Having problems with GUI

Question

Goodday all, I'm having a problem getting this GUI for a simulation game up and running. I've added four panels which each house components for instance buttons, text area etc. And I've created another panel to house the image that should be set for the background. I've heard that the best way to achieve this is to use getLayeredPane(), but I think that's the problem. The panel simDisplay holds the title for the simulation, simControls hold start and stop simulation buttons, simGrid holds a grid on which the simulation is played (still working on that) and simDisplayControls is a panel that holds a textArea and button to run the simulation again. The textArea is a display area for the status of the simulation (for instance which characters moved, how many are there remaining etc ). The simDisplay was placed NORTH, simGRID CENTER, simControls EAST, and simDisplayContols SOUTH. Before I added the getLayeredPane so that I can view the image as the background, each of these panels were in their respective positions within the layout...now that I have, only some components are visible. As soon as I comment out that line of code with getLayeredPane all the components show exactly how I want them to which is in the positions I specified above (NORTH, SOUTH etc). I'm wondering if the fact that I used the BoxLayout to position the components within their panels is conflicting with the layeredPane. I'm new to this so any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank You ;)
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Image;
public class Simulation extends JFrame{
//create new panels, image icons and buttons
JLayeredPane panel = new JLayeredPane();
JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
JPanel simDisplayControls = new JPanel();
public JButton start = new JButton("Start Simulation");
public JButton stop = new JButton("Stop Simulation");
private JTextArea turnDisplay;
public JButton next = new JButton("Next Time Step");
JPanel simDisplay = new JPanel();
JPanel simGrid = new JPanel ();
JPanel simControls = new JPanel();
//GUI main function
public static void main(String[] args){
Simulation example = new Simulation();
//GUI constructor
public Simulation() {
BorderLayout b = new BorderLayout();
setLayout(b);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
BorderLayout panelout = new BorderLayout( 0, 0 );
panel.setLayout(panelout);
//Set image as simulation background
ImageIcon myIcon = new ImageIcon("background2.jpg");
JLabel picLabel = new JLabel(myIcon);
panel2.add(picLabel);
picLabel.setBounds(0, 0, myIcon.getIconWidth(), myIcon.getIconHeight());
getLayeredPane().add(picLabel, new Integer.MIN_VALUE);
panel.setOpaque(false);
//set content pane to main panel containing all other panels
setContentPane(panel);
simGrid.setLayout (new GridLayout (20, 20));
// create text area to display status after each time step of the simulation
turnDisplay = new JTextArea("Doodlebug Turn", 10, 40);
JScrollPane scrollingDisplay = new JScrollPane(turnDisplay);
simDisplayControls.add(scrollingDisplay);
turnDisplay.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(4, 4, 4, 4));
//create horizontal box to house status display and "next time step" button
Box simDisplayBox = Box.createHorizontalBox();
simDisplayBox.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());
simDisplayBox.add(turnDisplay);
simDisplayBox.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(40));
simDisplayBox.add(next);
simDisplayBox.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(30));
//create vertical box to house "start" and "stop" simulation buttons
Box simControlBox = Box.createVerticalBox();
simControlBox.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(80));
simControlBox.add(start);
simControlBox.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(60));
simControlBox.add(stop);
simControlBox.add(Box.createVerticalGlue());
//create label containing the title of the simulation
JLabel title = new JLabel("Sim Title");
//add title label and box containing simulation control buttons to their respective panels
simDisplay.add(title);
simControls.add(simControlBox);
//add box containing status display and "next time step" button to its coresponding panel
simDisplayControls.add(simDisplayBox);
//add panels to the main panel
panel.add(simDisplay, BorderLayout.NORTH);
panel.add(simGrid, BorderLayout.CENTER);
panel.add(simControls, BorderLayout.EAST);
panel.add(simDisplayControls, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
//set size of the frame
setSize(800, 700);
setVisible(true);// make the frame visible
}

Answer 1

Don't put the image on the layeredpane, and in fact don't create a class that subclasses JFrame. You're far better off subclassing a JPanel and drawing the image in the JPanel by overriding its paintComponent method, calling drawImage(...) in the same paintComponent method after checking that the image isn't null. Then adding all of your components to this JPanel. Be sure that the JPanels sitting on top of the main JPanel all have their opaque property set to false.
Then when you're ready to show the app, create a JFrame on the fly, place your JPanel into the JFrame's contentPane, pack the JFrame, set it's location, and show it.
for instance:
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URL;
public class Simulation extends JFrame
  //TODO: change this to point to your desired background image
  private static final String BACKGROUND =
    "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/" +
    "commons/8/8e/Nebelostfriesland.jpg";
  JPanel panel = new JPanel()
    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
      super.paintComponent(g);
      myPaint(g);
  private BufferedImage image;
  private void myPaint(Graphics g)
    if (image != null)
      g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, panel.getWidth(), panel.getHeight(), panel);
  public Simulation()
    try
      // or if using a file on disk, can use a File here or an InputStream
      image = ImageIO.read(new URL(BACKGROUND));
    catch (IOException e)
      e.printStackTrace();
    panel2.setOpaque(false);
    //panel.setOpaque(false);
    simGrid.setOpaque(false); // etc...
}Edited by: Encephalopathic on Dec 1, 2008 3:23 PM