How to keep a Stage always on top...

Question

Hi,
Anyone know how to tell one or more stages to always be in front ( z- order ) of another stage.
I'm not talking about modality, I need the stage in the back to be responsive.
Cheers,
Nuwanda

Answer 1

I know that using focused property really looks so mess for each and every Stage. But we have no option than that.
The code which I've given you works for controlling many stages not only two.
For eg.
Make a CustomClass which arranges the stages on Z-ORDER.
public class StageOrder implements ListChangeListener<Stage>{
    ObservableList<Stage> stages = FXCollections.observableArrayList();
    private boolean FIRST_TOP = true;
    public void setFirstTop(boolean b){
        FIRST_TOP = b;
    public StageOrder(){
        stages.addListener(this);
    public ObservableList<Stage> getStages() {
        return stages;
    public void refresh(){
        if(FIRST_TOP){
            for(int i = 0; i<stages.size(); i++){
                stages.get(i).toBack();
        }else{
            for(int i = 0; i<stages.size(); i++){
                stages.get(i).toFront();
    public void onChanged(Change<? extends Stage> c) {
        refresh();
    public void add(final Stage s){
        stages.add(s);
        s.focusedProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<Boolean>(){
            public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends Boolean> observable, Boolean oldValue, Boolean newValue) {
               refresh();
}Now to make things worked as Z-order :
final StageOrder stack = new StageOrder();
        stack.setFirstTop(false);
        //FIRST
        Group g = new Group();      
        Scene scene = new Scene(g);
        primaryStage.setTitle("1");            
        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.setVisible(true);
        //SECOND
        Group childGrp = new Group();
        Scene childScn = new Scene(childGrp);
        Stage child = new Stage();       
        child.setTitle("2");      
        child.setScene(childScn);
        child.setVisible(true);
        //THIRD
        Group childGrp2 = new Group();
        Scene childScn2 = new Scene(childGrp2);
        Stage child2 = new Stage();               
        child2.setTitle("3");      
        child2.setScene(childScn2);
        child2.setVisible(true);
        //ADDING ALL STAGES
        stack.add(primaryStage);
        stack.add(child);
        stack.add(child2); The above code is applicable only when the focused is happened inside scene. The ordering get's distracted by TitleBar Mouse Clicked. So I would like you to make your own custome titlebar for making things worked properly.
Thanks.
Narayan