GUI Only Works Sometimes

I'm relatively new to programming, and I'm trying to make a gui with buttons that change panel visibility when clicked. I haven't really done anything yet, but I set one button so far (buttontoNA) to change panel visibility when clicked (make panelmain, the one the button is in, invisible and panelNA visible. The button works, except for some reason, most of the time the frame is empty when i run the gui. When the panels, etc do appear, the button that is set to change visibility does work, but the problem is that the panels don't appear most of the time when i run the code. This is completely random. What is wrong?

Code Java:

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//first class
import javax.*;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
 
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
 
public class guitest{
 
	public static void main (String[] args){
 
 
		countryinfoframe myframe = new countryinfoframe();		
}
 
public static void actionPerformed (){
 
}
 
//2nd class
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
 
import javax.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
//import javax.swing.*;
//import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
//import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
//import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
//import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
//import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
 
public class countryinfoframe implements MouseListener{
 
	JPanel panelNA;
	JPanel panelmain;
 
	public countryinfoframe(){
	JFrame framemain = new JFrame("Country Information");
		framemain.setVisible(true);
		framemain.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		framemain.setSize(500,500);
 
		panelmain = new JPanel();
			framemain.add(panelmain);
			panelmain.setVisible(true);
 
			JButton buttontoNA = new JButton("North America");
				panelmain.add(buttontoNA);
			JButton buttontoSA = new JButton("South America");
				panelmain.add(buttontoSA);
			JButton buttontoE = new JButton("Europe");
				panelmain.add(buttontoE);
			JButton buttontoA = new JButton("Asia");
				panelmain.add(buttontoA);
			JButton buttontoAF = new JButton("Africa");
				panelmain.add(buttontoAF);
			JButton buttontoAU = new JButton("Australia");
				panelmain.add(buttontoAU);
 
				buttontoNA.addMouseListener(this);
 
			panelNA = new JPanel();
			framemain.add(panelNA);
			panelNA.setVisible(false);
 
			JLabel labelNA = new JLabel("North America");
				panelNA.add(labelNA);
			JButton buttontoNAC1 = new JButton("NAC1");
				panelNA.add(buttontoNAC1);
			JButton buttontoNAC2 = new JButton("NAC2");
				panelNA.add(buttontoNAC2);
			JButton buttontoNAC3 = new JButton("NAC3");
				panelNA.add(buttontoNAC3);
			JButton buttonfromNAtomain = new JButton("Back");
				panelNA.add(buttonfromNAtomain);
 
 
	}//end constructor
 
	@Override
	public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
		panelmain.setVisible(false);
		panelNA.setVisible(true);
		//System.out.println(e);
	}
 
	@Override
	public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
 
	}
 
	@Override
	public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
 
	}
 
	@Override
	public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
 
	}
 
	@Override
	public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
 
	}
 
 
 
}	
 
 
 
 
}

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BTW I do realize that there is a lot that is unnecessary.

Couple of comments.
build the GUI first and then display it. Add full panels to the frame vs empty ones.
What layout manager are you using?
What location do you want the panels to appear on the frame?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Norm

Couple of comments.
build the GUI first and then display it. Add full panels to the frame vs empty ones.
What layout manager are you using?
What location do you want the panels to appear on the frame?

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I am using Eclipse, want the panels topleft except I only want one visible at a time (which is what im trying to do with the buttons), and I dont know what you mean by empty vs full panels.

Quote:

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empty vs full panels

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Panel pnl = new panel(); // create a panel. It is now empty
pnl.add(someComp1);
pnl.add(someComp2);
...
frame. add(pnl); // add the panel after it has been filled with some components

What layout manager are you using? Where do you expect the components to be positioned when they are added to the frame? The default positions can be the new one on top of the previous.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Norm

Panel pnl = new panel(); // create a panel. It is now empty
pnl.add(someComp1);
pnl.add(someComp2);
...
frame. add(pnl); // add the panel after it has been filled with some components

What layout manager are you using? Where do you expect the components to be positioned when they are added to the frame? The default positions can be the new one on top of the previous.

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The only program I am using is Eclipse, should I be using something else too? Also, I thought that I put buttons in both of the panels.

Eclipse is an IDE. A tool to help write code.
What I'm talking about is what goes in the code, not the tools used to create it.
If you don't know what a layout manager, you should read up on them.
Go to this site and Search for layout for much info:
The Really Big Index

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Norm

Eclipse is an IDE. A tool to help write code.
What I'm talking about is what goes in the code, not the tools used to create it.
If you don't know what a layout manager, you should read up on them.
Go to this site and Search for layout for much info:
The Really Big Index

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I was going to use gridbag layout but I hadnt gotten that far yet. I was just wondering why sometimes the panels show in the frame and sometimes they dont.

Where are the components being displayed when you add them to the frame?
Can they overlap/hide one another? Do something to each panel so you can see if it is the one being shown.

Set the back ground color for all the panels and the frame and content pane to different colors to see which one is showing when.