Adding custom GUI components to a panel

Question

<sorry about the 'Hello All' subject in the previous post>
I am creating a Backgammon game for my JAVA programming class. I would like to design a board and have certain checker pieces that can be dragged around on the board. In the course I am taking, I still have not been able to understand how a GUI interface has GUI components that is "custom built" like my checker class. My checker class below draws a picture of a checker on a JPanel. I want it to exist inside a JPanel(that has a board painted in it) with 30 checkers that can be moved around. Any feedback would be appreciated including helpful packages, classes, trails, etc.
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import java.awt.BasicStroke;
// Checker.java - This will draw the checkers used in the game
public class Checker extends JPanel
private Color checker_color; // color of checker
private int abs_pos;
private int player; // player 1 or player 2
Checker(Color check_color, int pos, int plyr)
     checker_color = check_color;
     abs_pos = pos;
     player = plyr;
public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
     super.paintComponent(g);
     Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g; // cast g to Graphics2D
     this.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
     // make a circle
     g2d.setColor(checker_color);
     g2d.setStroke(new BasicStroke(1.0f));
     g2d.fillOval(47,47, 35, 35);
     g2d.setColor(Color.BLACK);
     g2d.setStroke(new BasicStroke(2.0f));
     g2d.drawOval(47, 47, 35, 35);
public int getPlayer(){
     return player;
public Color getCheckerColor(){
     return checker_color;
public int getPosition(){
     return abs_pos;
public void setPosition(int pos){
     abs_pos = pos;
}

Answer 1

Um... pretty much the way you are doing it in the code you already posted. What is the problem? Not that there's not problems....
1) setBackground called in paintComponent doesn't do much. Just set the background outside paint and super.paintComponent() will fill the BG color if the component isn't opaque.
2) a checker, I would expect, would be opaque, actually.
3) the oval size you draw would probably be better off being based on the size of the component (getSize()) instead, that way it scales easily.
But other then that, you are doing it right. You probably need to set the size and location of each checker object explicitly, since most likely it's being used in a container with a null layout.