Having trouble moving a jButton

Question

I'm trying to use Matisse in NetBeans to create a simple game...like Myst. I just want it to display a Frame that has things like a text field and buttons/inventory on the right. I can do that. Then I created a Jpanel that displays on the Frame. I've input some pictures and created a set of cards to make visible and invisible when needed. Each card/scene needs to have buttons that will be different for each scene. Basically I want to make transparent buttons for the user to press that do things (i.e. move to next picture/scene, find a key, etc...). I can create different buttons in each picture, but I can't seem to move them anywhere. I have a suspicion it's due to Matisse, but I don't know.

Here is some of the code, I'm sure it's crude as it's my first implementation of anything in Java. At the very bottom in the Scene to display I've added a button, that displays. I pretty much know now that the setBounds won't work due to the way position works...how would I then place it somewhere. Right now it just displays at the top mid of the picture.

SceneFrame:

/*
 * To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
 * and open the template in the editor.
 */
package main;
import scene.SecondPanel;
import scene.FirstPanel;
import scene.Scene;
import javax.swing.JButton;



public class SceneFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {  

    private FirstPanel sceneP;
    private SecondPanel sceneSP;
    /**
     * Creates new form SceneFrame
     */
    public SceneFrame() {        
        initComponents();
        addCards();      
    }

    public void addCards() {
        sceneP = new FirstPanel();
        SceneManager.add("SecondPanel", sceneP);               
        sceneSP = new SecondPanel();
        SceneManager.add("FirstPanel", sceneSP);
        sceneP.setVisible(false);
    }


    /**
     * This method is called from within the constructor to initialize the form.
     * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is always
     * regenerated by the Form Editor.
     */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Generated Code">                          
    private void initComponents() {

        SceneManager = new scene.ScenePanel();
        jButton1 = new javax.swing.JButton();
        jButton2 = new javax.swing.JButton();

        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        javax.swing.GroupLayout SceneManagerLayout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(SceneManager);
        SceneManager.setLayout(SceneManagerLayout);
        SceneManagerLayout.setHorizontalGroup(
            SceneManagerLayout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGap(0, 517, Short.MAX_VALUE)
        );
        SceneManagerLayout.setVerticalGroup(
            SceneManagerLayout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGap(0, 421, Short.MAX_VALUE)
        );

        jButton1.setText("jButton1");
        jButton1.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                jButton1ActionPerformed(evt);
            }
        });

        jButton2.setText("jButton2");
        jButton2.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                jButton2ActionPerformed(evt);
            }
        });

        javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
        getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
        layout.setHorizontalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addComponent(SceneManager, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                    .addComponent(jButton2, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING)
                    .addComponent(jButton1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING))
                .addContainerGap())
        );
        layout.setVerticalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addGap(139, 139, 139)
                .addComponent(jButton1)
                .addGap(18, 18, 18)
                .addComponent(jButton2)
                .addContainerGap(javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE))
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addComponent(SceneManager, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                .addGap(0, 97, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );

        pack();
    }// </editor-fold>                        

    private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                         
       sceneP.setVisible(false);
       //SceneManager.showScene("SecondPanel");
       sceneSP.setVisible(true);




    }                                        

    private void jButton2ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                         
        sceneSP.setVisible(false);
        //SceneManager.showScene("FirstPanel");
        sceneP.setVisible(true);
    }                                        

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        /* Set the Nimbus look and feel */
        //<editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc=" Look and feel setting code (optional) ">
        /* If Nimbus (introduced in Java SE 6) is not available, stay with the default look and feel.
         * For details see http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/lookandfeel/plaf.html 
         */
        try {
            for (javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo info : javax.swing.UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) {
                if ("Nimbus".equals(info.getName())) {
                    javax.swing.UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName());
                    break;
                }
            }
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(SceneFrame.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        } catch (InstantiationException ex) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(SceneFrame.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        } catch (IllegalAccessException ex) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(SceneFrame.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        } catch (javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {
            java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(SceneFrame.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        }
        //</editor-fold>

        /* Create and display the form */
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new SceneFrame().setVisible(true);                
            }
        });
    }
    // Variables declaration - do not modify                     
    private javax.swing.JPanel SceneManager;
    private javax.swing.JButton jButton1;
    private javax.swing.JButton jButton2;
    // End of variables declaration                   
}

Scene:

package scene;

import java.awt.Color;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import java.awt.Image;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;


public abstract class Scene extends JPanel {

    public Image image;
    private String sceneName;

    public Scene(String cn) {
        setName(cn);
        this.setSize(600, 600);
        this.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
    }

    public String getCardName() {
        return sceneName;
    }

  public abstract void addControlButtons();
 // public abstract void implementControlButtons();
}

A Panel to display:

/**
 * Creates a new ForestScene Object.
 */
    public SecondPanel() {
        super("SecondPanel");
        JButton Button2 = new JButton("SwagCity");        
        try {
            image = (new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/resources/ForestPath.jpg"))).getImage();
        } catch (Exception e) {/*How to handle?*/
        }
        this.addControlButtons();
    }

    @Override
    public void addControlButtons(){
       JButton bButton = new JButton("bButton");
       //bButton.setBounds(200, 300, 500, 600); //How to display where I want?
       bButton.setAlignmentX(1000);
       this.add(bButton);
    }

    public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        super.paintComponent(g);
        //Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
        if (image != null) {
            boolean val = g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, 800, 600, this);            
        } else {
            System.out.println("Image not found");
        }
    }                               

}

Answer 1

You need to add JFrame.frame.setLayout(null) so that you can adjust your fields(button,textfields) on to the frame.I too had a similar problem

Answer 2

I've figured out that it must be the layoutManager confusing something. If i set: this.setLayout(null); I can then set the bounds of the button and it displays where and how I want. I apologize if the question did not have enough information, but I did not know myself anymore than I told you. If anyone has anything to add about what I did, I'll be glad to select that as my answer.