Hello all,

I have a window that looks something like this:

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+-------------------------------------------------+

+-------------------------------------------------+

The window is split in two. The top part is the entry variables pane.
The bottom is just a small pane containing the buttons.

The top pane uses a GridBagLayout. The idea was to make the JTextArea
(description) use up all available extra space when the window is
resized. Shocklingly enough, that part works great. In fact, everything
about this window works except for one detail: When I call setText() for
the description JTextArea, and set a text which is so long that a
horizontal scrollbar appears, then the JTextField after Amount shrinks
to something like 1 pixel wide, making it impossible to see what it
contains. If I resize the window so that the JTextArea's scroll-control
disappears, then the size of the JTextField becomes normal. If I shrink
the window so the scrollbar appears, then the text field shrinks again.

What am I doing wrong?, and why is it only affecting the "amount" text
field, but not the ComboBox:es?

-[snip]------------------------------------------
public class TransactionEditor extends JDialog implements ActionListener
{
    private JPanel varPane = new JPanel();
    private JPanel buttonPane = new JPanel();

    final private JLabel lblDate = new JLabel("Date");
    private JLabel lblDateText = new JLabel("2004-12-24, 12:00");

    final private JLabel lblCategory = new JLabel("Category");
    private JComboBox cbCategory = new JComboBox();

    final private JLabel lblShop = new JLabel("Shop");
    private JComboBox cbShop = new JComboBox();

    final private JLabel lblAmount = new JLabel("Amount");
    private JTextField tfAmount = new JTextField(8);

    final private JLabel lblDescription = new JLabel("Description");
    private JTextArea taDescription = new JTextArea();
    private JScrollPane sp = new JScrollPane(taDescription);

    final private JButton okButton = new JButton("Ok");
    final private JButton cancelButton = new JButton("Cancel");

    private boolean fDidChange = false;

    final DatabaseManager dbMgr;

    int id;    // entry id
    int category_id;
    int shop_id;
    double amount;
    String description;
    java.util.Date date;

    // ************************************************************************
    // Constructor
    // ************************************************************************
    public TransactionEditor(DatabaseManager dbMgr, int id) {

        this.dbMgr = dbMgr;
        this.id = id;

        // ******************************************************************
        // Set up gridbag layout for entry variables pane
        // ******************************************************************
        GridBagLayout m = new GridBagLayout();
        varPane.setLayout(m);

        // grid bag contrstraints object used to set up constraints
        GridBagConstraints con = new GridBagConstraints();

//        lblDescription.setVerticalTextPosition(JLabel.TOP);

        // Date
        con.insets = new Insets(4, 4, 2, 4);
        con.gridy = 0;
        con.gridx = 0;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
        m.setConstraints(lblDate, con);
        varPane.add(lblDate);

        con.insets = new Insets(4, 2, 4, 4);
        con.gridx = 1;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
        m.setConstraints(lblDateText, con);
        varPane.add(lblDateText);

        // Category
        con.insets = new Insets(2, 4, 2, 2);
        con.gridy = 1;
        con.gridx = 0;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
        m.setConstraints(lblCategory, con);
        varPane.add(lblCategory);

        con.insets = new Insets(2, 2, 2, 4);
        con.gridx = 1;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
        m.setConstraints(cbCategory, con);
        varPane.add(cbCategory);

        // "Shop"
        con.insets = new Insets(2, 4, 2, 2);
        con.gridy = 2;
        con.gridx = 0;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
        m.setConstraints(lblShop, con);
        varPane.add(lblShop);

        con.insets = new Insets(2, 2, 2, 4);
        con.gridx = 1;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
        m.setConstraints(cbShop, con);
        varPane.add(cbShop);

        // amount
        con.insets = new Insets(2, 4, 2, 2);
        con.gridy = 3;
        con.gridx = 0;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
        m.setConstraints(lblAmount, con);
        varPane.add(lblAmount);

        con.insets = new Insets(2, 2, 2, 4);
        con.gridx = 1;
        con.weightx = 1;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
        m.setConstraints(tfAmount, con);
        varPane.add(tfAmount);

        // description
        con.insets = new Insets(2, 4, 4, 2);
        con.gridy = 4;
        con.gridx = 0;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
        m.setConstraints(lblDescription, con);
        varPane.add(lblDescription);

        con.insets = new Insets(2, 2, 4, 4);
        con.weighty = con.weightx = 1;
        con.gridx = 1;
//        con.gridwidth = 2;
//        con.gridheight = 2;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
        con.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
        m.setConstraints(sp, con);
        varPane.add(sp);

        // *********************************************************************
        // Add Ok and Cancel buttons
        // *********************************************************************
        con = new GridBagConstraints();
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
        con.gridx = 0;
        con.gridy = 0;
        con.fill = GridBagConstraints.NONE;
        m.setConstraints(okButton, con);
        buttonPane.add(okButton);

        con.gridx = 1;
        m.setConstraints(cancelButton, con);
        buttonPane.add(cancelButton);

        con.gridx = 2;
        con.weightx = 1.0;
        con.anchor = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
        con.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        JPanel voidPane = new JPanel();
        m.setConstraints(voidPane, con);
        buttonPane.add(voidPane);

        okButton.addActionListener(this);
        cancelButton.addActionListener(this);

        // *********************************************************************
        // Load data base information into dialog
        // *********************************************************************
        LoadDataThread thrd = new LoadDataThread();
        thrd.start();

        // Intialize mnemonics
        lblCategory.setLabelFor(cbCategory);
        lblCategory.setDisplayedMnemonic('C');

        lblShop.setLabelFor(cbShop);
        lblShop.setDisplayedMnemonic('S');

        lblAmount.setLabelFor(tfAmount);
        lblAmount.setDisplayedMnemonic('A');

        lblDescription.setLabelFor(taDescription);
        lblDescription.setDisplayedMnemonic('D');

        // Set up the dialog's content pane
         Container c = getContentPane();
        c.add(varPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        c.add(buttonPane, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

        getRootPane().setDefaultButton(okButton);

        // ******************************************************************
        // Set up window properties
        // ******************************************************************
        setModal(true);

        setTitle("Transaction #" + id);
        setSize(320, 240);

        // Center window
        Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
        Dimension frameSize = getSize();
        int cx = (int)(screenSize.width-frameSize.width)/2;
        int cy = (int)(screenSize.height-frameSize.height)/2;
        setLocation(cx,cy);

        setVisible(true);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        if(e.getSource() == okButton)
        {
            // Transfer variables

        }
        dispose();
    }

    final public boolean didChange() {
        return fDidChange;
    }

    private class ComboBoxEntry
    {
        private int id;
        private String title;

        public ComboBoxEntry(int id, String title) {
            this.id = id;
            this.title = title;
        }
        public int getId() {
            return id;
        }
        public String getTitle() {
            return title;
        }
        public String toString() {
            return title;
        }
    }

    /*
    * Load entry information into dialog controls
    */
    private class LoadDataThread extends Thread {
        final Vector<ComboBoxEntry> list = new Vector<ComboBoxEntry>();

        public void run() {
            try {
                Connection con = dbMgr.connect();
                Statement stmt = con.createStatement();

                // ***************************************************************
                // First get the transaction entry information
                // ***************************************************************
                String Q = "SELECT CATEGORY_ID,SHOP_ID,DATE,AMOUNT,DESCRIPTION " +
                    "FROM TRANSACTIONS WHERE ID=" + id;
                ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(Q);

                if(rs.next())
                {
                    category_id = rs.getInt(1);
                    shop_id = rs.getInt(2);
                    date = Date.valueOf(rs.getString(3));
                    amount = rs.getDouble(4);
                    Clob clob = rs.getClob(5);
                    if(!rs.wasNull())
                    {
                        description = clob.getSubString(1, (int)clob.length());
                    }
                }

                // ***************************************************************
                // Now set what we can..
                // ***************************************************************
                SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
                    public void run() {
                        lblDateText.setText(date.toString());
                        tfAmount.setText(Double.toString(amount));
                        taDescription.setText(description);
                    }
                });

                // ***************************************************************
                // Load categories
                // ***************************************************************
                rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT ID,TITLE FROM CATEGORIES " +
                    "ORDER BY TITLE");
                while(rs.next())
                {
                    list.add(new ComboBoxEntry(rs.getInt(1), rs.getString(2)));
                }

                // ***************************************************************
                // Transfer list to ComboBox
                // ***************************************************************
                SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
                    public void run() {
                        for(int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++)
                        {
                            ComboBoxEntry c = list.elementAt(i);
                            cbCategory.addItem(c);
                            if(category_id == c.getId())
                            {
                                cbCategory.setSelectedItem(c);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                });

                // ***************************************************************
                // Load shops
                // ***************************************************************
                list.clear();
                rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT ID,TITLE FROM SHOPS " +
                    "ORDER BY TITLE");
                while(rs.next())
                {
                    list.add(new ComboBoxEntry(rs.getInt(1), rs.getString(2)));
                }

                // ***************************************************************
                // Transfer list to ComboBox
                // ***************************************************************
                SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
                    public void run() {
                        for(int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++)
                        {
                            ComboBoxEntry c = list.elementAt(i);
                            cbShop.addItem(c);
                            if(shop_id == c.getId())
                            {
                                cbShop.setSelectedItem(c);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                });

                rs.close();
                stmt.close();
//                con.close();
            }
            catch(Exception e) {
                JdbcException jdbcExc = new JdbcException(e);
                jdbcExc.handle();
            }

        } // run()

    }    // class LoadDataThread

} // class TransactionEditor
-[snip]------------------------------------------