Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!69.16.185.11.MISMATCH!npeer01.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!post01.iad.highwinds-media.com!newsfe19.iad.POSTED!6b61fb94!not-for-mail From: Knute Johnson User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110424 Thunderbird/3.1.10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Aligned elements in a JComboBox References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 75 Message-ID: <7TEAp.10530$ZM2.10334@newsfe19.iad> X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsdemon.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 01:00:51 UTC Organization: NewsDemon Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 18:00:29 -0700 Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:4234 On 05/17/2011 12:41 PM, Thomas Richter wrote: > On 17.05.2011 18:49, Knute Johnson wrote: >> On 05/17/2011 09:42 AM, Thomas Richter wrote: >>> Hi folks, >>> >>> the problem at hand is how to align individual components that are part >>> of a JComboBox. >>> >>> The JComboBox uses a custom Renderer to render its contents, and each >>> content consists of two strings of variable size, arranged in a JPanel. >>> The getListCellRendererComponent() of the renderer now returns the >>> JPanel containing the two components. >>> >>> So far, so good. This works. >>> >>> The problem is that the sizes of the two components differ througout the >>> items of the JComboBox, which means that the elements within the JList >>> in the JCombobox (or rather, its JList rendering the non-editable items) >>> are not aligned to each other. Of course they can't, they are individual >>> JPanels each with its own layout manager, and thus do not know anything >>> on each other. >>> >>> Needless to say, this looks visually very unattractive. >>> >>> So what can I do about this? I have a JComboBox with a very complex >>> layout and the requirement that each entry necessarily is a pair of data >>> types of various sizes. How can I make the elements be aware of each >>> other and have a common layout for all of them? >>> >>> Illustration: >>> >>> +----------------------------------------------+ >>> | foofoo | barbarbarbarbarbarbarbar | >>> +----------------------------------------------+ >>> | foofoofoofoofoofoofoo | bar | >>> +----------------------------------------------+ >>> >>> This is how the JComboBox currently renders. But I want it >>> laid out such that the separator between the two elements forming one >>> entry of it are underneath each other. >>> >>> Any ideas? >>> >>> Greetings, >>> Thomas >> >> Figure out the largest size of your data in each field and lay out all >> the elements with the same width and layout manager. > > Which layout manager accepts fixed widths for its components? If I use a > GridBagLayout, for example, changing the dimension of the components > within changes their alignment, and thus they'll move around even though > the layout manager stays the same. > > Greetings, > Thomas > > You'll need one that follows preferred size or lay it out manually. GridBagLayout won't work for sure. You can look back a few weeks and there was a discussion about similar issue with text fields. Search for 'align Swing JLabels and JTextFields vertically with' I did an example for the fellow with SpringLayout I think. I don't think that would work here either but the idea is similar. GridLayout would work if it would follow preferred or minimum size but I don't think it will. You might consider extending that though or write your own layout manager. -- Knute Johnson s/knute/nospam/