Swing transparent background not being repainted - java

I have a problem using transparent backgrounds in Swing.
There are a lot of artefacts produced as swing is not repainting changed regions.
As far as I can tell there are 2 out-of-the-box ways to use transparent backgrounds:
an opaque component with transparent color set as background (left txt field)
Problem: the transparent part of the background is never refreshed -> Artefacts.
an non-opaque component with transparent color set as background (right txt field)
Problem: background is not being drawn at all.
What I do not want to do:
to use timers to auto repaint the frame (super awful)
to override paintComponent method (which actually works, but is really really awful)
I am running on Win7 x64
Aaaand here is my SSCCEEE:
Update 1: init with invokeLater (still won't work)
public class OpacityBug {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new OpacityBug();
}
});
}
static final Color transparentBlue = new Color(0f, 1f, 0f, 0.5f);
JFrame frame;
JPanel content;
JTextField txt1;
JTextField txt2;
public OpacityBug() {
initFrame();
initContent();
}
void initFrame() {
frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(300, 80);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
void initContent() {
content = new JPanel();
content.setDoubleBuffered(true);
content.setBackground(Color.red);
frame.getContentPane().add(content);
txt1 = new JTextField() {
#Override
public void setBorder(Border border) {
super.setBorder(null); //nope border
}
};
txt1.setText("Hi! I am Buggy!");
txt1.setOpaque(true);
txt1.setBackground(transparentBlue);
content.add(txt1);
txt2 = new JTextField() {
#Override
public void setBorder(Border border) {
super.setBorder(null); //nope border
}
};
txt2.setText("And I have no BG!");
txt2.setOpaque(false);
txt2.setBackground(transparentBlue);
content.add(txt2);
content.revalidate();
content.repaint();
}
}
Update 2
As some of you noticed, it seems Swing that swing is unable to paint transparent backgrounds.
But it is not (yet) clear to me why, I searched for the piece of code responsible for drawing the background of the component and have found the following code in ComponentUI.java :
public void update(Graphics g, JComponent c) {
if (c.isOpaque()) {
g.setColor(c.getBackground());
g.fillRect(0, 0, c.getWidth(),c.getHeight());
}
paint(g, c);
}
As you can see, it assumes that if a component is not opaque the background doesn't need to be repainted. I say that this is a very vague assumption.
I would propose following implementation:
public void update(Graphics g, JComponent c) {
if(c.isOpaque() || (!c.isOpaque() && c.isBackgroundSet())) {
g.setColor(c.getBackground());
g.fillRect(0, 0, c.getWidth(), c.getHeight());
}
paint(g, c);
}
I simply check if the background was set at all when the component is not opaque.
This simple addition would allow us to use transparent backgrounds in swing.
At least I do not know any reasons why it should not be done that way.

By using a transparent background you are breaking Swings painting rules. Basically when the component is opaque you promise to paint the background of the component. But because the background is transparent there is nothing to paint.
Check out Backgrounds With Transparency for more information and a couple of simple solutions.

You should respect Swing's threading policy and have the GUI initialized on the GUI thread:
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> new OpacityBug());
I can't tell whether this is all it will take to correct the behavior on your side, but it has done just that on mine (OS X).

I cannot stress this enough, I see a ton of people not doing this while it is vital to ensure correct behavior from Swing; ALL GUI instances must run on the EDT(Event Dispatch Thread)
Please read the below article and adjust your code and report back with the effects.
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/concurrency/dispatch.html

You should use setOpaque(false) on the component that has a problem, and do the same with all the parents !
For example, if you have a JList 'jList' inside a JScrollPane 'scrollPane', the whole thing being inside a JPanel 'jPanel', you should use :
jList.setOpaque(false);
scrollPane.setOpaque(false);
scrollPane.getViewport().setOpaque(false);
jPanel.setOpaque(false);
And yes, if you have a JScrollPane, you should set its viewport's opacity to false as well.
This will prevent painting problems on your components with transparent backgrounds.

Related

How to repaint in Swing without clearing the window? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Repaint without clearing
(2 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
I am implementing a simple Canvas where items can be drawn like a person would in real life with a paper and a pencil, without clearing the entire page every time an object is drawn.
What I have so far...
A Canvas to implement the drawing:
public class Canvas extends JPanel {
private final Random random = new Random();
public Canvas() {
setOpaque(false); // I thought setting this flag makes the drawn pixels be preserved...
}
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(640, 480);
}
#Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
g.drawOval(random.nextInt(getWidth()), random.nextInt(getHeight()), 5, 5);
}
}
The Window as an actual window:
public class Window extends JFrame {
public Window(Canvas canvas) {
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
add(canvas);
pack();
setVisible(true);
}
}
And the Controller with an entry-point to the application. Also starts a timer so the repaint on Canvas is called every second to force drawing another circle.
public class Controller {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Canvas canvas = new Canvas();
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> new Window(canvas));
new Timer(1000, e -> canvas.repaint()).start();
}
}
The problem is that whenever a new circle is drawn, the previous one is cleared. Seems like there is still some process filling the JPanel or maybe the entire JFrame with white color.
Painting in Swing is destructive. It is an expected requirement that each time a component is painted, it is painted from scratch, again.
You need to define a model which maintains the information needed in order to restore the state from scratch.
Your paint routines would then iterate this model and draw the elements each time.
This has the benefit of allowing you to modify the model, removing or inserting elements, which would allow you to update what is been painted simply.
Alternatively, you could use a "buffer" (ie a BufferedImage) on to which all you painting is done, you would then simply paint the image to the component each time the component is painted.
This, however, means that you can't undo or layer the paintings, it's drawn directly to the image. It also makes resizing the drawing image area more difficult, as you need to make these updates manually, where as the "model" based implementation is far more adaptable
Consider calling the alternate constructor of repaint(...)
repaint(long tm, int x, int y, int width, int height)
This allows you to set a specified area to be repainted.
Also you can just store what you drew in a list and then reprint the drawing to the canvas after repaint is called.

How can I remove all lines while Drawing in jPanel in java?

I'm trying to make a Paint program using java , I have three events in the jPanel to draw my line.
my problem is that when I am drawing the new line , the first one removed (I think the problem in the dragged event!) .. and so on.
Note that while the mouse is dragged the line will be stucked to the mouse
here is my events code:
private void jPanel1MousePressed(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
g1=(Graphics2D) jPanel1.getGraphics();
p1=jPanel1.getMousePosition();
}
JLayer lpane;
private void jPanel1MouseDragged(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
if(p1!=null){
lpane = new JLayer();
jPanel1.add(lpane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
lpane.setBounds(0, 0, 328, 257);
g2=(Graphics2D) lpane.getGraphics();
l=new Line(p1.x,p1.y,jPanel1.getMousePosition().x,jPanel1.getMousePosition().y);
l.draw(g2);
//lpane.repaint();
lpane.setVisible(false);
lpane.removeAll();
lpane.disable(); jPanel1.remove(lpane);
}
}
private void jPanel1MouseReleased(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
if(p1!=null)
{
g1=(Graphics2D) jPanel1.getGraphics();
p2=jPanel1.getMousePosition();
l=new Line(p1.x,p1.y,p2.x,p2.y);
g1.setColor(Color.red);
l.draw(g1);
p1=null;
}
}
Graphics2D g1,g2; Point p1=null,p2=null; Line l;
getGraphics is not how painting should be done in Swing, instead override the panels paintComponent and paint your components state there.
The paintComponent method needs to know what to paint whenever it is called, as it may be called any number of times, many times without your interaction or knowledge.
One approach is to build a List of shapes or Points, which can then be looped through and painted each time paintComponent is called. The benefit of this is you can remove these shapes/points should you wish.
See Pinting in AWT and Swing and Performing Custom Painting for more detals
Also take a look at this example for an idea
The usual way of doing this is to create a (Buffered)Image the size of your Component, fill the background color, and then draw each new line on the Image as well. In your paintComponent method, all you call is g.drawImage(...);
In your panel:
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
if (mSizeChanged) {
handleResize();
}
g.drawImage(mImg, 0, 0, null);
}
In your MouseMotionListener:
public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent me) {
Graphics g = mImg.getGraphics();
Point p = me.getPoint();
g.drawLine(mLastPoint.x, mLastPoint.y, p.x, p.y); }

Simple animations in Java

I'm attempting to code a simple animation or physics example in a Java Swing application. I have the actual windows application open and working, but I can't figure out how to actually draw my shapes, and how I'd format the code for calculations between frames, that sort of stuff.
I've read some stuff about over riding a paint method, but I don't know what that means, and I don't believe I'm using it in the code I'm using right now. This is my code:
public class Physics extends JFrame{
public Physics() {
initUI();
}
private void initUI() {
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
getContentPane().add(panel);
panel.setLayout(null);
final JLabel label = new JLabel("Hi, press the button to do something");
label.setBounds(20, 0, 2000, 60);
final JButton submitButton = new JButton("Start");
submitButton.setBounds(20, 150, 80, 20);
submitButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
//Put button code here later
}
});
panel.add(label);
panel.add(submitButton);
setTitle("Program");
setSize(300, 250);
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
Physics ex = new Physics();
ex.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}
So I have some blank space above my button where I'd like to draw maybe a square or circle moving across the screen to start off with, once I get that down I can start getting into the more advanced stuff. Any hints on how to do that would be appriciated :D
Thanks!
"I've read some stuff about over riding a paint method, but I don't know what that means"
So you've overridden actionPerformed, so you know what an #Override is. As you'll notice from the ActionListener, you never actually explicitly call actionPerformed, but whatever you put in the there, still get's used. That's because the ActionListener implicitly call it for you.
The same is true with painting. In the Swing painting process, there is a paint chain that Swing uses to paint components. Along the way paint is called somewhere. So just like actionPerformed, you can override paint and it will get implicitly called for you.
#Override
public void paint(Graphics g) {
super.paint(g);
}
The Graphics object passed to the method is the graphics context that Swing will use for the painting. You can look at the Graphics API to see the methods you can use. You can use drawOval to draw a circle
#Override
public void paint(Graphics g) {
super.paint(g);
g.drawOval(x, y, width, height);
}
Now here's the thing. You don't actually want to override paint. In the tutorials linked above, some of the examples will use applets and override paint, but you shouldn'y paint on top level containers like JFrame or JApplet. Instead paint on a JPanel or JComponent and just add it the JFrame. When you do paint on JPanel or JComponent, you'll instead override paintComponent (which also gets called along the paint chain), instead of paint
#Override
protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
g.drawOval(x, y, width, height);
}
You see how I used variables for the drawOval method. The x is the x location from the top-let of the screen, and y and the y point. width and height are width and height of the circle. The great thing about using variables is that their values can be changed at runtime.
That's where the animation comes to play. As pointed out, you an use a javax.swing.Timer
The basic construct is
public Timer(int delay, ActionListener listener) {
}
The delay is the milliseconds to delay each call to the listener. The listener will have your actionPerformed call back that will do what's inside, every delay milliseconds. So what you can do, is just change the x from the drawOval and repaint(), and it will animate. Something like
Timer timer = new Timer(40, new ActionListener(){
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
x += 5;
repaint();
}
});
timer.start();
The timer code you can just put in the constructor. That's probably simplest explanation I can give. Hope it helps.
Don't forget the to see Custom Painting and Grapics2D for more advance topics on graphics. Also see some example of timers and animation here and here and here and here and here
Also avoid using null layouts. See Laying out Components Within a Container to learn how to use layout managers, as should be done with Swing apps.
Take a look at the Swing tutorial on Custom Painting.
The example shows you how to do painting. If you want animation, then you would use a Swing Timer to schedule the animation. The tutorial also has a section on How to use a Swing Timer.
Put the two tutorial together and you have a solution.
There are any number of ways to achieve this.
Start by taking a look at:
Performing Custom Painting
2D Graphics
For details about how painting in Swing is done.
Animation is not as simple as just pausing a small period of time and then repainting, theres acceleration and deceleration and other concepts that need to be considered.
While you could write your own, that's not a small task, a better solution might be to use a pre-existing engine, for example...
Then take a look at:
Timing Framework
Trident
java-universal-tween-engine
Which are all examples of animation engines in Swing. While I prefer the Timing Framework as it provides me with a lower level API, this is a personal opinion. Both Trident and the JUWE seem to be geared more towards component/property based animation (which the Timing Framework can do if you want to build some of the feature sets up)
I created a simple animation with two rockets blasting off. The full eclipse project is here: https://github.com/CoachEd/JavaExamples/tree/master/RaceToSpace. Here's a screenshot:

Creating a JToolTip-like Component

I'm writing a custom component that displays some bioinformatics data, and I'd like to be able to show additional information about the location the mouse is at when the user holds down a certain key. This seems like an obvious job for a tooltip, but there are a few problems that seem to be preventing this from working. First, I want to have the tooltip follow the mouse and change its text dynamically. This works somewhat by overriding getToolTipText and getToolTipLocation for the component, but the tooltip flickers as the mouse position is updated and doesn't display over the sub-components (it's a JPanel with some JTextPanes inside it). I also don't think there's any way to make it display immediately without a call to the ToolTipManager, which I believe would change the delay for all other components.
It looks like there are workarounds for some of these problems, but they're rather complicated and inelegant so I'm thinking a good solution would be to just create my own component, fill it with the relevant information and show it myself. However, this needs to be some kind of top-level component because it needs to be able to extend slightly beyond the borders of the parent component or even the containing JFrame and be drawn over everything else. The only objects I know of that have this functionality outside of JToolTip are JFrame and JDialog, which have borders with titles and close buttons which I don't want. Is there some way to accomplish this?
One option is to use a glass pane. In this case your tooltip won't be able to go outside of the frame, but you can easily position it relative to how near it is to a side of the frame. Some example code that draws a bubble (which you can fill with text in the paint method) that follows the mouse.
public static void main(String[] args)
{
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(new Dimension(500, 500));
JPanel glassPane = new JPanel();
glassPane.setOpaque(false);
glassPane.setLayout(null);
frame.setGlassPane(glassPane);
frame.getGlassPane().setVisible(true);
final MyInfoBubble mib = new MyInfoBubble();
mib.setBounds(10, 30, 100, 50);
((JPanel)frame.getGlassPane()).add(mib);
frame.getContentPane().addMouseMotionListener(new MouseMotionAdapter() {
public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent me) {
mib.setBounds(me.getPoint().x, me.getPoint().y, 100, 50);
}
});
((JPanel)frame.getGlassPane()).validate();
((JPanel)frame.getGlassPane()).repaint();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
static class MyInfoBubble extends JPanel
{
public MyInfoBubble()
{
setVisible(true);
}
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
{
Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D)g;
g2d.setColor(Color.BLUE);
g2d.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
g2d.fillRoundRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight(), 20, 20);
}
}

JFrame - Draw graphics over a transparent background?

I am trying to make an undecorated transparent JFrame, and then paint some graphics over it. If I extend JFrame, set undecorated to true, and override paint with, I can make a transparent JFrame. Like this:
public class MainFrame extends JFrame {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
MainFrame frame = new MainFrame();
frame.setVisible(true);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
}
public MainFrame() {
setTitle("ASDF");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setUndecorated(true);
setBounds(0, 0, 200, 200);
}
public void paint(Graphics g){
g.setFont(new Font(Font.MONOSPACED, Font.PLAIN, 20));
g.drawString("ASDF", 100, 100);
}
}
The problem is that when I try drawing something on it, I can't clear what is drawn for another repaint. Like in this example, the text retains the background that was there when it was drawn. So if I move a a window behind the frame, it looks weird, because the frame itself has the old background. I tried AlphaComposite.Clear, but that only made a black background. What can I do?
If I extend JFrame, set undecorated to true, and override paint with, I can make a transparent JFrame.
I don't think so. You just paint without caring about the background, which is quickly lost. If you want to know how to make transparent windows in java use Stackoverflow: search for [java] transparent window. This should help you creating such a window, but this is quite a complicated task: Transparent Window

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