Switching / moving jpanels in java vibrations

Question

• > I have a jframe defined in the package 'abc'. this jframe is also the main class.
• > the same package 'abc' also contains 4 jpanels (panel1, panel2, panel3, panel4) defined in different Java classes.

how should I call / show these different jpanels from the main jframe class when the user clicks on different buttons? what if i have 40-50 such jpanels. What would be the most efficient way to switch these panels from the main class?

Answer 1

This is a very simple example that uses next() and one button to change panels.

 import java.awt.EventQueue; import javax.swing.JFrame; import javax.swing.JPanel; import java.awt.CardLayout; import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.GridBagLayout; import java.awt.event.ActionEvent; import java.awt.event.ActionListener; import javax.swing.BorderFactory; import javax.swing.BoxLayout; import javax.swing.JButton; import javax.swing.JLabel; import javax.swing.border.Border; public class TestCards extends JFrame { private final CardLayout cl = new CardLayout(); private final JPanel cards = new JPanel(cl); private final Border border = BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(60, 60, 60, 60); public TestCards() { JPanel contentPane = new JPanel(); contentPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(contentPane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS)); contentPane.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5)); setContentPane(contentPane); JPanel panel1 = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout()); panel1.setBorder(border); panel1.setBackground(Color.RED); panel1.add(new JLabel("Card 1")); cards.add(panel1, "First Panel"); JPanel panel2 = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout()); panel2.setBorder(border); panel2.setBackground(Color.GREEN); panel2.add(new JLabel("Card 2")); cards.add(panel2, "Second Panel"); JPanel panel3 = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout()); panel3.setBorder(border); panel3.setBackground(Color.BLUE); panel3.add(new JLabel("Card 3")); cards.add(panel3, "Third Panel"); JButton controlButton = new JButton("Switch"); controlButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() { @Override public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { cl.next(cards); } }); JPanel controlPanel = new JPanel(); controlPanel.setBackground(Color.LIGHT_GRAY); controlPanel.add(controlButton); contentPane.add(cards); contentPane.add(controlPanel); cl.show(cards, "First Panel"); } public static void main(String[] args) { EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { TestCards frame = new TestCards(); frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); frame.pack(); frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null); frame.setVisible(true); } }); } } 

An alternative (among many) would be to use 3 buttons, each of which displays a specific panel (using show instead of next ).

For more information, see this .

Answer 2

The CardLayout methods previous and next can be used to move forward and backward respectively through map components. To simplify component navigation not sequentially, you can put map names in a String array:

 private static final String[] CARD_NAMES = { "name_2996062106101", ... }; 

Then, to display a specific cardIndex , you could simply use:

 CardLayout layout = (CardLayout) contentPane.getLayout(); layout.show(contentPane, CARD_NAMES[cardIndex]); 

See How to use CardLayout for more details .