Aligning JLabel and JTextField in BorderLayout

Question

I am just trying Java BorderLayout and GridLayout with some GUI components.

I am trying for right-align of JLabels and left-align the JTextFields so that it can be much of better in look.

I found some answers in stackoverflow itself, with the help of setAlignmentX and setHorizontalAlignment. Both didn't work.

Basically, I have 3 components in each BorderLayout.

1. JLabel
2. JTextField
3. JButton

Then, these components are being added to a GridLayout on each row.

Code

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;

/**
 *
 * @author dinesh
 */
public class MySettings {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JFrame jf = new JFrame("hi");

        //demo Info Panel start
        // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="demo info panel">
        JLabel lbldemoExecutablePath = new JLabel("demo Executable Path :");
//        lbldemoExecutablePath.setAlignmentX(JLabel.LEADING);
//        lbldemoExecutablePath.setAlignmentY(JLabel.LEADING);
//        lbldemoExecutablePath.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);

        JTextField txtdemoInstallationPath = new JTextField(10);
        txtdemoInstallationPath.setEditable(false);
        txtdemoInstallationPath.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        txtdemoInstallationPath.setToolTipText("getdemoPath()");
        txtdemoInstallationPath.setAlignmentX(JLabel.LEADING);
        txtdemoInstallationPath.setAlignmentY(JLabel.LEADING);

        JButton btndemoBrowse = new JButton("Browse");

        btndemoBrowse.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                System.out.println("demo browse button clicked");
            }
        });

        JPanel pnldemoInfo = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(10, 10));
        pnldemoInfo.add(lbldemoExecutablePath, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
        pnldemoInfo.add(txtdemoInstallationPath, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        pnldemoInfo.add(btndemoBrowse, BorderLayout.LINE_END);
        // </editor-fold>
        //demo info panel end

        //sample Info Panel start
        // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="sample info panel">
        JLabel lblsampleExecutablePath = new JLabel("sample Executable Path :");
//        lblsampleExecutablePath.setAlignmentX(JLabel.LEADING);
//        lblsampleExecutablePath.setAlignmentY(JLabel.LEADING);
        JTextField txtsampleInstallationPath = new JTextField(10);
        txtsampleInstallationPath.setEditable(false);
        txtsampleInstallationPath.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        txtsampleInstallationPath.setToolTipText("getsamplePath()");


        JButton btnsampleBrowse = new JButton("Browse");

        btnsampleBrowse.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                System.out.println("demo browse button clicked");
            }
        });

        JPanel pnlsampleInfo = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(10, 10));
        pnlsampleInfo.add(lblsampleExecutablePath, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
        pnlsampleInfo.add(txtsampleInstallationPath, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        pnlsampleInfo.add(btnsampleBrowse, BorderLayout.LINE_END);
        // </editor-fold>
        //sample info panel end

        //app Info Panel start
        // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="app info panel">
        JLabel lblappExecutablePath = new JLabel("app Executable Path :");
//        lblappExecutablePath.setAlignmentX(JLabel.LEADING);
        JTextField txtappExecutablePath = new JTextField(10);
        txtappExecutablePath.setEditable(false);
        txtappExecutablePath.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        txtappExecutablePath.setToolTipText("gettxtappExecutablePath()");

        JButton btnappBrowse = new JButton("Browse");

        btnappBrowse.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                System.out.println("appBrowse browse button clicked");
            }
        });

        JPanel pnlappInfo = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(10, 10));
        pnlappInfo.add(lblappExecutablePath, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
        pnlappInfo.add(txtappExecutablePath, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        pnlappInfo.add(btnappBrowse, BorderLayout.LINE_END);
        // </editor-fold>
        //app info panel end

        //logfile Info Panel start
        // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="logfile info panel">
        JLabel lblLogFilePath = new JLabel("Log File Path :");
//        lblLogFilePath.setAlignmentX(JLabel.LEADING);
        JTextField txtLogFilePath = new JTextField(10);
        txtLogFilePath.setEditable(false);
        txtLogFilePath.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        txtLogFilePath.setToolTipText("gettxtLogFilePath()");

        JButton btnLogFileBrowse = new JButton("Browse");

        btnLogFileBrowse.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                System.out.println("appBrowse browse button clicked");
            }
        });

        JPanel pnlLogFileInfo = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(10, 10));
        pnlLogFileInfo.add(lblLogFilePath, BorderLayout.LINE_START);
        pnlLogFileInfo.add(txtLogFilePath, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        pnlLogFileInfo.add(btnLogFileBrowse, BorderLayout.LINE_END);
        // </editor-fold>
        //logfile info panel end

        JPanel pnlGereal = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1));
        pnlGereal.add(pnldemoInfo);
        pnlGereal.add(pnlsampleInfo);
        pnlGereal.add(pnlappInfo);
        pnlGereal.add(pnlLogFileInfo);

        jf.add(pnlGereal);
        jf.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        //jf.setSize(500, 500);

        jf.pack();
        jf.setVisible(true);
    }

}

Where am I making the mistake ? Where I exactly set the alignment ?

Answer 1

Alignment doesn't work here because BorderLayout is using sizes of JLabels and dynamically adjust width to it.

You could try to see that alignment works by using this code:

JLabel lbldemoExecutablePath = new JLabel( "demo Executable Path :" );
lbldemoExecutablePath.setPreferredSize( new Dimension(200,100) );
lbldemoExecutablePath.setHorizontalAlignment( SwingConstants.RIGHT );

You can see here that your JLabel( "demo Executable Path :" ) is at right. However you shouldn't use setPreferredSize() method in your code I post it only to show you that alignment works.

Instead of BorderLayout you could use FormLayout from JGoodies http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/libraries/forms/.

Answer 2

There are many ways to solve this. You can break the whole frame up in 3 panels, one for each JLabel, JTextField and JButton. You can then set the size of each individual JPanel, without having to worry about the individual components contained in the panel.

+----------------+----------------+----------------+
|  panel1        |  panel2        |  panel3        |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+
|  label1        |  field1        |  button1       |
|  label2        |  field2        |  button2       |     
|  label3        |  field3        |  button3       |
|  label4        |  field4        |  button4       |
+----------------+----------------+----------------+

Or you can also just give each JLabel the same width. Like this:

final int LABEL_WIDTH = 200;
...
lbldemoExecutablePath.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(LABEL_WIDTH, lbldemoExecutablePath.getHeight()));
...
lblsampleExecutablePath.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(LABEL_WIDTH, lblsampleExecutablePath.getHeight()));
...
lblappExecutablePath.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(LABEL_WIDTH, lblappExecutablePath.getHeight()));
...
lblLogFilePath.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(LABEL_WIDTH, lblLogFilePath.getHeight()));