Make a textfield visible on itemStatechanged event of a checkbox

Question

How to make a text field visible on itemStatechanged event of a check box in Swing?

I am trying to create a frame with a check box and a text field. I want the text field to be displayed only when the check box is selected. So when I initialize the components, I have set the textfield.setvisible to false and for the check box added a addItemListener and call the itemStateChanged event and there is the check box is selected, I set the setVisible method to true.

My SSCCE looks like:

package ui;
public class Evaluator extends javax.swing.JFrame {
public Evaluator() {
    initComponents();
}
private void initComponents() {

    jCheckBox1 = new javax.swing.JCheckBox();
    jTextField1 = new javax.swing.JTextField();
    jTextField1.setVisible(false);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(800, 800));
    jCheckBox1.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Tahoma", 0, 14));
    jCheckBox1.setText("Properties");
    jCheckBox1.addItemListener(new java.awt.event.ItemListener() {
        public void itemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent evt) {
            jCheckBox1ItemStateChanged(evt);
        }
    });
    jTextField1.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Tahoma", 0, 14));
    javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
    getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
    layout.setHorizontalGroup(
        layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
        .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
            .addContainerGap()
            .addComponent(jCheckBox1)
            .addGap(41, 41, 41)
            .addComponent(jTextField1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 109, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
            .addContainerGap(155, Short.MAX_VALUE))
    );
    layout.setVerticalGroup(
        layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
        .addGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING, layout.createSequentialGroup()
            .addContainerGap(229, Short.MAX_VALUE)
            .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                .addComponent(jCheckBox1)
                .addComponent(jTextField1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 37, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
            .addGap(34, 34, 34))
    );
    pack();
}
private void jCheckBox1ItemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent evt) {                                            
    // TODO add your handling code here:
     if(evt.getStateChange()== java.awt.event.ItemEvent.SELECTED){
        jTextField1.setVisible(true);

   }
}                                           
public static void main(String args[]) {

    try {
        for (javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo info : javax.swing.UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) {
            if ("Nimbus".equals(info.getName())) {
                javax.swing.UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName());
                break;
            }
        }
    } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
        java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(Evaluator.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    } catch (InstantiationException ex) {
        java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(Evaluator.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    } catch (IllegalAccessException ex) {
        java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(Evaluator.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    } catch (javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {
        java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(Evaluator.class.getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }
    java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            new Evaluator().setVisible(true);
        }
    });
}
private javax.swing.JCheckBox jCheckBox1;
private javax.swing.JTextField jTextField1;                
}

Answer 1

Basically, you need to invalidate the frame (or parent container) to force it be re-layout

private void jCheckBox2ItemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent evt) {
    jTextField1.setVisible(jCheckBox2.isSelected());
    invalidate();
    validate();
}

Updated

I'd also suggest that you avoid adding your entire UI onto a top level container, instead use a JPanel as you base component and build you UI's around them. When you're ready, simply add the base panel to what ever top level container you need.