Help with Dynamic GUI

Question

I am trying to create a dynamic gui for a program that when given three names, it will make a list of matches ( wrestling ) against each other.. I got it so when you click foward once.. it brings up the specified amount of text fields.. but when i click previous, it does not pack it fully, and the buttonPanel does not go back to the minimal size, and keeps the whole frame long.
[code="face.java"]import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.Component.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class face extends GUIFrame implements WindowListener, ActionListener {
static TextField[] nameFields;
List howMany;
TextArea finish;
Button forward, back, startOver, print;
Panel mainPanel, buttonPanel, numberPanel, namePanel, matchesPanel;
GridBagLayout gbl;
GridBagConstraints gbc;
BorderLayout bpl, mpl;
CardLayout cl;
Choice numbers;
public face() {
super("Wrestling Order");
gbl = new GridBagLayout();
gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
setLayout(gbl);
mainPanel = new Panel();
buttonPanel = new Panel();
bpl = new BorderLayout();
back = new Button("Previous");
back.setEnabled(false);
back.addActionListener(this);
back.setActionCommand("numOf");
buttonPanel.setLayout(bpl);
buttonPanel.add(back, BorderLayout.WEST);
forward = new Button("Forward");
forward.addActionListener(this);
forward.setActionCommand("names");
buttonPanel.add(forward, BorderLayout.EAST);
startOver = new Button("Start Over");
buttonPanel.add(startOver, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
//mainPanel
numberPanel = new Panel();
numbers = new Choice();
numbers.add("3");
numbers.add("4");
numbers.add("5");
numberPanel.setLayout(bpl);
numberPanel.add(numbers, BorderLayout.CENTER);
cl = new CardLayout();
mainPanel.setLayout(cl);
mainPanel.add("numbers", numberPanel);
gbc.gridx = 0;
gbc.gridy = 0;
gbc.gridwidth = GridBagConstraints.REMAINDER;
gbl.setConstraints(mainPanel, gbc);
add(mainPanel);
gbc.gridx = 0;
gbc.gridy = 5;
gbl.setConstraints(buttonPanel, gbc);
add(buttonPanel);
addWindowListener(this);
pack();
setVisible(true);
public Panel makeNamePanel(int numOfNames) {
gbl = new GridBagLayout();
gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
gbc.gridx = 1;
gbc.gridy = GridBagConstraints.RELATIVE;
nameFields = new TextField[numOfNames];
Panel makePanel = new Panel();
for (int x=0; x < nameFields.length; x++) {
nameFields[x] = new TextField(20);
makePanel.add(nameFields[x]);
return makePanel;
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
dispose();
System.exit(0);
public void windowOpened(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowActivated(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowDeactivated(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowIconified(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowDeiconified(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowClosed(WindowEvent e) {}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (e.getActionCommand() == "names") {
namePanel = makeNamePanel(Integer.parseInt(numbers.getItem(numbers.getSelectedIndex())));
mainPanel.add("name", namePanel);
cl.next(mainPanel);
forward.setActionCommand("final");
pack();
back.setEnabled(true);
if (e.getActionCommand() == "numOf") {
cl.previous(mainPanel);
pack();
forward.setActionCommand("names");
back.setEnabled(false);
that is the face.java .. it extends GUIFrame.. which is as follows..
* GUIFrame
* An extension of Frame that uses a WindowAdapter to
* handle the WindowEvents and is centered.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class GUIFrame extends Frame {
  public GUIFrame(String title) {
    super(title);
    setBackground(SystemColor.control);
    addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
      //only need to override the method needed
      public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
        dispose();
        System.exit(0);
  /* Centers the Frame when setVisible(true) is called */
  public void setVisible(boolean visible) {
    if (visible) {
      Dimension d = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
      setLocation((d.width - getWidth())/2,
                  (d.height - getHeight())/2);
    super.setVisible(visible);
}If you could help me out.. Thanks..

Answer 1

Have you tried using some other layouts... GridBagLayout is a complicated thing to figure out... Might be easier to use some nested panels with different layouts... Particularly, look at SpringLayout.