how to show next Card Item using CardLayout?

Question

I have created a class which has a panel named cards and its layout is CardLAyout. I have added card items. In this class I want to create a separate method by calling which, layout switches to next card.

import java.awt.CardLayout;
import java.awt.Container;


public class cards 
{
      public Container cards;

//creating objects for other classes
public cricGUI gu;
public cricMainMenu mm;

public void cardsList()
{
    cards = new Container();
    cards.setLayout(new CardLayout());

    //adding panels and contentPanes from other classes.
    mm = new cricMainMenu();
    gu = new cricGUI();

    cards.add(mm.contentPane);
    cards.add(gu.pane);
}
public void getNextCard(Container x)
{

}

}

So as u can see I have panels on other classes that I have added to my cards. what i want to do is create getNextCard() method which takes the currently active panel as its arguements. when i call this function it should switch the currently active panel with the next one in my CardLayout list. How can i do this? Thanks

Answer 1

You may want to have a look at How to use CardLayout.

Basic principle is, that every card gets its own identifier (usually a String Constant). To switch to a specific card, you call

layout.show( container, identifier );

To implement a method like getNextCard() (better name would probably be switchToNextCard( container, identifier )) you could for example use an easy switch case construct like:

public void switchToNextCard( Panel container, String currentCard )
{
      switch ( currentCard )
      {
        case CARD1:
          layout.show( container, CARD2 );
          break;
        case CARD2:
          layout.show( container, CARD1 );
          break;
        default :
          throw IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported CardIdentifier.")
          break;
      }
}

In this Method CARD1 and CARD2 are your identifiers (String Constants) for your panels within your cardlayout. In this case it would switch back and forward between those two cards.