JScrollPane is no longer opaque! Please help.

Question

I have recently upgraded from Java 1.2.1 to 1.3.1 and switched operating systems from win 98 to win 2000.
Since doing so I have run an application I have been working on only to find it has slightly changed visually, I don't know what has caused it!
Basically, I have a JTextArea held within a JScrollPane. The textarea is supposed to be opaque when the application loads, which is still fine, but now even though the textarea is transparent, you can't see the background. Instead all you can see is a large gray block within the limits of the scrollpane. I have tried switching the scrollpane to opaque, but unfortunately this does nothing - the gray stuff is still there.
I have included the problem code below, please note the code worked fine before, and the only issue here is that I arent getting the true transparency from these components that I desire:
notes = new JTextArea("Hi");
scrollPanel = new JScrollPane(notes);
     scrollPanel.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
     notes.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(250, 150));
             notes.setEditable(false);
             notes.setLineWrap(true);
             notes.setWrapStyleWord(true);
             notes.setFont(fontSmall);
             notes.setOpaque(false);
     notes.addFocusListener(this);
          gbConstraints1.gridx = 0;
          gbConstraints1.gridy = 1;
          gbConstraints1.gridwidth = 2;
          gbConstraints1.gridheight = 1;
          gbConstraints1.ipadx = 1;
          gbConstraints1.ipady = 1;
          gbConstraints1.insets = new Insets(2,2,60,2);
          gbConstraints1.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
     gbLayout.setConstraints(scrollPanel, gbConstraints1);
infoHidPane.add(scrollPanel);The line of code 'notes.setOpaque(false);' used to do all the work correctly but this is no longer the case. HELP.
Thank you for your time. Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi!
I have the same problem. Here is something from the jdk 1.3.1 docs:
A common operation to want to do is to set the background color that will be used if the main viewport view is smaller than the viewport, or is not opaque. This can be accomplished by setting the background color of the viewport, via scrollPane.getViewport().setBackground(). The reason for setting the color of the viewport and not the scrollpane is that by default JViewport is opaque which, among other things, means it will completely fill in its background using its background color. Therefore when JScrollPane draws its background the viewport will usually draw over it.
You see that the Viewport is opaque by default. Probably, this is what needs to be changed. If you do have a solution do let me know too.
Regards,