Thread: Hiding\Showing parts of the frame

I have JFrame with some components, and I'm trying to supply methods for
hiding\showing each component.
I set the visible of the component to false - witch make him indeed invisible,
and them I try to write pack for the frame, so it resize and fill the the free space with the component that left
but it's now happen and the place where the component was became empty.

Is there any simple solution for solving this issue?

thanks

but I want that the other components will re size and fill the space,
I don't want that the frame will be smaller.
if I will calculate it, I will need to take into account all possibilities and combination of the components that left in the frame...it's seem like 'dirty' work

what I'm trying is similar to the functionality in the eclipse environment.
if, for example I have four windows opening (like the first picture - the explorer the code, the javadoc and the task list window) and I will close the task window the window of the code will expand it's size, resulting in the second screen I attached.

I don't sure,
I am using currently GridBagLayout. but before that I try to use BorderLayout and that also won't help.
After I set the visibly for component into false, his place become empty.

I found where the problem.
I wrote little program with 5 panel, and 5 buttons that each button make panel hide\show and indeed the panel expand as I want.

But when I add the panels with JScrollPane it's not work:
instead writing:
add(northPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
writing:
add(new JScrollPane(northPanel), BorderLayout.NORTH);

I try to see if I can eliminate the use of JScrollPane in my program.

thanks for help.

by the way, it's acting the same also with GridBagLayout.

But you did help...
thanks again

oo my, just now I understand why it's happen,
because when I do it in the second way:
add(new JScrollPane(southPanel), BorderLayout.SOUTH);

I actually had the scrollPane to the frame, and after it I set the visible for the panel...
but the scrollPane still there, so there is no reason for the frame to change it's size.

Yes,

only in case of setting the visibility of JScrollPane I have to call method pack() of the frame, to see the change.

Again it's work.
But if the components that I set his visible to false is JPanel it's enough to set it's visible, if it's JScrollPane I also need to call pack();

you can run the code example and see that if you try to hide the south
panel (which is inside scrollpane) it's not working properly
if you adding the call to pack() after setting it's visible it's will work.

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
 
import java.rmi.Naming;
 
 
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JMenu;
import javax.swing.JMenuBar;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTextPane;
 
import trivia.server.TriviaServer;
import trivia.server.TriviaServerImpl;
 
public class test2 extends JFrame{
 
	private JPanel westPanel;
	private JPanel eastPanel;
	private JPanel northPanel;
	private JPanel southPanel;
	private JPanel centerPanel;
 
	private JMenuItem west;
	private JMenuItem east;
	private JMenuItem north;
	private JMenuItem south;
	private JMenuItem center;
	JScrollPane scroll;
	public test2()
	{
		setLayout(new BorderLayout());
 
		westPanel=new JPanel();
		westPanel.add(new JLabel("WEST"));
		westPanel.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
		add(westPanel, BorderLayout.WEST);
 
		eastPanel=new JPanel();
		eastPanel.add(new JLabel("EAST"));
		eastPanel.setBackground(Color.RED);
		add(eastPanel, BorderLayout.EAST);
 
		northPanel=new JPanel();
		northPanel.add(new JLabel("NORTH"));
		northPanel.setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
		add(northPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
 
		southPanel=new JPanel();
		southPanel.add(new JLabel("SOUTH"));
		southPanel.setBackground(Color.MAGENTA);
		scroll=new JScrollPane(southPanel);
		add(scroll, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
 
		centerPanel=new JPanel();
		centerPanel.add(new JLabel("CENTER"));
		centerPanel.setBackground(Color.PINK);
		add(centerPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
 
		ActionListener ma=new MyAction();
		west=new JMenuItem("WEST");
		east=new JMenuItem("EAST");
		north=new JMenuItem("NORTH");
		south=new JMenuItem("SOUTH");
		center=new JMenuItem("CENTER");
 
		west.addActionListener(ma);
		east.addActionListener(ma);
		north.addActionListener(ma);
		south.addActionListener(ma);
		center.addActionListener(ma);
 
		JMenuBar mb=new JMenuBar();
		JMenu visible=new JMenu("visible");
		visible.add(west);
		visible.add(east);
		visible.add(south);
		visible.add(north);
		visible.add(center);
		mb.add(visible);
 
		setJMenuBar(mb);
 
	}
 
	private class MyAction implements ActionListener
	{
		public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
		{
			if(e.getSource()==west)
				westPanel.setVisible(!westPanel.isVisible());
			else if(e.getSource()==east)
				eastPanel.setVisible(!eastPanel.isVisible());
			else if(e.getSource()==north)
				northPanel.setVisible(!northPanel.isVisible());
			else if(e.getSource()==south)
				scroll.setVisible(!scroll.isVisible());
			else if(e.getSource()==center)
				centerPanel.setVisible(!centerPanel.isVisible());
 
		}
	}
 
 
	public Dimension getPreferredSize()
	{
		return new Dimension(500, 500);
	}
 
	public static void main(String[] args) 
	{
 
		test2 frame=new test2();
 
		frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
 
 
		frame.setSize(500, 500);
		frame.setVisible(true);
 
	}
}