I'm making a Hangman game and it seems that my code doesn't provide me much freedom with using layouts. I added an image to my JFrame then I added a JPanel to my image which I'm using for all the JLabels and JTextFields but it seems to me that it's inefficient because in order to change the layout of my JTextFields or JLabels I have to change the layout of my image which messes up the entire looks of the game.
How can I make this code more efficient and give myself more freedom to change the layouts of my JLabels and JTextFields without messing everything up?
/*PACKAGE DECLARATION*/
package Game;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.*;
/************************
* GAME MECHANICS CLASS *
* **********************/
public class GameStructure {
/* INSTANCE DECLARATIONS */
private String []wordList = {"computer","java","activity","alaska","appearance","article",
"automobile","basket","birthday","canada","central","character","chicken","chosen",
"cutting","daily","darkness","diagram","disappear","driving","effort","establish","exact",
"establishment","fifteen","football","foreign","frequently","frighten","function","gradually",
"hurried","identity","importance","impossible","invented","italian","journey","lincoln",
"london","massage","minerals","outer","paint","particles","personal","physical","progress",
"quarter","recognise","replace","rhythm","situation","slightly","steady","stepped",
"strike","successful","sudden","terrible","traffic","unusual","volume","yesterday"};
private int []length = new int [64];
private JTextField tf;//text field instance variable (used)
private JLabel jl2;//label instance variable (used)
private JLabel jl3;//label instance (working on)
private String letter;
/*****************
* LENGTH METHOD *
* ***************/
public void length(){
jl3 = new JLabel();
int j = 0;
for(j = 0; j<64; j++) {
length[j] = wordList[j].length();//gets length of words in wordList
}//end for
int l = 0;
String line = "";
//create line first then put into .setText
for(int m = 0; m<length[l]; m++) {
line += "__ ";
l++;
}//end for
jl3.setText(line);
}//end length method
/*****************
* WINDOW METHOD *
* ***************/
public void window() {
LoadImageApp i = new LoadImageApp();//calling image class
JFrame gameFrame = new JFrame();//declaration
JPanel jp = new JPanel();
//JPanel jp2 = new JPanel();//jpanel for blanks
JLabel jl = new JLabel("Enter a Letter:");//prompt with label
jl.setFont(new Font("Rockwell", Font.PLAIN, 20));//set font
tf = new JTextField(1);//length of text field by character
jl2 = new JLabel("Letters Used: ");
tf.setFont(new Font("Rockwell", Font.PLAIN, 20));//set font
jl2.setFont(new Font("Rockwell", Font.PLAIN, 20));//set font
jp.add(jl);//add label to panel
jp.add(tf);//add text field to panel
jp.add(jl2);//add letters used
gameFrame.add(i); //adds background image to window
i.add(jp); // adds panel containing label to background image panel
gameFrame.setTitle("Hangman");//title of frame window
gameFrame.setSize(850, 600);//sets size of frame
gameFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);//exit when 'x' button pressed
gameFrame.setIconImage(new ImageIcon("Hangman-Game-grey.png").getImage());//set the frame icon to an image loaded from a file
gameFrame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);//window centered
gameFrame.setResizable(false);//user can not resize window
gameFrame.setVisible(true);//display frame
}//end window method
/*********************
* USER INPUT METHOD *
* *******************/
public void userInput() {
tf.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {//when enter key pressed
JTextField tf = (JTextField)e.getSource();
letter = tf.getText();
jl2.setText(jl2.getText() + letter + " ");//sets jlabel text to users entered letter
}//end actionPerformed method
});
}//end userInput method
}//end GameMechanics class
/*PACKAGE DECLARATION*/
package Game;
/***********************
* IMPORT DECLARATIONS *
* *********************/
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
/***************
* IMAGE CLASS *
* *************/
public class LoadImageApp extends JPanel {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private ImageIcon image;
/***********************
* PAINT IMAGE METHOD *
* *********************/
public void paintComponent (Graphics g) {
//setLayout(new BorderLayout());
super.paintComponent(g);
image = new ImageIcon("hangman.png");//image name & type
image.paintIcon(this, g, 270, 20);
}//end paintComponent method
}//end LoadImageApp class
/*PACKAGE DECLARATION*/
package Game;
/*******************
* GAME MAIN CLASS *
* *****************/
public class GameMain {
/***************
* MAIN METHOD *
* *************/
public static void main (String []args) {
GameStructure game = new GameStructure();//declaration
game.length();
game.window();
game.userInput();
}//end main method
}//end GameMain class
