Documentation

The table layout manager places components in a grid of columns and rows, allowing specified components to span multiple columns or rows. Not all columns/rows necessarily have the same width/height.

A column/row can be given an absolute size in pixels, a percentage of the available space, or it can grow and shrink to fill the remaining space after other columns/rows have been resized.

TableLayout

Use the column and row headers to insert or delete columns/rows and change column/row properties.

TableLayout is open source and not part of the standard Java distribution. You must ship an additional library with your application. JFormDesigner includes TableLayout.jar, TableLayout-javadoc.jar and TableLayout-src.zip in its redist folder. For more documentation and tutorials, visit tablelayout.dev.java.net.

IDE plug-ins: If you use TableLayout the first time, the JFormDesigner IDE plug-in ask you whether it should copy the required library (and its source code and documentation) to the IDE project and add it to the classpath of the IDE project.

Extensions

JFormDesigner extends the original TableLayout with following features:

Default component alignment
Allows you to specify a default alignment for components within columns/rows. This is very useful for columns with right aligned labels because you specify the alignment only once for the column and all added labels will automatically aligned to the right.

Layout properties

A container with this layout manager has following layout properties:

Property Name	Description
horizontal gap	The horizontal gap between components. Default is 5.
vertical gap	The vertical gap between components. Default is 5.

Column/row properties

Each column and row has its own properties. Use the column and row headers to change column/row properties.

TableLayout column properties

Property Name	Description
Column/Row	The index of the column/row. Use the arrow buttons (or Alt+Left, Alt+Right, Alt+Up, Alt+Down keys) to edit the properties of the previous or next column/row.
Default alignment	The default alignment of the components within a column/row. Used if the value of the constraints properties "h align" or "v align" is DEFAULT.
Size	Specifies how TableLayout computes the width/height of a column/row.

Tip: The column/row context menu allows you to alter many of these options for multi-selections.

Constraints properties

A component contained in a container with this layout manager has following constraints properties:

Property Name	Description
grid x	Specifies the component's horizontal grid origin (column index).
grid y	Specifies the component's vertical grid origin (row index).
grid width	Specifies the component's horizontal grid extend (number of columns). Default is 1.
grid height	Specifies the component's vertical grid extend (number of rows). Default is 1.
h align	The horizontal alignment of the component within its cell. Possible values: DEFAULT, LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT and FILL. Default is DEFAULT.
v align	The vertical alignment of the component within its cell. Possible values: DEFAULT, TOP, CENTER, BOTTOM and FILL. Default is DEFAULT.

In contrast to the TableLayoutConstraints API, which uses [column1,row1,column2,row2] to specify the location and size of a component, JFormDesigner uses the usual [x,y,width,height] notation.

Tip: The component context menu allows you to alter the alignment for multi-selections.