Vaadin

Vaadin GridLayout Example

Grid layout allows you to show user interface widgets in a table like layout, also it is a layout which precisely control how you want to show your components so if you need a lot of control on the position this layout is for you.

1. The tools

  • Java JDK 8
  • Latest Eclipse Mars
  • Vaadin 7.6.3

 

2. Introduction

Vaadin out of the box offers a nice grid layout, easy to use and customizable to join files and rows in any way you need, so you can arrange your components without a hassle.

3. Prerequisites

  • JDK installed
  • Eclipse Mars installed and working
  • Vaadin plugin installed 7.6.3
  • Apache Tomcat 8

4. Set up the project

In the file menu choose File -> New -> Other.

01 New Project
01 New Project

Now from the list choose Vaadin 7 project.

02 Vaadin Project
02 Vaadin Project

Hit next and write a name for your project then hit finish.

5. Coding the example

Now edit the file VaadingridlayoutUI.java.

03 Edit Source file
03 Edit Source file

Create the layout:

Create Layout

		final GridLayout grid = new GridLayout(5,4);
		grid.setWidth("80%");
		grid.setHeight("80%");

I created a layout with five columns and four rows then make the layout 80% width, 80% height, also you can use pixel metrics to specify the width and height of the layout.

04 Grid Example
04 Grid Example

Create labels to be added to the layout first row.

Layout first row

		Label label00 = new Label("0,0");
		label00.setSizeFull();
		label00.addStyleName("blue");
		grid.addComponent(label00,0,0);
		
		Label label10 = new Label("1,0");
		label10.setSizeFull();
		label10.addStyleName("green");
		grid.addComponent(label10,1,0);
    
		Label label20 = new Label("2,0");
		label20.setSizeFull();
		label20.addStyleName("blue");
		grid.addComponent(label20,2,0);

		Label label30 = new Label("3,0");
		label30.setSizeFull();
		label30.addStyleName("green");
		grid.addComponent(label30,3,0);

		Label label40 = new Label("4,0");
		label40.setSizeFull();
		label40.addStyleName("blue");
		grid.addComponent(label40,4,0);

The labels are added to the grid first row as in the picture, grid.addComponent(component,X,Y); add the components in the correct place, also I make the labels size full to better show the results.

05 Grid First Row
05 Grid First Row

Add widgets to the first column, I already added the widget to the cell (0,0) now I add the widgets to the rest of the column.

Rest of the column 0

	Label label01 = new Label("0,1");
	label01.setSizeFull();
	label01.addStyleName("green");
	grid.addComponent(label01,0,1);

	Label label11 = new Label("1,1");
	label11.setSizeFull();
	label11.addStyleName("blue");
	grid.addComponent(label11,1,1);
	   
	Label label02 = new Label("0,2");
	label02.setSizeFull();
	label02.addStyleName("blue");
	grid.addComponent(label02,0,2);
	
	Label label03 = new Label("0,3");
	label03.setSizeFull();
	label03.addStyleName("green");
	grid.addComponent(label03,0,3);

So the grid is populated like the following image.

06 Grid first column
06 Grid first column

You can also combine cells and add a widget to the combined cell to those controls that need more space.

Cells (1,2), (2,2)

	    Label label2X1 = new Label("2X1");
	    label2X1.setSizeFull();
	    label2X1.addStyleName("green");
	    grid.addComponent(label2X1, 1, 2, 2, 2);

I added a component that begin filling the cell (1,2) and end in the cell (2,2).

07 Cell 2X1
07 Cell 2X1

Now the next component fills the cells (4,1), (4,2) and (4,3).

(4,1), (4,2), (4,3)

	    Label label1X3 = new Label("1X3");
	    label1X3.setSizeFull();
	    label1X3.addStyleName("green");
	    grid.addComponent(label1X3, 4, 1, 4, 3);

All you need is provide a range as a parameter in the addComponent method and Vaadin take care for the details to make the component fit, so the grid now is populated like this:

08 Cell 1X3
08 Cell 1X3

Now the only thing left to do is add the grid to the main layout in this case I am using the grid as my main layout setContent(grid);.

6. Edit Styles

I am using labels to demonstrate how to layout components using GridLayout you can use the same procedure to any Vaadin component. Let’s make some styles to clearly view the layout works. Edit the file VaadinGridLayout.scss.

09 Edit SCSS file
09 Edit SCSS file

Add the following lines to the file vaadingridlayout.scss:

Edit SCSS

.blue {
	background: lightblue;
}

.green {
	background: lightgreen;
} 

7. The complete source code

VaadingridlayoutUI.java

package com.example.vaadingridlayout;

import javax.servlet.annotation.WebServlet;

import com.vaadin.annotations.Theme;
import com.vaadin.annotations.VaadinServletConfiguration;
import com.vaadin.server.VaadinRequest;
import com.vaadin.server.VaadinServlet;
import com.vaadin.ui.GridLayout;
import com.vaadin.ui.Label;
import com.vaadin.ui.UI;

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
@Theme("vaadingridlayout")
public class VaadingridlayoutUI extends UI {

	@WebServlet(value = "/*", asyncSupported = true)
	@VaadinServletConfiguration(productionMode = false, ui = VaadingridlayoutUI.class)
	public static class Servlet extends VaadinServlet {
	}

	@Override
	protected void init(VaadinRequest request) {
		final GridLayout grid = new GridLayout(5,4);
		grid.setWidth("80%");
		grid.setHeight("80%");
		
		Label label00 = new Label("0,0");
		label00.setSizeFull();
		label00.addStyleName("blue");
		grid.addComponent(label00,0,0);
		
		Label label10 = new Label("1,0");
		label10.setSizeFull();
		label10.addStyleName("green");
		grid.addComponent(label10,1,0);
    
		Label label20 = new Label("2,0");
		label20.setSizeFull();
		label20.addStyleName("blue");
		grid.addComponent(label20,2,0);

		Label label30 = new Label("3,0");
		label30.setSizeFull();
		label30.addStyleName("green");
		grid.addComponent(label30,3,0);

		Label label40 = new Label("4,0");
		label40.setSizeFull();
		label40.addStyleName("blue");
		grid.addComponent(label40,4,0);

		Label label01 = new Label("0,1");
		label01.setSizeFull();
		label01.addStyleName("green");
		grid.addComponent(label01,0,1);

	    Label label11 = new Label("1,1");
	    label11.setSizeFull();
	    label11.addStyleName("blue");
	    grid.addComponent(label11,1,1);
	    
	    Label label02 = new Label("0,2");
	    label02.setSizeFull();
	    label02.addStyleName("blue");
	    grid.addComponent(label02,0,2);
	
	    Label label03 = new Label("0,3");
	    label03.setSizeFull();
	    label03.addStyleName("green");
	    grid.addComponent(label03,0,3);

	    Label label2X1 = new Label("2X1");
	    label2X1.setSizeFull();
	    label2X1.addStyleName("green");
	    grid.addComponent(label2X1, 1, 2, 2, 2);
	
	    Label label1X3 = new Label("1X3");
	    label1X3.setSizeFull();
	    label1X3.addStyleName("green");
	    grid.addComponent(label1X3, 4, 1, 4, 3);
		
	    setContent(grid);
	}
}

8. Run the project

Right click on the project folder and choose Run as -> Run on server.

10 Run as
10 Run as

Choose Tomcat 8 server and hit finish.

9. Results

As you can see when you run the project you get the labels in the grid layout in the exact position you need it.

11 Results
11 Results

10. Download the Source Code

This was an example about Vaadin GridLayout.

Download
You can download the Eclipse project here: Vaadin GridLayout

Jesus Boadas

I'm a self taught programmer, I began programming back in 1991 using an IBM A10 mainframe with Pascal an Assembler IBM 360/70 emulator and Turbo C on a X86 PC, since that I work for the banking industry with emerging technologies like Fox Pro, Visual Fox Pro, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Borland C++, lately I moved out to the Airline industry, leading designing and programming in-house web applications with Flex, Actionscript, PHP, Python and Rails and in the last 7 years I focused all my work in Java, working on Linux servers using GlassFish, TomCat, Apache and MySql.
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