Changing panels in frame at runtime using NetBeans

Question

Hi there,
I'm having trouble changing JPanels in a JFrame at runtime when they were both generated in NetBeans. I find that I can do this easily in a manually coded GUI with the code below. However with NetBeans generated frames and panels it doesn't seem to work.
So all I really would like to learn is how to change JPanels in a JFrame at runtime when both are generated by NetBeans (New>JFrame Form... and New>JPanel Form...) Any help would be much appreciated.
        // reset panel
        pMain.removeAll();    // main panel added to nb generated frame
        pMain.validate();     // call layout manager
        testPanel = new TestPanel();  // this class extends JPanel (generated)
        pMain.add(testPanel);     // add new panel
        pMain.setVisible(true);     // update panel
        pMain.revalidate();
        pMain.repaint();

Answer 1

Changing the layout to BorderLayout and adding the new panel to BorderLayout.CENTER with your code sample above doesn't seem to work though.This works for me.
I created a frame form and a panel form then set the frame layout to border layout and added a remove/add panel at the south.
frame code looks like this.
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
public class MainFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {
private boolean isAdded;
private TestPanel panel; // this is the panel form
/** Creates new form MainFrame */
public MainFrame() {
isAdded = false;
initComponents();
// Generated code
private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                        
if(!isAdded) {
panel = new TestPanel();
add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
pack();
isAdded = true;
} else {
remove(panel);
isAdded = false;
validate();
repaint();
* @param args the command line arguments
public static void main(String args[]) {
java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new MainFrame().setVisible(true);
// Variables declaration - do not modify
private javax.swing.JButton jButton1;
// End of variables declaration
Somehow I find it very hard to believe that NetBeans is not production ready....The reason we don't use the DnD in nb is that the generated code is not editable and it's hard to maintain.