How to represent a Board Panel in Java for a game?

Question

I wanna fix a 2D board for a game. I've already fixed other panels for the Gui and everything goes well. But the panel for the board cant be printed on the window. I'm a bit confused about it as i think i've followed the same ideas as for the others panels i need.

Here's what i've done:

EDIT : what I'm trying to do is fix a board panel for the game according to the dimensions of the it,hold every square in an array in order to use it after wherever it;s needed. I draw each little square of it with the method draw and put it back to the panel. So, each square on the board is a panel. This is the idea. But as u can see. There are troubles/errors on it.

EDIT: code updated. just found a part of the problem. i thought first that i had set background to squared, but i didnt. with this one it appears on the panel a wide black "column". Unfortunately,still none squares. :(

One More EDIT: Also,i realized that draw method is never called. when i put the draw method in the following method i can see the squares but they remain small. I redefine them with setSize but still no change.

How can I use paint method to edit the panels properly???? As it is now it can't. Even it can't return an object(eg panel) as it's polymorphic void!

/**
    *Method used to construct the square in the area of the
    *gui's grid. In this stage a GUISquare array is being constructed, 
    * used in the whole game as
    *a mean of changing a square graphical state.
    *@param squares is the squares array from whom the gui grid will be
    *constructed.
    *@see getSquare about the correspondance beetween a squareModel and
    * a GUISquare.
    */
    private void initBoardPanel(SquareModel[][] squares){

         BoardPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(height ,width )); //set layout

         SquareRenderer[][] Squares;
         JPanel[][] grid;
         Squares=new GUISquare[height][width()];
         grid=new JPanel[height()][width()];

         for (int i=0; i<height(); i++){
                for (int j=0; j<width() ; j++){
                    SquareRenderer kou=new SquareRenderer(i,j);
                kou.setSquare(myGame.getSquares()[i][j]);
                      //NOTE: THE FOLLOWING DRAW METHOD CANT BE CALLED!!!?
                if (myGame.getSquares()[i][j] instanceof SimpleSq  ){
                        kou .paintPanel(i,j,"");}
                else if (myGame.getSquares()[i][j] instanceof ActionSq  )
                {       kou .paintPanel(i,j);
                }
                   //JUST BECAUSE DRAW CANT BE CALLED I PUT ITS CODE HERE: 
                   //JUST TO CHECK:
                JPanel panel = new JPanel();
                panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
                JLabel label1 = new JLabel("Move To "+myGame.getSquares()[i][j].getGoTo());
                JLabel label2 = new JLabel(""+myGame.getSquares()[i][j].getSquare());

                panel.setBackground(Color.ORANGE);
                panel.add(label2, BorderLayout.NORTH);
                panel.add(label1, BorderLayout.CENTER);
                panel.setSize(250,250);

                    /////////  <--until here ---paint method<---

                kou.add(panel);
                kou.setVisible(true);
                kou.setBackground(Color.BLACK);

                Squares[i][j]= kou;

                BoardPanel.add(kou);
                BoardPanel.setVisible(true);
                BoardPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE); 
                }
        }
        this.add(BoardPanel,BorderLayout.WEST);
     //   this.pack(); //sets appropriate size for frame
        this.setVisible(true); //makes frame visible
}

IMPLEMENTED BY SQUARERENDERER:

/**
 * Transformer for Snake/Ladder
 * <br>This method is used to display a square on the screen.
 */
public void paintPanel(int i,int j) {
    JPanel panel = new JPanel();
    panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    JLabel label1 = new JLabel("Move To"+myGame.getSquares()[i][j].getGoTo());
    JLabel label2 = new JLabel(""+myGame.getSquares()[i][j].getSquare());
    JSeparator CellSeparator = new JSeparator(orientation);
    panel.add(CellSeparator);
    panel.setForeground(Color.ORANGE);
    panel.add(label2, BorderLayout.NORTH);
    panel.add(label1, BorderLayout.CENTER);
}

Answer 1

I see a couple things that are problematic:

1. When using a layout manager, you should avoid calling setSize. Most layout managers will simply override it. You should use setPreferredSize, setMinimumSize, and setMaximumSize instead, which provide hints to the layout manager.
2. It doesn't look like the draw method of SquareRenderer ever adds the panel you create to anything. You should either add panel to the SquareRenderer in the last line of draw or (better) add the sub-components directly to the SquareRenderer instead.