CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaswingjframe
hudi
hudi

Reputation: 16555

Working with 2 or more frames

I have about 3 frames in my java swing application. What it the correct way how to handle with these frames? I mean some pattern or something else. Now I have always one class which represent frame and one class for panel which is main in this frame. Now I have defined frames as static variable and when I wanna hide them I call classname.frameName.setVisible(false);

is this the correct solution?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1796

Answers (4)

Andrew Thompson
Andrew Thompson

Reputation: 168845

Besides the (excellent) suggestions of a CardLayout or JFrame with multiple JDialog instances, here are some other strategies which might work singly or in combination, to collapse a variety of content panes into a single frame.

  1. JDesktopPane/JInternalFames (Tut.).
  2. JSplitPane (Tut.).
  3. JTabbedPane (Tut.).
  4. JLayeredPane, if you're feeling brave (Tut.).
  5. JToolBar - floatable if needed (Tut.).
  6. Different constraints of a JPanel in a nested layout.

There are probably more..

Of course, as Adamski pointed out, there are some further quirks to consider..

What if each frame has JMenuBars or JMenus?

Possibly combine them as sub-menus.

Upvotes: 9

Adamski
Adamski

Reputation: 54725

Take a look at a decent docking framework such as MyDoggy. This allows you to display all three components in a single JFrame, but is very flexible in that you can view the data side-by-side, resize and maximise components.

Upvotes: 5

mre
mre

Reputation: 44250

This design seems flawed. Instead of having multiple containers, you should use an appropriate layout manager. In this case, I recommend using CardLayout. This way, you would have a single container with multiple exchangeable views.

Upvotes: 4

Nate
Nate

Reputation: 16898

Controlling frames through static references seems to be a very fragile solution. What if the reference is null? What if the frame isn't in a completed state when setVisible() is called on it?

It would probably be a better idea to separate this logic out into a separate class and either have the frames register themselves to it , or construct everything up front.

Upvotes: 2

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