How can I position the JLabel and JButton in the center of the gui window in java

Question

I am practicing GUI in java. I am currently struggling with the placement of the elements. I want the JLabel to be in the center middle of the gui window and the button to be right below the JLabel. I wanna preface that I am a beginner in Java so I may have some lapses so I would appreciate some help/ tips as well!

I tried different layout manager(BoxLayout, GridLayout, BorderLayout, and FlowLayout) but neither of them worked. So far, FlowLayout was the closest but whenever I run the code the JLabel is placed on top and is seemingly cut off while the button is at the very bottom of the gui window.

here's a preview of my code:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class MyFrame extends JFrame {

    public MyFrame(){
        //panel for label
        JPanel labelPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER));

        //label for the intro
        JLabel introLabel = new JLabel();
        introLabel.setText("Welcome User");
        introLabel.setForeground(new Color(129, 245, 71));
        introLabel.setFont(new Font("Digital-7", Font.PLAIN, 24));
        introLabel.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
        labelPanel.add(introLabel);

        // panel for button
        JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER));

        //JButton
        JButton button = new JButton("click");
        button.setFocusable(false);
        buttonPanel.add(button);

        //main content panel
        JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        mainPanel.add(labelPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        mainPanel.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

        //set content of the pane
        this.setContentPane(mainPanel);

        //frame constructor
        this.setSize(500, 500);
        this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        this.setTitle("encrypt your message");
        this.getContentPane().setBackground(new Color(0x151414)); // the gui bg is determined by the pane
        this.setResizable(false);

        //layout manager
        this.setVisible(true);
    }
}

Answer 1

I'd be inclined to do something like this. BoxLayout is your friend if you want things to be stacked. Also, you can use a GridBagLayout in a 'shorthand` way to get things centred in a container:

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

public class MyFrame extends JFrame {

    public MyFrame() {
        // panel for label
        JPanel basePanell = new JPanel();
        basePanell.setLayout(new BoxLayout(basePanell, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));

        // label for the intro
        JLabel introLabel = new JLabel();
        introLabel.setText("Welcome User");
        introLabel.setForeground(new Color(129, 245, 71));
        introLabel.setFont(new Font("Digital-7", Font.PLAIN, 24));
        introLabel.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
        basePanell.add(introLabel);

        // JButton
        JButton button = new JButton("click");
        button.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
        basePanell.add(button);

        // Improve appearance
        basePanell.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10));

        // Stunt to centre the base panel
        getContentPane().setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
        getContentPane().add(basePanell);

        setSize(500, 500);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setTitle("encrypt your message");
        // getContentPane().setBackground(new Color(0x151414)); // the gui bg is
        // determined by the pane
        getContentPane().setBackground(new Color(0xAAAAAA)); // the gui bg is determined by the pane
        setResizable(false);

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            EventQueue.invokeAndWait(() -> {
                MyFrame f = new MyFrame();
                f.setSize(500, 500);
                f.setVisible(true);
            });
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

}