Working with 2 or more frames

Question

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?

Answer 1

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..

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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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.