How do I make a JTextArea invisible to the mouse?

Question

Consider the applet below. There is a small JTextArea sitting in the glass pane. There are 3 JButtons sitting in a JPanel that is sitting in the content pane. One is completely under the JTextArea, one is half in and half out, & the last is completely outside it (at least I hope thats what it looks like on your machine.) The idea is when you click the disable button the JTextArea is disabled and you can click on the button that's underneath it.
But it doesn't work that way. even when the JTextArea is disabled the mouse still cant click through it.
Is there some way to make the JTextArea completely invisible to the mouse so I can click through it? I know setVisible(false) on the glass panel will work but I only want it to be invisible to the mouse, not my eyes.
Thanks.
/*  <applet code="MyTest14" width="400" height="100"></applet>  */
// testing glass panes
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class MyTest14 extends JApplet implements MouseListener
TextPanel textPanel;
JPanel buttonPanel;
JButton underButton, enableButton, disableButton;
JTextArea jta;
public void init()
  Container contentPane = getContentPane();
  contentPane.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
  contentPane.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
  underButton = new JButton("Under textarea");
  underButton.addMouseListener(this);
  enableButton = new JButton("Enable textarea");
  enableButton.addMouseListener(this);
  disableButton  = new JButton("Disable textarea");
  disableButton.addMouseListener(this);
  buttonPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
  buttonPanel.add(underButton, "West");
  buttonPanel.add(enableButton, "Center");
  buttonPanel.add(disableButton, "East");
  jta = new JTextArea();
  jta.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200,80));
  jta.setOpaque(false);
  jta.setLineWrap(true);
  jta.setWrapStyleWord(true);
  textPanel = new TextPanel();
  textPanel.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT));
  textPanel.add(jta);
  jta.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
  contentPane.add(buttonPanel);
  setGlassPane(textPanel);
  textPanel.setVisible(true);
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e)
  if (e.getSource() == enableButton) { jta.setEnabled(true); }
  else if (e.getSource() == disableButton) { jta.setEnabled(false); }
  else if (e.getSource() == underButton) { System.out.println("You reached the under button!"); }
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {}
public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {}
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {}
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {}
class TextPanel extends JPanel
  public TextPanel()
   super();
   setOpaque(false);
  public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { super.paintComponent(g); }
}

Answer 1

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Test extends JFrame {
  Container content = getContentPane();
  JButton jb = new JButton("Press"), disenable = new JButton("Enable");
  JTextArea jta = new JTextArea("Now is the time for all google men to come to the aid of their browser");
  public Test() {
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    JPanel jp = new JPanel();
    content.add(jp, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    jp.add(jb);
    jb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) { System.out.println("Click!"); }
    jta.setLineWrap(true);
    jta.setWrapStyleWord(true);
    jta.setOpaque(false);
    jta.setEnabled(false);
    JScrollPane jsp = new JScrollPane(jta);
    jsp.setOpaque(false);
    jsp.getViewport().setOpaque(false);
    jsp.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(130,130));
    JPanel glass = (JPanel)getGlassPane();
    glass.add(jsp);
    glass.setVisible(true);
    jta.addMouseListener(new MouseListener() {
      public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent me) { mousy(me); }
      public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent me) { mousy(me); }
      public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent me) { mousy(me); }
      public void mouseExited(MouseEvent me) { mousy(me); }
      public void mousePressed(MouseEvent me) { mousy(me); }
    content.add(disenable, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    disenable.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
        jta.setEnabled(!jta.isEnabled());
        disenable.setText(jta.isEnabled()?"Disable":"Enable");
    setSize(200,200);
    setVisible(true);
  void mousy(MouseEvent me) {
    if (jta.isEnabled()) return;
    Point p = SwingUtilities.convertPoint((Component)me.getSource(), me.getPoint(), content);
    Component c = content.findComponentAt(p);
    if (p!=null) c.dispatchEvent(SwingUtilities.convertMouseEvent((Component)me.getSource(), me, c));
  public static void main(String[] args) { new Test(); }
}