Panels not resizing correctly with GridBagLayout in Java

Question

So I am using a GridBagLayout for my GUI and I'm having some issues with it not resizing properly. Before anyone suggests an alternative layout, I am positive I want to use GridBagLayout; I will have a large number of components for it and I want to lay them out properly, the current code/image only displays what I have as of now.

Anyhow, the problem is it doesn't resize itself properly. I want it to maintain the aspect ratio that it current has as it resizes, however, it doesn't. Certain panels are given some sort of priority in the resizing, such that when I resize, it disrupts the aspect ratio. Essentially, I have some panel as being bigger than another, but after resizing, it becomes smaller than another, like so:

https://i.sstatic.net/QbmKh.png

Now, what I actually want is for them to maintain the ratio already presented. As you can see, I want the chat portion of the GUI to be smaller than either of the left panels, like it originally is.

Below is the code I have right now to produce this:

jpPack = new JPanel();
    jpCards = new JPanel();
    jpInfo = new JPanel();
    jpChat = new JPanel();


    jpPack.setBackground(Color.red);
    jpCards.setBackground(Color.blue);
    jpInfo.setBackground(Color.green);

    //create the Constraints and set some that will apply to each panel
    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;

    //set the number of columns/rows to use
    c.gridwidth = 1;
    c.gridheight = 1;
    //set the x and y position
    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 0;
    //set the weight properties
    c.weightx = 1.0;
    c.weighty = 1.0;

    getContentPane().add(jpCards, c);

    //set the number of columns/rows to use
    c.gridwidth = 1;
    c.gridheight = 1;
    //set the x and y position
    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 1;
    //set the weight properties
    c.weightx = 1.0;
    c.weighty = 1.0;

    getContentPane().add(jpPack, c);

    //set the number of columns/rows to use
    c.gridwidth = 1;
    c.gridheight = 1;
    //set the x and y position
    c.gridx = 1;
    c.gridy = 0;
    //set the weight properties
    c.weightx = 0.2;
    c.weighty = 0.2;

    getContentPane().add(jpInfo, c);

    //set the number of columns/rows to use
    c.gridwidth = 1;
    c.gridheight = 1;
    //set the x and y position
    c.gridx = 1;
    c.gridy = 1;
    //set the weight properties
    c.weightx = 0.2;
    c.weighty = 0.2;

    getContentPane().add(jpChat, c);
    jpChat.setLayout(new GridLayout());
    jpChat.add(client.gui.getContentPane(), c);

    setVisible(true);

While I'm at it, I may as well ask the other question I have. I want to set minimum size constraints, for both the GUI as a whole, and the chat panel. For the first, I want it to disallow the user to resize it smaller than a certain x and a certain y. For the latter, I want it to keep the aspect ratio I stated I want it, and then to resize just the left panels after I hit the minimum for the two right panels. That is, it'll resize each panel until some size, then continue resizing the entire GUI, but just resize the left panels, leaving the right panels at their min size.

Thanks for helping me. This is really bugging me, I've spent a couple hours trying to do this, messing around with the GridBagLayoutConstraints and not getting anywhere. This is the best I've gotten it to.

Answer 1

I tried to work a bit on your question and I came with a simple reason, that might be causing concerns for you. The JTextField, that you are using in your ChatPanel, while initializing the same, you must be specifying the columns for it, that might can cause such an effect. Since the way I crafted the above code, this thingy is not giving me any sort of weird behaviour, in any sense. Though regarding your second question, @kleopatra, had given some insight. Here is the code I used :

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class ClientGrid
{
    private void displayGUI()
    {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Client Grid");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        JPanel contentPane = new JPanel();
        contentPane.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());

        JPanel bluePanel = new JPanel();
        bluePanel.setOpaque(true);
        bluePanel.setBackground(Color.BLUE);

        JPanel greenPanel = new JPanel();
        greenPanel.setOpaque(true);
        greenPanel.setBackground(Color.GREEN);

        JPanel redPanel = new JPanel();
        redPanel.setOpaque(true);
        redPanel.setBackground(Color.RED);

        JPanel chatPanel = new JPanel();
        JTextField chatField = new JTextField();
        chatPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout(5, 5));
        chatPanel.add(chatField, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);

        GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
        gbc.anchor = GridBagConstraints.FIRST_LINE_START;
        gbc.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
        gbc.gridx = 0;
        gbc.gridy = 0;
        gbc.weightx = 0.7;
        gbc.weighty = 0.3;

        contentPane.add(bluePanel, gbc);

        gbc.gridx = 1;
        gbc.weightx = 0.3;

        contentPane.add(greenPanel, gbc);

        gbc.gridx = 0;
        gbc.gridy = 1;
        gbc.weightx = 0.7;
        gbc.weighty = 0.7;

        contentPane.add(redPanel, gbc);

        gbc.gridx = 1;
        gbc.weightx = 0.3;

        contentPane.add(chatPanel, gbc);

        frame.setContentPane(contentPane);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String... args)
    {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
        {
            @Override
            public void run()
            {
                new ClientGrid().displayGUI();
            }
        });
    }
}