Implementing CardLayout within a JFrame and switch

I've posted my code below. I have the simple task of creating a navigable GUI. I've spent the past few hours doing research on how to accomplish this, and this is the code that I've put together.

Originally I wanted to perform the navigation without any layouts or anything. I need the home panel to display after the user clicks on the "login" button on the welcome panel.

It displays the welcome card just fine, but when I get to the validateLogin method(which is activated when the login button is press, and upon successful login it should show the home panel within cards) it simply stays on the welcome panel even though I have validated that my program reaches the loop to change cards via the system.out.Println()

Please help. I spent my entire Saturday trying to solve this one problem through trials and research, but with no success. This is a last resort for me so if anyone can show me my flaws then I'll happily be on my way and fix it. Then apply that fix to the many other cards that are required for my program.

    enter code here
    public class mainGUI implements ActionListener{
JFrame main;
JPanel cards = new JPanel(new CardLayout());
CardLayout cl = (CardLayout)(cards.getLayout());

//Items for the welcome panel
JPanel welcome = welcomePanel();
JButton login;
JButton register;
JTextField username;
JTextField password;

//home panel
JPanel home = homePanel();


//WelcomePanel welcome = new WelcomePanel();

ArrayList<Student> students = new ArrayList<Student>();
Student workingStudent;


/**
 * calls load() at start and save() on exit
 * 
 */
public mainGUI(){
    load();

    main = new JFrame();
    main.setSize(900, 600);
    main.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    main.setTitle("MyCourses 2k16");
    main.setContentPane(welcomePanel());

    //fill out the cards
    cards.add(welcome, "Welcome");
    cards.add(home, "Home");
            //display welcome card
    cl.show(cards, "welcome");

    main.setVisible(true);

    saveState();
}

private JPanel welcomePanel() {
    JPanel welcome = new JPanel();
    welcome.setLayout(null);
    welcome.setBackground(Color.DARK_GRAY);

    JLabel hi = new JLabel("Welcome to MyCourses 2K16");
    hi.setSize(800, 100);
    hi.setLocation(50,50);
    hi.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 48));
    hi.setForeground(Color.WHITE);

    JLabel select = new JLabel("Fill in the information, then click login or register to proceed, no special characters allowed");
    select.setSize(700,100);
    select.setLocation(75,100);
    select.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 18));
    select.setForeground(Color.WHITE);

    login = new JButton( "login");
    login.setSize(100, 50);
    login.setLocation(50, 200);
    login.addActionListener(this);

    register = new JButton( "register");
    register.setSize(100,50);
    register.setLocation(200, 200);
    register.addActionListener(this);

    JLabel un = new JLabel("username");
    un.setSize(100, 30);
    un.setLocation(50, 270);
    un.setForeground(Color.WHITE);

    username = new JTextField();
    username.setSize(200, 30);
    username.setLocation(50,300);

    JLabel pw = new JLabel("password");
    pw.setSize(100, 30);
    pw.setLocation(50, 350);
    pw.setForeground(Color.WHITE);

    password = new JTextField();
    password.setSize(200, 30);
    password.setLocation(50,380);

    welcome.add(hi);
    welcome.add(select);
    welcome.add(login);
    welcome.add(register);
    welcome.add(un);
    welcome.add(username);
    welcome.add(pw);
    welcome.add(password);

    return welcome;
}

private JPanel homePanel() {
    JPanel home = new JPanel();
    home.setLayout(null);
    home.setBackground(Color.DARK_GRAY);

    JLabel hi = new JLabel("HOME");
    hi.setSize(800, 100);
    hi.setLocation(50,50);
    hi.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 48));
    hi.setForeground(Color.WHITE);

    return home;

}

public void load(){

}

private void saveState(){
    Iterator<Student> it = students.iterator();
    while(it.hasNext()){
        it.next().saveStudent();
    }
}



public static void main(String[] args) {

    new mainGUI();

}


@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
    if (e.getSource()==login){
        System.out.println("Logging in...");
        validateLogin(students);
    }
    else if (e.getSource()==register){

    }
}

private void validateLogin(ArrayList<Student> students){
    boolean valid = false;

    for(int i = 0; i < students.size(); i++){

        if(username.getText().equals(students.get(i).getUsername())
                && password.getText().equals(students.get(i).getPassword()))
        {   
            valid = true;
            workingStudent=(students.get(i));
            System.out.println("Successful Login!");
            cl.show(cards, "home");
        }
    }
    if(valid == false){
        System.out.println("Invalid Login, try again");
    }

}

}

You create a JPanel that uses CardLayout, cards, but you add it to nothing, so it will of course not display itself, nor its cards. Solution: add this JPanel to your GUI.

So instead of:

main.setContentPane(welcomePanel());

do:

main.setContentPane(cards);

Issue number 2:

Use String constants when using Strings as a type of key. Note that you add one JPanel to the cards JPanel thusly:

cards.add(home, "Home");

But then try to display it like so:

cl.show(cards, "home");

But Home isn't the same as home.

Instead declare a constant, HOME:

public static final String HOME = "home";

and use the same constant to add the JPanel and to display it.

For a simplistic example:

import java.awt.CardLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;

import javax.swing.*;

public class MainGui2 extends JPanel {
    private CardLayout cardLayout = new CardLayout();
    private WelcomePanel welcomePanel = new WelcomePanel(this);
    private HomePanel homePanel = new HomePanel();

    public MainGui2() {
        setLayout(cardLayout);
        add(welcomePanel, WelcomePanel.NAME);
        add(homePanel, HomePanel.NAME);
    }

    public void showCard(String name) {
        cardLayout.show(this, name);
    }

    private static void createAndShowGui() {
        MainGui2 mainPanel = new MainGui2();

        JFrame frame = new JFrame("MainGui2");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGui();
            }
        });
    }

}

class WelcomePanel extends JPanel {
    public static final String NAME = "welcome panel";
    private MainGui2 mainGui2;

    public WelcomePanel(final MainGui2 mainGui2) {
        this.mainGui2 = mainGui2;
        add(new JLabel(NAME));
        add(new JButton(new AbstractAction("Logon") {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                mainGui2.showCard(HomePanel.NAME);
            }
        }));
    }
}

class HomePanel extends JPanel {
    public static final String NAME = "home panel";

    public HomePanel() {
        add(new JLabel(NAME));
    }
}