How many times have you walked away from a problem, beaten and worn down, only to return with the solution in hand? I knew I'd figure out my layout problem eventually. It didn't happen immediately, but it did happen. The situation just required a little breathing room. I'm still using NetBeans 5.5, even upgraded to the RC1 version today, and NetBeans is still my favorite IDE.

Just yesterday (it was yesterday, right?), I had to give up temporarily on a maddening GUI layout problem using NetBeans 5.5 and the Matisse GUI builder. The GUI Builder was in control, and it did things that I couldn't understand or predict. It tore up my UI whenever I tried to adjust a particular component's position or size. I finally got the panel layout that I wanted, and I even used the new "Free Design" layout. I suspect user error for all the problems. I just wasn't using the tool properly. I eventually created the simple panel that I wanted. This panel resizes all the components horizontally whenever the panel size changes:

What were some of my mistakes? Well, I finally realized that I just couldn't get the txtCity field (City's text field) to automatically line up with Phone's text field on the right side. The GUI Builder had done such a great job helping me anchor things and align edges, so I just assumed it could align components that were separated by other components. Boy was that a big mistake. Finally, I had to just "eyeball" it, make an estimate about the alignment. When I finally accepted that I couldn't align components across other elements (Address 1 and 2), most of my troubles went away. Another example...At first I wanted First Name, Email, and Postal Code to all be anchored to the right as if they were in the same column. Of course, that didn't work either.

In case you're curious about how this looks in code, here it is. The layout manager is javax.swing.GroupLayout, which is new in Java SE 6:

layout.setHorizontalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addContainerGap()
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING)
                    .addComponent(lblPhone)
                    .addComponent(lblLastName)
                    .addComponent(lblAddress1)
                    .addComponent(lblCountry)
                    .addComponent(lblAddress2)
                    .addComponent(lblCity)
                    .addComponent(lblState))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING)
                    .addGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, layout.createSequentialGroup()
                        .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING)
                            .addComponent(txtCountry, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 115, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                            .addComponent(txtState, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 115, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                            .addComponent(txtCity, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 115, Short.MAX_VALUE))
                        .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                        .addComponent(lblPostalCode)
                        .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                        .addComponent(txtPostalCode, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 118, Short.MAX_VALUE))
                    .addComponent(txtAddress2, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 327, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                    .addComponent(txtAddress1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 327, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                    .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                        .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                            .addComponent(txtLastName, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 117, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                            .addComponent(txtPhone, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 117, Short.MAX_VALUE))
                        .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                        .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                                .addComponent(lblFirstName)
                                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                                .addComponent(txtFirstName, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 122, Short.MAX_VALUE))
                            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                                .addComponent(lblEmail)
                                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                                .addComponent(txtEmail, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 156, Short.MAX_VALUE)))))
                .addContainerGap())
        );
        layout.setVerticalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addContainerGap()
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(lblLastName)
                    .addComponent(txtLastName, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                    .addComponent(lblFirstName)
                    .addComponent(txtFirstName, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(lblPhone)
                    .addComponent(txtPhone, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                    .addComponent(lblEmail)
                    .addComponent(txtEmail, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(lblAddress1)
                    .addComponent(txtAddress1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(lblAddress2)
                    .addComponent(txtAddress2, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(lblCity)
                    .addComponent(txtCity, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(lblState)
                    .addComponent(txtState, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                    .addComponent(lblPostalCode)
                    .addComponent(txtPostalCode, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                    .addComponent(lblCountry)
                    .addComponent(txtCountry, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
                .addContainerGap(javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );

Whew, that's definitely not something I want to hand code. I've heard the NetBeans and Swing folks say that this manager was designed to work well with tools. I've always used GridbagLayout for my UIs. You can do a lot of good work by hand with GridbagLayout. It did what I needed, and I tried to keep things pretty simple. Nothing was ever perfect, but perfectly formed UIs were never a priority. I think this new layout manager and the NetBeans GUI Builder have helped me pay more attention to GUIs. I think this tool offers me a way to create better GUIs. I hope I'll never need to hand code any of this, but who knows...

The NetBeans GUI Builder and the new "Free Design" layout manager are supposed to enable me to create great GUIs that look right on every target platform. The layout manager is supposed to help you get the component spacing correct, and it resizes components correctly when you localize. There are a lot of good reasons to try this new GUI Builder and the new layout manager. I don't doubt that the GUI Builder and "Free Design" deliver perfectly on their goals and promises. However, powerful tools don't solve problems on their own. They do require someone to use them skillfully. I'm not done with this tool, and I realize that using it is not as simple as dragging and dropping widgets. I don't think it should be either, and I realize that unfair expectations almost always lead to disappointment.

I'm going to investigate this tool a little more this month...before the NB 5.5 final release. I hope to become proficient with it. I'll let you know how it goes.