Vaadin - Expand components in Grid Layout in Vaadin

Question

I am doing my project in Vaadin 6. In that, I have integrated the components in a Grid layout. I have attached a image with this. It resembles my Project layout. It is similar to eclipse. So, The layout will have two side panels on left and right. and a center and bottom panel. And the red color in the image are buttons. When I press them the panel will be minimized. I want the center panel to expand and occupy the minimized panel's area. I have integrated the panels in grid layout. Can anyone tell me how to expand a component in the grid layout.

When I minimize 'R'; 'C' & 'B' have to occupy it's area.

When I minimize 'B'; 'C' have to occupy it's area.

When I minimize 'L'; 'C' & 'B' have to occupy it's area.

Answer 1

Here a working example without additional add-on. You can use horizontal and vertical layout.

public class TestUI extends UI {

    Panel L = new Panel();
    Panel C = new Panel();
    Panel B = new Panel();
    Panel R = new Panel();

    Button bL = new Button("Toggle L", new CloseButtonHandler(L));
    Button bC = new Button("Toggle C", new CloseButtonHandler(C));
    Button bB = new Button("Toggle B", new CloseButtonHandler(B));
    Button bR = new Button("Toggle R", new CloseButtonHandler(R));

    @Override
    protected void init(VaadinRequest request) {
        L.setWidth("80px");
        L.setHeight("100%");
        L.setContent(new Label("L"));
        R.setWidth("80px");
        R.setHeight("100%");
        R.setContent(new Label("R"));
        B.setHeight("80px");
        B.setWidth("100%");
        B.setContent(new Label("B"));
        C.setHeight("100%");
        C.setHeight("100%");
        C.setContent(new Label("C"));

        VerticalLayout vl = new VerticalLayout();
        vl.addComponent(C);
        vl.addComponent(B);
        vl.setExpandRatio(C, 1);
        vl.setSizeFull();

        HorizontalLayout hl = new HorizontalLayout();
        hl.addComponent(L);
        hl.addComponent(vl);
        hl.addComponent(R);
        hl.setExpandRatio(vl, 1);
        hl.setSizeFull();

        CssLayout root = new CssLayout();
        root.addComponent(bL);
        root.addComponent(bC);
        root.addComponent(bB);
        root.addComponent(bR);
        root.addComponent(hl);
        root.setSizeFull();

        setContent(root);
    }

    private class CloseButtonHandler implements ClickListener {
        private Panel layout;

        public CloseButtonHandler(Panel layout) {
            this.layout = layout;
        }

        @Override
        public void buttonClick(ClickEvent event) {
            layout.setVisible(!layout.isVisible());
        }
    }
}

The example is for Vaadin 7 but the concept should work with Vaadin 6 too.