Placing controls on top of a background image

Question

Hello folks:
Need a bit of help please. Need to be able to display a .gif image (800x600)as a background, with controls such as Labels and textboxes on top of the image. Is there away to do this with the various panes in Swing, and if so how, or is there a better way. If y'all have a bit of sample code to share it sure would be appreciated.
Thanks for the help and advise in advance - Bart

Answer 1

Here are two ways to do it:
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class TestBackground extends JFrame
     ImageIcon img;
     public TestBackground()
          img = new ImageIcon("????.jpg");
          JPanel panel = new JPanel()
               public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
                    g.drawImage(img.getImage(), 0, 0, null);
                    super.paintComponent(g);
          panel.setOpaque(false);
          panel.add( new JButton( "Hello" ) );
          setContentPane( panel );
     public static void main(String [] args)
          TestBackground frame = new TestBackground();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          frame.setSize(300, 300);
          frame.setVisible(true);
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class TestBackgroundLayered extends JFrame
     public TestBackgroundLayered()
          ImageIcon image = new ImageIcon("????.jpg");
          System.out.println(image.getImageLoadStatus());
          System.out.println(image.getIconHeight());
          JLabel background = new JLabel(image);
          background.setBounds(0, 0, image.getIconWidth(), image.getIconHeight());
          getLayeredPane().add(background, new Integer(Integer.MIN_VALUE));
          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
          panel.setOpaque(false);
          panel.add( new JButton( "Hello" ) );
          setContentPane( panel );
     public static void main(String [] args)
          TestBackgroundLayered frame = new TestBackgroundLayered();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          frame.setSize(300, 300);
          frame.setVisible(true);
}