Women in Technology

Article:		Hacking Swing: Translucent Windows
Subject:		Java 5 Problems
Date:		2005-12-01 11:15:32
From:		jamescook2
It seems that in Java 5 (on Windows) the frame.hide() and frame.show() methods cause a focus lost/gained event to fire creating an infinite loop of flicker.

Showing messages 1 through 1 of 1.

• Java 5 Problems
  2005-12-01 12:07:34  jamescook2 [View]
  
  
  Instead of hiding and showing the frame (which caused the focus lost/gain loop in Java5), moving the location of the window to an "offscreen" position seems to fix most problems. Here is some updated code that gets uses this approach.
  
  In addition, this code causes the background area to blur slightly and fade towards white a bit. It's like the effect that you might see in Window's Vista, just not as nice/native. I also get rid of the unnecessary create of Date objects that are in the original code base. Less objects created the better.
  
  

  
  
  import javax.swing.*;
  
  import java.awt.*;
  
  import java.awt.event.*;
  
  import java.awt.image.*;
  
  
  
  public class TransparentBackground extends JComponent
  
  		implements ComponentListener, WindowFocusListener, Runnable {
  
  
  
  	// constants ---------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  	// instance ----------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  	private JFrame _frame;
  
  	private BufferedImage _background;
  
  	private long _lastUpdate = 0;
  
  	private boolean _refreshRequested = true;
  
  
  
  	private Robot _robot;
  
  	private Rectangle _screenRect;
  
  
  
  	private ConvolveOp _blurOp;
  
  
  
  	// constructor -------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  	public TransparentBackground(JFrame frame) {
  
  		_frame = frame;
  
  
  
  		try {
  
  			_robot = new Robot();
  
  		} catch (AWTException e) {
  
  			e.printStackTrace();
  
  			return;
  
  		}
  
  
  
  		Dimension dim = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
  
  		_screenRect = new Rectangle(dim.width, dim.height);
  
  
  
  		float[] my_kernel = {
  
  				0.10f, 0.10f, 0.10f,
  
  				0.10f, 0.20f, 0.10f,
  
  				0.10f, 0.10f, 0.10f};
  
  		_blurOp = new ConvolveOp(new Kernel(3, 3, my_kernel));
  
  
  
  		updateBackground();
  
  		_frame.addComponentListener(this);
  
  		_frame.addWindowFocusListener(this);
  
  		new Thread(this).start();
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	// protected ---------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  	protected void updateBackground() {
  
  		_background = _robot.createScreenCapture(_screenRect);
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	protected void refresh() {
  
  		if (_frame.isVisible() && this.isVisible()) {
  
  			repaint();
  
  			_refreshRequested = true;
  
  			_lastUpdate = System.currentTimeMillis();
  
  		}
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	// JComponent --------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  	protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
  
  		Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
  
  
  
  		Point pos = this.getLocationOnScreen();
  
  
  
  		BufferedImage buf = new BufferedImage(getWidth(), getHeight(), BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);
  
  		buf.getGraphics().drawImage(_background, -pos.x, -pos.y, null);
  
  
  
  		Image img = _blurOp.filter(buf, null);
  
  		g2.drawImage(img, 0, 0, null);
  
  
  
  		g2.setColor(new Color(255, 255, 255, 192));
  
  		g2.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	// ComponentListener -------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  	public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent e) {
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent e) {
  
  		repaint();
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {
  
  		repaint();
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	public void componentShown(ComponentEvent e) {
  
  		repaint();
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	// WindowFocusListener -----------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  	public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e) {
  
  		refresh();
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e) {
  
  		refresh();
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	// Runnable ----------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  	public void run() {
  
  		try {
  
  			while (true) {
  
  				Thread.sleep(100);
  
  				long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
  
  				if (_refreshRequested && ((now - _lastUpdate) > 1000)) {
  
  					if (_frame.isVisible()) {
  
  						Point location = _frame.getLocation();
  
  						_frame.setLocation(-_frame.getWidth(), -_frame.getHeight());
  
  						updateBackground();
  
  						_frame.setLocation(location);
  
  						refresh();
  
  					}
  
  					_lastUpdate = now;
  
  					_refreshRequested = false;
  
  				}
  
  			}
  
  		} catch (InterruptedException e) {
  
  			e.printStackTrace();
  
  		}
  
  	}
  
  
  
  	public static void main(String[] args) {
  
  		JFrame frame = new JFrame("Transparent Window");
  
  		TransparentBackground bg = new TransparentBackground(frame);
  
  
  
  		frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
  
  
  
  		frame.getContentPane().add(bg);
  
  		frame.pack();
  
  		frame.setSize(200, 200);
  
  		frame.setLocation(500, 500);
  
  		frame.setVisible(true);
  
  	}
  
  }