Set Opacity of JPanel on top of Image Background

Question

Good day.
By referring to the Post
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=57&threadID=506054
I successfully set the jpg as my application background.
I facing a problem to set opaque of the Container or the Panel.
Anyone of Swing expert may help?
My code :
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URI;
import java.io.*;
import javax.imageio.*;
public class MainMenu{
     private String msgStepSelectAction;
     // Panel Background
     JPanel bgPanel;
     // Panel GUI
     private JPanel upPanel;
     private JPanel cenPanel;
     private JPanel botPanel;
     // Control GUI
     static JFrame f;
     static JLabel lblStepSelectAction ;
     static ButtonGroup btnGroup;
     static JRadioButton jrbtn1;
     static JRadioButton jrbtn2;
     static JButton btn3;
     // default constructor
     public MainMenu(){
          //this is method to constructor GUI components
          GUISetting();
     public void GUISetting(){
          // This is background design
            final JPanel cp = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        final JFrame f = new JFrame("System ");
        File img= new File("c://bg_new2.jpg");
          URI uri = img.toURI();
            try {
                      final Border bkgrnd = new CentredBackgroundBorder(ImageIO.read(uri.toURL()));
                  Runnable r = new Runnable() {
                      public void run() {
                          cp.setBorder(bkgrnd);
                          cp.repaint();
                  SwingUtilities.invokeLater(r);
            catch(Exception e){
          // Construct the container location
          f.getContentPane().add(cp);
          Container c = f.getContentPane();
         c.setLayout(new BorderLayout(10, 10));
          upPanel = new JPanel();
          cenPanel = new JPanel();
          botPanel = new JPanel();
          upPanel.setOpaque(false);
          cenPanel.setOpaque(false);
          botPanel.setOpaque(false);
          //set the location of the panel
         c.add(upPanel,BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
         c.add(cenPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
         c.add(botPanel,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
          msgStepSelectAction="Please Select the Action that you want";
          // Label
          lblStepSelectAction = new JLabel(msgStepSelectAction);
          // Button
          btnGroup = new ButtonGroup();
          jrbtn1= new JRadioButton("1");
          jrbtn2 = new JRadioButton("2");
          btnGroup.add(jrbtn1);
          btnGroup.add(jrbtn2);
          btn3 = new JButton("Proceed");
          // here is control button
          upPanel.add(lblStepSelectAction);
          cenPanel.add(jrbtn1);
          cenPanel.add(jrbtn2);
          botPanel.add(btn3);
          jrbtn1.setOpaque(false);
          btnProceed.addActionListener (new ActionListener(){
               public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae){
                    if (jrbtnStego.isSelected()==true){
                         StegoControl stegoControl = new StegoControl();
                         StepSelectStegoMethod stepSelectStegoMethod = new StepSelectStegoMethod(stegoControl);
                         f.dispose();
                    else if (jrbtnDeStego.isSelected()==true){     
                         DeStegoControl deStegoControl = new DeStegoControl();     
                         StepSelectDeStegoMethod stepSelectDeStegoMethod= new StepSelectDeStegoMethod(deStegoControl);
                         f.dispose();          
                    else{
                         JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Please select a function to proceed","",JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
          // set the properties of the system
          f.setContentPane(cp);
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.setSize(810,630);
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
     public static void main(String [] args)throws Exception{
          MainMenu object = new MainMenu();
class CentredBackgroundBorder implements Border {
    private final BufferedImage image;
    public CentredBackgroundBorder(BufferedImage image) {
        this.image = image;
    public void paintBorder(Component c, Graphics g, int x, int y, int width, int height) {
        int x0 = x + (width-image.getWidth())/2;
        int y0 = y + (height-image.getHeight())/2;
        g. drawImage(image, x0, y0, null);
    public Insets getBorderInsets(Component c) {
        return new Insets(0,0,0,0);
    public boolean isBorderOpaque() {
        return true;
}Thank you ...

Answer 1

f.setContentPane(cp);Use better variable names an maybe you wont make mistakes like this.
You create a "content pane" (cp) panel but you never add any components to it.
So get rid of the code where you create the "c" variable as it is not required.
// c.add(upPanel,BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
// c.add(cenPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
// c.add(botPanel,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
cp.add(upPanel,BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
cp.add(cenPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
cp.add(botPanel,BorderLayout.SOUTH);