Lava - The Java GUI Builder

Layout Managers

Lava can now let each container within the GUI be layed out with a spearate layout manager. This is done by selecting the required manager from the edit window. In this case we edit a panel :

New Component Dialog

At present you can select from 5 layout managers :

  1. LavaLayout is the custom layout manager that acts just like the Lava grid you draw components on. If you use this layout, you will need to distribute the LavaLayout.class and LavaLayoutConstraints.class in the release directory.
  2. GridBagLayout is the dreaded old bastard that has had many a Java programmer foxed for hours on end. Sort of. Use with care.
  3. FlowLayout runs along the grid from top left to bottom right adding components to a FlowLayout.
  4. CardLayout does the same as FlowLayout but adds components to a CardLayout.
  5. Absolute Coordinates uses no layout manager but just resizes and moves the components to the actual pixel position.

Design Considerations

I have had countless emails regarding how Lava doesn't lay things out the way they were designed. Generally this is a failure of the GridBagLayout system used to generate the code rather than Lava. There are however ways of making sure the dreaded GridBagLayout does what it is told :

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