Swing Error with GridBagLayout

Question

I am writing a mutlientry dialog box using the gridbag layout manager, when I am trying to run this program it is showing me some weird error which I never encountered.

 public class MultiEntryDlg extends JDialog {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
   private final JPanel             contentPanel    = new JPanel() ;
   private DButton          pb_OK                   = null ;  
   private DButton          pb_CANCEL               = null ;  
   private JLabel           lb_Name                 = null ;
   private JTextField       ef_name                 = null ;
   private JLabel           lb_taxonomyValue        = null;
   private JTextField       ef_taxonomyValue        = null ;
   private JLabel           lb_subscriptionKey      = null ;
   private JTextField       ef_subscriptionKey      = null ;
   private JCheckBox        cb_subscribable         = null ;
   private JTextField       ef_alias                = null ;
   private JLabel           lb_alias                = null ;
   private JLabel           lb_orderNumber          = null ;
   private JTextField       ef_orderNum             = null ;
   private JTextAreaCounter mle_DESCRIPTION_COUNTER = null ;               
   private SpellCheckPanel  spellCheckPanel         = null ;
   private JLabel    lb_contentLocation             = null ;
   private JComboBox contentlocCombo                = null ;
   private JLabel    lb_brandSubGrp                 = null ;
   private JComboBox brandSubGrpCombo               = null ;
   private JLabel    lb_fixedLocation               = null ;
   private JComboBox fixedlocCombo                  = null ;
   private JLabel    lb_taxonomyType                = null ;
   private JComboBox taxonomyCombo                  = null ;
   private NoTabJTextArea mle_DESCRIPTION           = null ;

   private MultiEntryDlg(){
       creatAndShowGUI();
   }

   public void actionPerformed ( ActionEvent e ) {

      if ( ( e.getSource() == pb_OK )
          dispose();
      else if (e.getSource() ==pb_CANCEL)
          dispose();
   }
   private void creatAndShowGUI(){
       initializeBasicProperty();
       addComponents();
   }

private void addComponents() {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    lb_Name = new JLabel("Name (Max 75 char)");
    addLeftAlign(lb_Name, 0, 1);
    ef_name = new JTextField(10);
    addMergeColumn(ef_name, 1, 1, 2);
    spellCheckPanel = new SpellCheckPanel();
    spellCheckPanel.setTextComponent(ef_name);
    addCenterAlign(spellCheckPanel, 3, 1);
    lb_alias = new JLabel("Alias");
    addLeftAlign(lb_alias, 0, 2);
    ef_alias = new JTextField(10);
    addMergeColumn(ef_alias, 1, 2, 3);
    lb_orderNumber = new JLabel("Order Number");
    addLeftAlign(lb_orderNumber, 0, 3);
    ef_orderNum = new JTextField(10);
    addCenterAlign(ef_orderNum, 1, 3);
    lb_contentLocation = new JLabel("Content Location");
    addCenterAlign(lb_contentLocation, 2, 3);
    contentlocCombo = new JComboBox();
    addCenterAlign(contentlocCombo, 3, 3);
    lb_brandSubGrp = new JLabel("Brand Sub Group");
    addLeftAlign(lb_brandSubGrp, 0, 4);
    brandSubGrpCombo = new JComboBox();
    addCenterAlign(brandSubGrpCombo, 1, 4);
    lb_fixedLocation = new JLabel("Fixed Location");
    addLeftAlign(lb_fixedLocation, 2, 4);
    fixedlocCombo  = new JComboBox();
    addCenterAlign(fixedlocCombo, 3, 4);
    lb_taxonomyValue = new JLabel("Taxonomy Value");
    addLeftAlign(lb_taxonomyValue, 0, 5);
    ef_taxonomyValue = new JTextField(10);
    addCenterAlign(ef_taxonomyValue, 1, 5);
    lb_taxonomyType  = new JLabel ("Taxonomy Type");
    addLeftAlign(lb_taxonomyType, 2, 5);
    taxonomyCombo = new JComboBox();
    addCenterAlign(taxonomyCombo, 3, 5);
    cb_subscribable = new JCheckBox("Subscribable");
    addLeftAlign(cb_subscribable, 0, 6);
    lb_subscriptionKey = new JLabel("Subscription Key");
    addCenterAlign(lb_Name, 2, 6);
    ef_subscriptionKey = new JTextField(10);
    addCenterAlign(ef_subscriptionKey, 3, 6);
    addControlButton();
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
        MultiEntryDlg dialog = new MultiEntryDlg();
        dialog.setDefaultCloseOperation(JDialog.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
        dialog.setVisible(true);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

private void addControlButton() {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
    buttonPanel.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
    getContentPane().add(buttonPanel,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    pb_OK = new DButton(Str.getStr(STR_OK));
    pb_CANCEL = new DButton(Str.getStr(STR_CANCEL));

    pb_OK.addActionListener(this);
    pb_CANCEL.addActionListener(this);

    buttonPanel.add(pb_OK);
    buttonPanel.add(pb_CANCEL);

}

private void addLeftAlign (Component component , int x, int y){
    GridBagConstraints constraints = new GridBagConstraints();
    constraints.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 5, 5);
    constraints.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
    constraints.gridx = x;
    constraints.gridy = y;
    contentPanel.add(component, constraints);

}

private void addCenterAlign (Component component , int x ,int y){
    GridBagConstraints constraints = new GridBagConstraints();
    constraints.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 5, 0);
    constraints.anchor = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
    constraints.gridx = x;
    constraints.gridy = y;
    contentPanel.add(component, constraints);
}

private void addMergeColumn (Component component , int x, int y, int weight){
    GridBagConstraints constraints = new GridBagConstraints();
    constraints.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 5, 5);
    constraints.anchor = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
    constraints.gridx = x;
    constraints.gridy = y;
    constraints.gridwidth = weight;
    contentPanel.add(component, constraints);
}


private void initializeBasicProperty() {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    setBounds(100, 100, 500, 250);
    getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    contentPanel.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
    getContentPane().add(contentPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);    
    GridBagLayout gbl_contentPanel = new GridBagLayout();
    gbl_contentPanel.columnWidths = new int[]{0, 0, 0};
    gbl_contentPanel.rowHeights = new int[]{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0};
    gbl_contentPanel.columnWeights = new double[]{0.0, 1.0, Double.MIN_VALUE};
    gbl_contentPanel.rowWeights = new double[]{0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, Double.MIN_VALUE};
    contentPanel.setLayout(gbl_contentPanel);
}
} 

I am getting following error.

strArray in strObject is null. String Index:1  Language Ind:0
strArray in strObject is null. String Index:2  Language Ind:0
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StackOverflowError
at com.ibm.nzna.projects.qit.gui.MultiEntryDlg.setVisible(MultiEntryDlg.java:523)
at com.ibm.nzna.projects.qit.gui.MultiEntryDlg.setVisible(MultiEntryDlg.java:523)
at com.ibm.nzna.projects.qit.gui.MultiEntryDlg.setVisible(MultiEntryDlg.java:523)
    etc..

Could anyone help me with this error?

Answer 1

This doesn't answer your question directly. But really don't use GridBagLayout.. its a crazy layoutmanager. Look at the amount of code you need to write to layout your components. IMO, thats the reason why many people moved away from not writing Swing application.

Instead use the jgoodies form layout. Here it is: http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/forms/

If you haven't heard about it.. its a very simple layout manager. You can specify the column and row specs as simple strings. You can use existing PanelBuider or FormBuilder in the library or make one of your own. I have made one here:

http://code.google.com/p/swingobjects/source/browse/SwingObjects/src/org/aesthete/swingobjects/view/SwingObjFormBuilder.java