Need advice on what component(s) to use

Question

I'm trying to put together a UI that displays a background image and displays on top of that image several jpanels, jlabels, and icon type images . I'd like the user to be able to drag the panels etc. to a desired location.
I'll then need to grab the coordinates and store them to a file, so that I can rebuild the UI with the components in the same place that they were placed when restarting the application
Wow that was hard to put into words.
The idea is the image will be a layout and the panels will be the physical position of a data source. A bit like in home automation programs that shows a layout of the house with the locations of cameras and switches etc.
So I'm thinking JInternalFrames may work but I need something that is transparent.
Any advice or a push in the right direction before I dive in will be greatly appreciated.
Edited by: xavier33 on Feb 22, 2008 4:08 PM

Answer 1

panels would work equally as well, but you're still going to have the same problem (from your first post)
"I'm trying to put together a UI that displays a background image and displays on top of that image several jpanels, jlabels, and icon type images ."
if any of the add-ons has a listener, you'll have to pass on the event to the panel.
this might be close enough - a small area at the top, when the cursor changes you can drag the panel around
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
class Testing
  int xPos, yPos;
  Cursor normalCursor = new Cursor(Cursor.DEFAULT_CURSOR);
  Cursor moveCursor = new Cursor(Cursor.MOVE_CURSOR);
  public void buildGUI()
    ImageBackgroundPanel backgroundImage = new ImageBackgroundPanel("test.gif");
    backgroundImage.setLayout(null);
    final JPanel viewPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
    viewPanel.setOpaque(false);
    viewPanel.setBounds(0,0,100,100);
    final JPanel p = new JPanel();
    p.setOpaque(false);
    p.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(viewPanel.getWidth(),10));
    viewPanel.add(p,BorderLayout.NORTH);
    viewPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.BLACK));//<---just so you can see it moving
    backgroundImage.add(viewPanel);
    JFrame f = new JFrame();
    f.getContentPane().add(backgroundImage);
    f.setSize(600,400);
    f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    f.setVisible(true);
    p.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter(){
      public void mousePressed(MouseEvent me){
        xPos = me.getX();
        yPos = me.getY();
      public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent me){
        p.setCursor(moveCursor);
      public void mouseExited(MouseEvent me){
        p.setCursor(normalCursor);
    p.addMouseMotionListener(new MouseMotionAdapter(){
      public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent me){
        Point vp_p = viewPanel.getLocation();
        Point me_p = me.getPoint();
        viewPanel.setLocation(vp_p.x + me_p.x - xPos,vp_p.y + me_p.y - yPos);
  public static void main(String[] args)
    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
      public void run(){
        new Testing().buildGUI();
class ImageBackgroundPanel extends JPanel
  Image img;
  public ImageBackgroundPanel(String file)
    try
      img = javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(new java.net.URL(getClass().getResource(file), file));
    catch(Exception e){}//handled in paintComponent
  public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
    super.paintComponent(g);
    if(img != null) g.drawImage(img, 0,0,this.getWidth(),this.getHeight(),this);
}