BorderLayout

Name

Description

BorderLayout is a LayoutManager that provides the means to lay out components along the edges of a container. It divides the container into five regions, named North, East, South, West, and Center. Normally you won't call the LayoutManager's methods yourself. When you add() a Component to a Container, the Container calls the addLayoutComponent() method of its LayoutManager.

Class Definition

public class java.awt.BorderLayout extends java.lang.Object implements java.awt.LayoutManager2, java.io.Serializable {
 // Constants public final static String CENTER; public final static String EAST; public final static String NORTH; public final static String SOUTH; public final static String WEST; // Constructors public BorderLayout();
public BorderLayout (int hgap, int vgap); // Instance Methods public void addLayoutComponent (Component comp, Object constraints); public void addLayoutComponent (String name, Component component);  public int getHgap(); public abstract float getLayoutAlignmentX(Container target); public abstract float getLayoutAlignmentY(Container target); public int getVgap(); public abstract void invalidateLayout(Container target); public void layoutContainer (Container target);
public abstract Dimension maximumLayoutSize(Container target); public Dimension minimumLayoutSize (Container target);
public Dimension preferredLayoutSize (Container target);
public void removeLayoutComponent (Component component);
public void setHgap (int hgap); public void setVgap (int vgap); public String toString();
}

Constants

CENTER

public final static String CENTER

A constant representing center orientation.

EAST

public final static String EAST

A constant representing east orientation.

NORTH

public final static String NORTH

A constant representing north orientation.

SOUTH

public final static String SOUTH

A constant representing south orientation.

WEST

public final static String WEST

A constant representing west orientation.

Constructors

BorderLayout

public BorderLayout()

• Description
• Constructs a BorderLayout object.

public BorderLayout (int hgap, int vgap)

• Parameters
• • hgap
  • Horizontal space between each component in the container.
  • vgap
  • Vertical space between each component in the container.
• Description
• Constructs a BorderLayout object with the values specified as the gaps between each component in the container managed by this instance of BorderLayout.

Instance Methods

addLayoutComponent

public void addLayoutComponent (Component comp, Object constraints)

• Parameters
• • comp
  • The component being added.
  • constraints
  • An object describing the constraints on this component.
• Implements
• LayoutManager2.addLayoutComponent()
• Description
• Adds the component comp to a container subject to the given constraints. This is a more general version of addLayoutComponent(String, Component) method. It corresponds to java.awt.Container's add(Component, Object) method. In practice, it is used the same in version 1.1 as in Java 1.0.2, except with the parameters swapped:

  Panel p = new Panel(new BorderLayout()); p.add(new Button("OK"), BorderLayout.SOUTH); 
  

addLayoutComponent

public void addLayoutComponent (String name, Component component)

• Parameters
• • name
  • Name of region to add component to.
  • component
  • Actual component being added.
• Implements
• LayoutManager.addLayoutComponent()
• Description
• Adds a component to a container in region name. This has been replaced in version 1.1 with the more general addLayoutComponent(Component, Object).

getHgap

public int getHgap()

• Returns
• The horizontal gap for this BorderLayout instance.

getLayoutAlignmentX

public abstract float getLayoutAlignmentX (Container target)

• Parameters
• • target
  • The container to inspect.
• Returns
• The value .5 for all containers.
• Description
• This method returns the preferred alignment of the given container target. A return value of 0 is left aligned, .5 is centered, and 1 is right aligned.

getLayoutAlignmentY

public abstract float getLayoutAlignmentY (Container target)

• Parameters
• • target
  • The container to inspect.
• Returns
• The value .5 for all containers.
• Description
• This method returns the preferred alignment of the given container target. A return value of 0 is top aligned, .5 is centered, and 1 is bottom aligned.

getVgap

public int getVgap()

• Returns
• The vertical gap for this BorderLayout instance.

invalidateLayout

public abstract void invalidateLayout (Container target)

• Parameters
• • target
  • The container to invalidate.
• Description
• Does nothing.

layoutContainer

public void layoutContainer (Container target)

• Parameters
• • target
  • The container that needs to be redrawn.
• Implements
• LayoutManager.layoutContainer()
• Description
• Draws components contained within target.

maximumLayoutSize

public abstract Dimension maximumLayoutSize (Container target)

• Parameters
• • target
  • The container to inspect.
  • Returns
  • A Dimension whose horizontal and vertical components are Integer.MAX_VALUE.
• Description
• For BorderLayout, a maximal Dimension is always returned.

minimumLayoutSize

public Dimension minimumLayoutSize (Container target)

• Parameters
• • target
  • The container whose size needs to be calculated.
• Returns
• Minimum Dimension of the container target.
• Implements
• LayoutManager.minimumLayoutSize()
• Description
• Calculates minimum size of target. container.

preferredLayoutSize

public Dimension preferredLayoutSize (Container target)

• Parameters
• • target
  • The container whose size needs to be calculated.
• Returns
• Preferred Dimension of the container target.
• Implements
• LayoutManager.preferredLayoutSize()
• Description
• Calculates preferred size of target container.

removeLayoutComponent

public void removeLayoutComponent (Component component)

• Parameters
• • component
  • Component to stop tracking.
• Implements
• LayoutManager.removeLayoutComponent()
• Description
• Removes component from any internal tracking systems.

setHgap

public void setHgap (int hgap)

• Parameters
• • hgap
  • The horizontal gap value.
• Description
• Sets the horizontal gap between components.

setVgap

public void setVgap (int vgap)

• Parameters
• • vgap
  • The vertical gap value.
• Description
• Sets the vertical gap between components.

toString

public String toString()

• Returns
• A string representation of the BorderLayout object.
• Overrides
• Object.toString()

See Also

Component, Container, Dimension, LayoutManager, LayoutManager2, Object, String