Laying out items in a JPanel

Question

Hi,
I'm working on a program which needs to display "problems" on a screen. At the moment I'm working on drawing a problem. This problem will later on be incorporated in my program.
Looking at the result of displaying two problems, do you know a way to get the top site of the buttons aligned with the top side of the text?
TIA,
Abel
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Container;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.Border;
public class FlowLayoutProblem {
     static JFrame frame;
     Color background;
     int width;
     int height;
     int remainingWidth;
     int insets;
     int labelWidth;
     public FlowLayoutProblem() {
          frame = new JFrame ("FlowLayoutProblem");
          Container pane = frame.getContentPane();
          background = frame.getBackground();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          frame.setLayout(new BoxLayout(pane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
          Dimension dimension = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
          width = dimension.width;
          height = 36;
          insets = 4; // Number of pixels to left and/or right of a component
          labelWidth = 40;
          frame.setBounds (0, 0, width, 10 * height);
      * The screen is divided in two equal sized halves, a left and a right side. Each
      * half is divided into 3 parts. remainingWidth is used to calculate the remaining
      * width inside a half.
     public void addProblem (String organisation, String problem) {
          // frame.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (width, height));
          JPanel panel = new JPanel (); // JPanel has FlowLayout as default layout
          panel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (width, height));
          // First half, containing serverId, customer name, and problem title
          JTextArea serverId = new JTextArea ("99999");
          Font usedFont = new Font ("SanSerif", Font.PLAIN, 12);
          serverId.setFont(usedFont);
          serverId.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(labelWidth, height));
          serverId.setBackground(background);
          panel.add(serverId);
          // Organisation name. Gets 1/3 of remaining width
          remainingWidth = (width/2 - (int)serverId.getPreferredSize().getWidth())/3 - insets;
          JTextArea organisationArea = new JTextArea (organisation);
          organisationArea.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (remainingWidth, height));
          organisationArea.setAlignmentX(SwingConstants.LEFT);
          organisationArea.setBackground(background);
          organisationArea.setLineWrap(true);
          organisationArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
          organisationArea.setEditable(false);
          panel.add(organisationArea);
          // Problem title
          JTextArea problemArea = new JTextArea (problem);
          problemArea.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (remainingWidth*2, height));
          problemArea.setBackground(background);
          problemArea.setLineWrap(true);
          problemArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
          problemArea.setEditable(false);
          panel.add(problemArea);
          // Second half, containing severity, CSD and Engineer
          // Severity
          JTextArea severity = new JTextArea ("WARN");
          severity.setFont(usedFont);
          severity.setBackground(background);
          severity.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(labelWidth, height));
          panel.add(severity);
          // CSD
          JButton csdButton = new JButton ("Set CSD");
          csdButton.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (80, 26));
          JTextField csdField = new JTextField();
          csdField.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (150, 25));
          csdField.setEditable(false);
          csdField.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder());
          JPanel csdPanel = new JPanel();
          remainingWidth = (width/2 - ((int)severity.getPreferredSize().getWidth()))/2;
          csdPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension ((150+80+10), height));
          csdPanel.add(csdButton);
          csdPanel.add(csdField);
          panel.add(csdPanel);
          // Solver
          JButton solverButton = new JButton ("Solver");
          solverButton.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (80, 26));
          JTextField solverField = new JTextField();
          solverField.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (150, 25));
          solverField.setEditable(false);
          solverField.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder());
          JPanel solverPanel = new JPanel();
          solverPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension ((150+80+10), height));
          solverPanel.add(solverButton);
          solverPanel.add(solverField);
          panel.add(solverPanel);
          // Empty panel to be added after this panel
          JPanel emptyPanel = new JPanel();
          emptyPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension (width, 15));
          frame.add(panel);
          frame.add(emptyPanel);
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          FlowLayoutProblem myProblem = new FlowLayoutProblem();
          myProblem.addProblem("Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Computer Shop",rainbow",
          "expected string or buffer, but that is not everyting, as this problem description is extremely long. And as I am chatty, I add some more length");
          myProblem.addProblem("My Company", "I have no problem");
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible(true) ;
}

Answer 1

Vertical alignment is not supported by FlowLayout. You need to use a BoxLayout:
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
public class BoxLayoutFlow extends JFrame
     public BoxLayoutFlow()
          Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();
          getContentPane().add(box);
          box.add( addRow(box, false) );
          box.add( addRow(box, true) );
     public JComponent addRow(Box box, boolean align)
//          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
          Box panel = Box.createHorizontalBox();
          panel.setBorder( new LineBorder(Color.RED) );
          JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(3, 10);
          textArea.setMaximumSize( textArea.getPreferredSize() );
          JButton button = new JButton("Some Text");
          button.setMaximumSize( button.getPreferredSize() );
          JTextField textField = new JTextField(10);
          textField.setMaximumSize( textField.getPreferredSize() );
          if (align)
               textArea.setAlignmentY(0.0f);
               button.setAlignmentY(0.0f);
               textField.setAlignmentY(0.0f);
          panel.add( textArea );
          panel.add( button );
          panel.add( textField );
          return panel;
     public static void main(String[] args)
          BoxLayoutFlow frame = new BoxLayoutFlow();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
          frame.pack();
          frame.setLocationRelativeTo( null );
          frame.setVisible(true);
}