JLayeredPane formatting issue

Question

I have a problem with my JLayeredPane, I am probably doing something incredibly simple but I cannot wrap my head around it. The problem i have is that all the components are merged together and have not order. Could you please rectify this as I have no idea. The order I am trying to do is have a layout like this

---

output

---

label1 (behind)
input (in Front)

---

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyListener;
import java.io.IOException;

import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.JTextField;

public class window extends JFrame implements KeyListener {
/**
 * 
 */
private static final long serialVersionUID = 7092006413113558324L;
private static int NewSize;
public static String MainInput;
public static JLabel label1 = new JLabel();
public static JTextField input = new JTextField(10);
public static JTextArea output = new JTextArea(main.Winx, NewSize);

public window() {
    super("Satine. /InDev-01/");
    JLabel label1;
    NewSize = main.Winy - 20;
    setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    output.setToolTipText("");
    add(input, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
    add(output, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    input.addKeyListener(this);
    input.requestFocus();
    ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("C:\\Users\\" + System.getProperty("user.name") + "\\AppData\\Roaming\\.Satine\\img\\textbox.png", "This is the desc");
    label1 = new JLabel(icon);
    add(label1, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
}  
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
    int key = e.getKeyCode();
    if (key == KeyEvent.VK_ENTER) {
        try {
            MainMenu.start();
        } catch (IOException e1) {
            System.out.print(e1.getCause());
        }
    }
}


@Override
public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {
}

@Override
public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {
}

 }

And the main class.

import java.awt.Container;
import java.io.IOException;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLayeredPane;


public class main {
public static int Winx, Winy;
private static JLayeredPane lpane = new JLayeredPane();
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException{  
    Winx = window.WIDTH;
    Winy = window.HEIGHT;
    window Mth= new window();
    Mth.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    Mth.setSize(1280,720);
    Mth.setVisible(true);
    lpane.add(window.label1);
    lpane.add(window.input);
    lpane.add(window.output);
    lpane.setLayer(window.label1, 2, -1);
    lpane.setLayer(window.input, 1, 0);
    lpane.setLayer(window.output, 3, 0);
    Mth.pack();
}
  }

Thank you for your time and I don't expect the code to be written for me, all I want is tips on where I am going wrong.

Answer 1

I recommend that you not use JLayeredPane as the overall layout of your GUI. Use BoxLayout or BorderLayout, and then use the JLayeredPane only where you need layering. Also, when adding components to the JLayeredPane, use the add method that takes a Component and an Integer. Don't call add(...) and then setLayer(...).

Edit: it's ok to use setLayer(...) as you're doing. I've never used this before, but per the API, it's one way to set the layer.

e.g.,

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;

import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.*;

public class LayeredPaneFun extends JPanel {
   public static final String IMAGE_PATH = "http://duke.kenai.com/" +
        "misc/Bullfight.jpg";

   public LayeredPaneFun() {
      try {
         BufferedImage img = ImageIO.read(new URL(IMAGE_PATH));
         ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(img);
         JLabel backgrndLabel = new JLabel(icon);
         backgrndLabel.setSize(backgrndLabel.getPreferredSize());

         JPanel forgroundPanel = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
         forgroundPanel.setOpaque(false);

         JLabel fooLabel = new JLabel("Foo");
         fooLabel.setFont(fooLabel.getFont().deriveFont(Font.BOLD, 32));
         fooLabel.setForeground(Color.cyan);
         forgroundPanel.add(fooLabel);
         forgroundPanel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(50, 50)));
         forgroundPanel.add(new JButton("bar"));
         forgroundPanel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(50, 50)));
         forgroundPanel.add(new JTextField(10));
         forgroundPanel.setSize(backgrndLabel.getPreferredSize());

         JLayeredPane layeredPane = new JLayeredPane();
         layeredPane.setPreferredSize(backgrndLabel.getPreferredSize());
         layeredPane.add(backgrndLabel, JLayeredPane.DEFAULT_LAYER);
         layeredPane.add(forgroundPanel, JLayeredPane.PALETTE_LAYER);

         setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
         add(new JScrollPane(new JTextArea("Output", 10, 40)));
         add(layeredPane);

      } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
         System.exit(1);
      } catch (IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
         System.exit(1);
      }
   }

   private static void createAndShowGui() {
      JFrame frame = new JFrame("LayeredPaneFun");
      frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
      frame.getContentPane().add(new LayeredPaneFun());
      frame.pack();
      frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
      frame.setVisible(true);
   }

   public static void main(String[] args) {
      SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
         public void run() {
            createAndShowGui();
         }
      });
   }
}