With GroupLayout, how can I align separate components to each end of one longer component? Or, can one component span multiple parallel groups?

Question

tl;dr: I want to do what's in the second picture (ignore the red lines)

I understand how GroupLayout works, but I can't figure this out, or whether it's even possible. I initially had this code:

#Horizontal layout is a parallel group containing 3 sequences of components
layout.setHorizontalGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) #everything else to the right
                          .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup() #row 1
                                    .addComponent(startTimeLabel)
                                    .addComponent(self.lastUpdatedLabel))
                          .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup() #row 2
                                    .addComponent(self.progressBar)
                                    .addComponent(self.clearBtn))
                          .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup() #row 3
                                    .addComponent(self.fileProgLabel)
                                    .addComponent(self.sizeProgLabel)
                                    .addComponent(self.ETCLabel))))

which produced this:

However, I want to align the 2 top labels at the start and end of the progress bar, and the 3 bottom labels at the start, middle, and end of the progress bar, like this (mspainted):

My first approach at this was to try to split the components into the parallel groups I've made with the lines above. I put struts either side of the progress bar, aligning the 4 end labels to those, and aligned the center label to the progress bar itself:

#Horizontal layout is a sequence of 3 parallel groups of components, and an end component
layout.setHorizontalGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                          .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) #starttime, strut, filesprog
                                    .addComponent(startTimeLabel)
                                    .addComponent(progLeft) #invisible, just for gluing things to
                                    .addComponent(self.fileProgLabel))
                          .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER) #progress bar, sizeprog
                                    .addComponent(self.progressBar)
                                    .addComponent(self.sizeProgLabel))
                          .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING) #updatetime, strut, ETC
                                    .addComponent(self.lastUpdatedLabel)
                                    .addComponent(progRight) #invisible, just for gluing things to
                                    .addComponent(self.ETCLabel))
                          .addComponent(self.clearBtn))

However, as I expected, this forced the progress bar to squeeze into the horizontal space between the top 2 labels, like this:

Finally, I thought of getting rid of the struts, and adding the progress bar to three separate parallel groups: aligned LEADING with the two left labels, CENTER with the middle label, and TRAILING with the right label:

#Horizontal layout is a sequence of 4 parallel groups of components
layout.setHorizontalGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                          .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING) #starttime, progleft, filesprog
                                    .addComponent(startTimeLabel)
                                    .addComponent(self.progressBar)
                                    .addComponent(self.fileProgLabel))
                          .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(GroupLayout.Alignment.CENTER) #progmid, sizeprog
                                    .addComponent(self.progressBar)
                                    .addComponent(self.sizeProgLabel))
                          .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING) #updatetime, progright, ETC
                                    .addComponent(self.lastUpdatedLabel)
                                    .addComponent(self.progressBar)
                                    .addComponent(self.ETCLabel))
                          .addComponent(self.clearBtn))

However, Swing clearly ignores the second and third mentions of the progress bar, and I end up with this:

I reckon I've had a pretty decent go at this, and I'm well and truly out of ideas. Is there any way to make a component span multiple parallel groups?

Answer 1

Given your requirements, I would rather use a GridBagLayout. It's a bit more complex but I wrote a piece of code that does what you want.

class T extends JFrame {

public T() {
    setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

    String s1 = "Started at: 2011-09-12 15:33:38";
    String s2 = "Last updated: 2011-09-12 15:33:44";
    String s3 = "File copied:2/10";
    String s4 = "Bytes copied: 234/1000";
    String s5 = "ETC: 2011-09-02 15:34:02";
    JProgressBar progressBar = new JProgressBar();

    progressBar.setMinimum(100);
    progressBar.setStringPainted(true);
    progressBar.setString("23%");
    progressBar.setValue(23);

    setLayout(new GridBagLayout());

    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();

    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
    c.weightx = 1.0;
    c.insets = new Insets(5, 5, 5, 5);
    add(new JLabel(s1), c);

    c.gridx = 2;
    add(new JLabel(s2, JLabel.RIGHT), c);

    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 1;
    c.gridwidth = 3;
    add(progressBar, c);

    c.gridx = 3;
    add(new JButton("Clear"), c);

    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 2;
    add(new JLabel(s3), c);

    c.gridx = 0;
    add(new JLabel(s4, JLabel.CENTER), c);

    c.gridx = 2;
    add(new JLabel(s5, JLabel.RIGHT), c);

    setSize(600, 300);
    setVisible(true);

}

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

Here is the result: