Slide JLabel in JFrame: Creating a slick effect

Here is how to slide JLabel in JFrame to create an animated slick effect. The program consists of a simple JLabel with an ImageIcon that slides about x-axis from one side to the center. Here is the program.

import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.*;

import java.awt.event.*;

import javax.swing.event.*;

import java.awt.image.*;

class AnimateJLabel extends JFrame

{

JLabel l;

ImageIcon icon;

Timer t;

int x=0;



 public AnimateJLabel()

 {

  createAndShowGUI();

 }

 

 private void createAndShowGUI()

 {

  // Set frame properties

  setTitle("Animate JLabel");

  setLayout(new GridBagLayout());

  setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

  

  // Create an ImageIcon

  icon=new ImageIcon("D:\\Documents and Settings\\Gutha\\My Documents\\Downloads\\cloud_icon.png");  

  

  // Create a JLabel

  l=new JLabel("Java-Demos.blogspot.com");

  

  // Set the text position bottom center relative

  // to the icon so that the icon appears as a

  // a desktop icon

  l.setVerticalTextPosition(SwingConstants.BOTTOM);

  l.setHorizontalTextPosition(SwingConstants.CENTER);

  

  // Set the icon to the JLabel

  l.setIcon(icon);

  

  // Set some font

  l.setFont(new Font("Myriad Pro",Font.PLAIN,28));

  

  // Initially, the label isn't visible

  l.setVisible(false);

  

  // Add the JLabel

  add(l);

   

  // Create a Timer with that executes

  // each 1ms

  t=new Timer(1,new ActionListener(){

  

   public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)

   {

    // First time, make the JLabel visible

    // You don't need to call this again because

    // the label is visible when this is first

    // executed. Calling it every time the timer fires

    // is redundant

    if(x==0) l.setVisible(true);

    

    // Set the location, only the x-co ordinate gets

    // updated (incremented by 1 each time) and the y remains

    // constant here because getHeight() and l.getHeight() both

    // are constant

    l.setLocation(x++-l.getWidth()/2,getHeight()/2-l.getHeight()/2);

    

    // If x equals half of the width of the JFrame

    // i.e. reaches center, then stop the timer

    if(x==getWidth()/2) t.stop();

   }

  });

  

  // Set some initial delay, optional

  t.setInitialDelay(200);

  

  // Start the timer

  t.start();

  

  // Set size and show the frame

  setSize(500,500);

  setVisible(true);

  setLocationRelativeTo(null);

 }

 

 public static void main(String args[])

 {

  SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){

   public void run()

   {

    new AnimateJLabel();

   }

  });

 }

}

If you like this post, you might also like to see fade effect for JLabel and also animating JFrame with random colors and create a moving JFrame in swing