, 20));
    questionArea.setEditable(false);
    questionArea.setLineWrap(true);
    questionArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
    questionArea.setBounds(295, 11, 423, 74);
    add(questionArea);
    //int index=0;
    Question q = qz.getQuestions().get(index);
    aA = new AnswerAnalysis(q.getQuestionID());
    questionArea.setText(q.getQuestionText() );

    clueArea = new JTextArea();
    clueArea.setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(20));
    clueArea.setEditable(false);
    clueArea.setLineWrap(true);
    clueArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
    clueArea.setBounds(295, 104, 423, 55);
    add(clueArea);

    JLabel lblQuestion = new JLabel("QUESTION:");
    lblQuestion.setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(40));
    lblQuestion.setBounds(43, 11, 216, 61);
    add(lblQuestion);

    answerArea = new JTextArea();//index+"");
    answerArea.setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(20));
    answerArea.setLineWrap(true);
    answerArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
    answerArea.setBounds(295, 301, 423, 50);
    answerArea.addKeyListener(new KeyAdapter() {
        @Override
        public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
            if(e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_ENTER) offerAnswer();
        }
    });

    add(answerArea);
    answerArea.setFocusable(true);
    answerArea.requestFocusInWindow();

    clueButton = new JButton("CLUE?");
    clueButton.setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(40));
    clueButton.addMouseListener(this);
    clueButton.setBounds(15, 104, 244, 55);
    add(clueButton);

    multiButton = new JButton("MULTIPLE CHOICE?");
    multiButton.setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(20));
    multiButton.addMouseListener(this);
    multiButton.setBounds(15, 195, 244, 55);
    add(multiButton);

    answerButton = new JButton("ANSWER!");
    answerButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
        }
    });
    answerButton.setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(40));
    answerButton.setBounds(15, 301, 244, 55);
    answerButton.addMouseListener(this);
    add(answerButton);

    backPanel = new JPanel();
    backPanel.setBounds(0, 0, 728, 380);
    //add(backPanel);

    this.setVisible(true);
    repaint();
}

@Override
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
    if      ( e.getSource().equals(startButton)  ) {
        remove(startButton); repaint(); isStarted=true;
        startCalendar = Calendar.getInstance();
    }
    else if ( e.getSource().equals(answerButton) ) offerAnswer();
    else if ( e.getSource().equals(clueButton )  ) {
        clueArea.setText(clueArea.getText() + qz.getQuestions().get(index).getClueText() + "\n");
        aA.setUsedClue(true);
        //JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "hi");
        }
    else if ( e.getSource().equals(multiButton)  ) {            
        String[] answerOptions = qz.getQuestions().get(index).getAnswerOptions(3);
        JButton[] optionsButtons = new JButton[4];
        for(int j=0;j<4;j++){
            optionsButtons[j]=new JButton(answerOptions[j]);
            if(optionsButtons[j].getText().length()>13) 
                optionsButtons[j].setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(10));
            else optionsButtons[j].setFont(TabbedQuiz.getDefaultFont().deriveFont(15));
            if(j<2) optionsButtons[j].setBounds(295+211*j       , 170, 211, 55);
            else    optionsButtons[j].setBounds(295+211*(j-2)   , 226, 211, 55);
            optionsButtons[j].addMouseListener(this);
            optionsButtons[j].setName("optionsButton"+"["+j+"]");
            add(optionsButtons[j]);
            repaint();
        }
        aA.setMultipleChoice(true);
    }
    else if ( ( (JButton) e.getSource() ).getName().startsWith("optionsButton") ) {
        String answerOffered = ( (JButton) e.getSource() ).getText();
        answerArea.setText(answerOffered);
        offerAnswer();
    }
}

@Override
public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
    if(e.getSource()!=startButton && e.getSource().getClass().equals( answerButton.getClass()) ){
        ( (JButton) e.getSource() ).setBackground(Color.green);
    }if(index>0 && e.getSource()==startButton) remove(startButton);
}

@Override
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
    if(e.getSource()!=startButton && e.getSource().getClass().equals( answerButton.getClass()) ){
        ( (JButton) e.getSource() ).setBackground(UIManager.getColor("control"));
    }
}

@Override
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
}

@Override
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
}
}

Answer 1

To anyone else with this issue: I eventually solved the problem. setVisible(false); setVisible(true);. Put it EVERYWHERE.