Alternative to absolute layout?

Question

Is there a layout manager that gives the same degree of control as Absolute Positioning? But also makes auto resizing possible? Something where you could place elements usi

Answer 1

Another option is to use a SpringLayout(personally, I like a GridBagLayout).

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import static javax.swing.SpringLayout.*;

public class SpringScaleTest {
  public JComponent makeUI() {
    SpringLayout layout = new SpringLayout();
    JPanel p = new JPanel(layout);
    p.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.GREEN, 10));

    JLabel  l1 = new JLabel("label: width=90%", SwingConstants.CENTER);
    l1.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.RED, 1));
    JButton l2 = new JButton("button: width=50%");

    Spring panelw = layout.getConstraint(WIDTH, p);

    SpringLayout.Constraints c1 = layout.getConstraints(l1);
    c1.setX(Spring.constant(0));
    c1.setY(Spring.constant(20));
    c1.setWidth(Spring.scale(panelw, 0.9f));
    p.add(l1);

    SpringLayout.Constraints c2 = layout.getConstraints(l2);
    c2.setWidth(Spring.scale(panelw, 0.5f));
    layout.putConstraint(SOUTH, l2, -20, SOUTH, p);
    layout.putConstraint(EAST,  l2, -20, EAST,  p);
    p.add(l2);

    return p;
  }
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
      @Override public void run() { createAndShowGUI(); }
    });
  }
  public static void createAndShowGUI() {
    JFrame f = new JFrame();
    f.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    f.getContentPane().add(new SpringScaleTest().makeUI());
    f.setSize(320, 240);
    f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    f.setVisible(true);
  }
}