JPanel do not cover the indicated area

Question

I do:
JFrame.getContentPane().add(aJPanel);
On the "aJPanel" i have previously applied a mixture of method calls, such as:
    jp.setSize(new Dimension(400, 400));
//or jp.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 400));
    jp.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder (Color.blue, 2));
    jp.setBackground(Color.white);      
   jp.validate();
   jp.setVisible(true);However, NO method has a result, unless i add something like JLabel. Then the JPanel spreads just for the area of JLabel.
To be more specific, here is the code:
package strongconcomp;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
//import java.awt.image;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import java.io.*;
public class MainPanel extends javax.swing.JApplet
    static JFrame frame;   
    public static int screenWidth=0;
    public static int screenHeight=0;
    private static void createGUI()
        JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);       
        frame = new JFrame("Strongly Connected Components- DFS");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
        screenWidth=screenSize.width;
        screenHeight=screenSize.height;
        System.out.println("width:"+" "+screenWidth+" "+"height:"+" "+screenHeight);       
        frame.setSize(screenWidth-2,screenHeight-2);       
        frame.validate();       
        frame.getContentPane().add(ControlPanel.designPanel(), BorderLayout.EAST);  
        GiraffePanel graph=GiraffePanel.designPanel();
        graph.addMouseMotionHandler();
        frame.getContentPane().add(graph,BorderLayout.WEST);    
        frame.setVisible(true);                       
    public static void main(String[] args)
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
                public void run()
                    createGUI();
class ControlPanel extends JPanel
    ControlPanel()
        new GridBagLayout();
    static ControlPanel designPanel()
        ControlPanel cp=new ControlPanel();
        cp.setBackground(Color.CYAN);
        cp.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
        //cp.setSize(MainPanel.frame.getWidth()/4, MainPanel.frame.getHeight());
        cp.setSize(5,6);
        JLabel conTo= new JLabel("Connections To");
        JLabel conFrom= new JLabel("Connections From");
        cp.add(conTo);
        cp.add(conFrom);
        return cp;
    /*  wrapper class for ButtonGroup   */        
    class JButtonGroup extends JFrame
        JButtonGroup()
            new ButtonGroup();
//The background doesn't appear, in order to be able to click on it. The
//   only thing, that appears is an
//Oval with the arguments provided.
class GiraffePanel extends JPanel
    int xvalue=10;
    int yvalue=10;
    static GiraffePanel designPanel()
        GiraffePanel jp=new GiraffePanel();
        jp.setBackground(Color.RED);
        jp.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
        Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
        jp.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 400));
        jp.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder (Color.blue, 2));
        jp.setBackground(Color.white);   
        jp.validate();
        jp.setVisible(true);
        return jp;
    public void paint(Graphics g)
        g.drawOval(xvalue, yvalue, 40,40);       
    public void addMouseMotionHandler()
        new MouseMotionAdapter()
            public void MouseClicked(MouseEvent e)
                xvalue=e.getX();
                yvalue=e.getY();               
                repaint();
        setVisible( true );       
}

Answer 1

Whats with all this "static" code in you panel classes?
Overriding the paint(..) method does nothing when your panel is created using a static method.
Here is a simple example of how to do some custom painting on a panel:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=57&threadID=594537