Making a GameMenu (not JMenu)

Question

I'm writing a small game in AFS-mode to get some feeling with the 2D-api (and in developping some own algorithms). Now I want to know what's the best way to make a menu like you see in games (so not a drop-down JMenu), in the middle of the screen there are some JButtons (adapted ofcourse, not the normal ones, but that doesn't really matter). These buttons should lead the person to another screen, so for example, when you push the Options-button, the first menu-panel should be replaced by a new one with all sorts of options. I tried to do it with JPanels, I added the first panel (with some buttons) to a JFrame and when you clicked one of the buttons, a new JPanel opened (the other one was removed by the method removeAll()). But this strategy gave some problems. The new panel didn't draw, only after a minimize and maximize, it was drawn, I couldn't go back properely,.... I tried invoking repaint() and some other things, but they didn't work.
I hope you understand my problem and explanation. Any ideas on how to make a proper menu?
Example code:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Menu extends JFrame{
     private int height=250;
                private int width=500;
     private MenuPanel mp;
     public Menu(){
          setSize(width,height);
          mp=new MenuPanel(width,height);
          add(mp);
          setResizable(false);
          setVisible(true);
     public static void main(String[] args){
          SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
               public void run(){
                    new Menu();
class MenuPanel extends JPanel{
     private int width, height;
     private JButton play,options,credits,quit;
     public MenuPanel(int w, int h){
          width=w;
          height=h;
          setSize((int) width,(int) height);
          initializeButtons();
          setLayout(new GridLayout(4,1));
          add(play);
          add(options);
          add(credits);
          add(quit);
     public void initializeButtons(){
          play=new JButton("Play");
          play.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
               public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                    //Open a new screen (JPanel?)
          options=new JButton("Options");
          options.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
               public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                    //Open a new screen (JPanel?)
          credits=new JButton("Credits");
          credits.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
               public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                              //Open a new screen (JPanel?)     
          quit=new JButton("Quit");
          quit.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
               public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                    System.exit(0);
}I hope this is a good example.
Thanks in advance,
Sam

Answer 1

i.e.,
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Menu090907a {
  public static final String MENU_PANEL = "Menu Panel";
  public static final String PLAY_PANEL = "Play Panel";
  public static final String CREDITS_PANEL = "Credit Panel";
  private CardLayout cardlayout = new CardLayout();
  private JPanel cardHolder = new  JPanel(cardlayout);
  private MenuPanel mp;
  private PlayPanel pp;
  private CreditsPanel cp;
  public Menu090907a(int w, int h) {
    mp = new MenuPanel(w, h, cardHolder, cardlayout);
    pp = new PlayPanel(w, h, cardHolder, cardlayout, MENU_PANEL);
    cp = new CreditsPanel(cardHolder, cardlayout, MENU_PANEL);
    cardHolder.add(mp, MENU_PANEL);
    cardHolder.add(pp, PLAY_PANEL);
    cardHolder.add(cp, CREDITS_PANEL);
  public JPanel getPanel() {
    return cardHolder;
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Menu Example");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.getContentPane().add(new Menu090907a(500, 400).getPanel());
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.setResizable(false);
@SuppressWarnings("serial")
class MenuPanel extends JPanel {
  private JButton play, options, credits, quit;
  private JPanel cardHolder;
  private CardLayout cardlayout;
  public MenuPanel(int w, int h, JPanel cardHolder, CardLayout cardlayout) {
    this.cardHolder = cardHolder;
    this.cardlayout = cardlayout;
    setPreferredSize(new Dimension(w, h));
    initializeButtons();
    setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(30, 30, 30, 30));
    setLayout(new GridLayout(0, 1, 30, 30));
    add(play);
    add(options);
    add(credits);
    add(quit);
  public void initializeButtons() {
    play = new JButton("Play");
    play.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        cardlayout.show(cardHolder, Menu090907a.PLAY_PANEL);
    options = new JButton("Options");
    options.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
    credits = new JButton("Credits");
    credits.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        cardlayout.show(cardHolder, Menu090907a.CREDITS_PANEL);
    quit = new JButton("Quit");
    quit.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        System.exit(0);
@SuppressWarnings("serial")
class PlayPanel extends JPanel {
  public PlayPanel(int w, int h, JPanel cardHolder, CardLayout cardlayout, String menuPanel) {
    setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    setPreferredSize(new Dimension(w, h));
    add(new JLabel("PlayPanel", SwingConstants.CENTER));
    JButton returnBtn =new JButton(new ReturnToMenuAction(cardHolder, cardlayout, menuPanel));
    JPanel returnPanel = new JPanel();
    returnPanel.add(returnBtn);
    add(returnPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
@SuppressWarnings("serial")
class CreditsPanel extends JPanel {
  public CreditsPanel(JPanel cardHolder, CardLayout cardlayout, String menuPanel) {
    setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    add(new JLabel("Credits", SwingConstants.CENTER));
    JButton returnBtn =new JButton(new ReturnToMenuAction(cardHolder, cardlayout, menuPanel));
    JPanel returnPanel = new JPanel();
    returnPanel.add(returnBtn);
    add(returnPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
@SuppressWarnings("serial")
class ReturnToMenuAction extends AbstractAction {
  private JPanel cardHolder;
  private CardLayout cardlayout;
  private String menuPanel;
  public ReturnToMenuAction(JPanel cardHolder, CardLayout cardlayout, String menuPanel)
    super("Return to Main Menu");
    this.cardHolder = cardHolder;
    this.cardlayout = cardlayout;
    this.menuPanel = menuPanel;
  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
    cardlayout.show(cardHolder, menuPanel);
}