First attempt at a simple GUI

Question

I am attempting to teach myself how to make a GUI using Java swing and Window Builder Pro, after watching several youtube videos, and reading some tutorials I have accomplished the following.

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.SpringLayout;
import javax.swing.JTextPane;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;


public class JetstreamFrame extends JFrame {

private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
JTabbedPane tabPane;

JPanel buttonOnePanel;
JPanel buttonTwoPanel;
JPanel textDisplayPanel;
JTextPane textPane;
SpringLayout sl_textDisplayPanel;
SpringLayout springLayout;
SpringLayout sl_buttonTwoPanel;
SpringLayout sl_buttonOnePanel;
JButton ButtonTwo;
JButton ButtonOne;

public JetstreamFrame() {
    springLayout = new SpringLayout();
    getContentPane().setLayout(springLayout);

    tabPane = new JTabbedPane(JTabbedPane.TOP);
    setupTabPane();

    buttonOnePanel = new JPanel();
    sl_buttonOnePanel = new SpringLayout();
    setupButtonOnePanel();

    ButtonOne = new JButton("Click Here!");
    setupButtonOne();

    buttonTwoPanel = new JPanel();
    sl_buttonTwoPanel = new SpringLayout();
    setupButtonTwoPanel();

    ButtonTwo = new JButton("Click Here!");
    setupButtonTwo();

    textDisplayPanel = new JPanel();
    sl_textDisplayPanel = new SpringLayout();
    setupTextDisplayPanel();

    textPane = new JTextPane();
    setupTextPane();

}

private void setupTabPane()
{
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, tabPane, 0, SpringLayout.NORTH, getContentPane());
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, tabPane, 0, SpringLayout.WEST, getContentPane());
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.SOUTH, tabPane, -198, SpringLayout.SOUTH, getContentPane());
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.EAST, tabPane, 484, SpringLayout.WEST, getContentPane());
    getContentPane().add(tabPane);
}

private void setupButtonOnePanel()
{
    tabPane.addTab("Tab One", null, buttonOnePanel, null);
    buttonOnePanel.setLayout(sl_buttonOnePanel);
}

private void setupButtonOne()
{
    ButtonOne.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) 
        {

        }
    });
    sl_buttonOnePanel.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, ButtonOne, 99, SpringLayout.NORTH, buttonOnePanel);
    sl_buttonOnePanel.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, ButtonOne, 187, SpringLayout.WEST, buttonOnePanel);
    buttonOnePanel.add(ButtonOne);
}

private void setupButtonTwoPanel()
{
    tabPane.addTab("Tab Two", null, buttonTwoPanel, null);
    buttonTwoPanel.setLayout(sl_buttonTwoPanel);
}

private void setupButtonTwo()
{
    ButtonTwo.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) 
        {

        }
    });
    sl_buttonTwoPanel.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, ButtonTwo, 99, SpringLayout.NORTH, buttonTwoPanel);
    sl_buttonTwoPanel.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, ButtonTwo, 187, SpringLayout.WEST, buttonTwoPanel);
    buttonTwoPanel.add(ButtonTwo);
}

private void setupTextDisplayPanel()
{
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, textDisplayPanel, 6, SpringLayout.SOUTH, tabPane);
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, textDisplayPanel, 0, SpringLayout.WEST, getContentPane());
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.SOUTH, textDisplayPanel, -10, SpringLayout.SOUTH, getContentPane());
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.EAST, textDisplayPanel, 0, SpringLayout.EAST, getContentPane());
    getContentPane().add(textDisplayPanel); 
    textDisplayPanel.setLayout(sl_textDisplayPanel);
}

private void setupTextPane()
{
    sl_textDisplayPanel.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, textPane, 0, SpringLayout.NORTH, textDisplayPanel);
    sl_textDisplayPanel.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, textPane, 0, SpringLayout.WEST, textDisplayPanel);
    sl_textDisplayPanel.putConstraint(SpringLayout.SOUTH, textPane, 182, SpringLayout.NORTH, textDisplayPanel);
    sl_textDisplayPanel.putConstraint(SpringLayout.EAST, textPane, 0, SpringLayout.EAST, textDisplayPanel);
    textDisplayPanel.add(textPane);
}

public void start()
{
    this.setSize(500, 500);
    this.setVisible(true);
}

}

The premise of this code is to create a window with multiple tabs, and a text area at the bottom that is visible no matter which tab the user is in. I have created the text area, the tabs, the buttons, as well as the button event listeners for this GUI.

Unfortunately, none of the tutorials I have read have showed me how to print anything into the text area. I would like to have something along the lines of

System.out.println();

attached to each of the buttons, and have that printing show up in the text area, but I do not know how to accomplish this.

I would also like to know if the text area I have created with result in a scroll bar along the side should the printed text extend beyond the visible frame.

Answer 1

textpane.append("TEXTHERE");

Will add any needed text to your text area based on an event. When we append() text we can also add new text onto an existing passage. If you want to clear the JTextArea then I recommend you call the setText() method.

A JScrollPane is needed to add a scroll bar to a JTextArea which can be done by the following:

import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(TEXTAREAHERE);

Personally I like to set my scroll pane's properties to this, to ensure that the JScrollBar only is able to scroll Up and Down and remove the Left and Right scrolling:

scrollPane.setHorizonalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);

Answer 2

If I understand you correctly, you could simply use the append() method.

Here is more about JTextArea

To test it out, add a call to it in one of your button events (they don't seem to be doing anything at the moment). So you could do, jTextArea.append("Did it print?"); and click that button to see it work.

Edit It looks like you are using JTextPane, in that case, maybe use setText(). More info here