How to Use Root Panes (The Java™ Tutorials > C... https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/c...

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Documentation

The Java™ Tutorials

Trail: Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing

Lesson: Using Swing Components
Section: How to Use Various Components

The Java Tutorials have been written for JDK 8. Examples and practices described in this page don't take
advantage of improvements introduced in later releases.

How to Use Root Panes

In general, you don't directly create a JRootPane object. Instead, you get a JRootPane (whether you want
it or not!) when you instantiate JInternalFrame or one of the top-level Swing containers, such as
JApplet, JDialog, and JFrame.

Using Top-Level Containers tells you the basics of using root panes — getting the content pane, setting its
layout manager, and adding Swing components to it. This section tells you more about root panes, including
the components that make up a root pane and how you can use them.

As the preceding figure shows, a root pane has four parts:

The glass pane

Hidden, by default. If you make the glass pane visible, then it's like a sheet of glass over all the other
parts of the root pane. It's completely transparent unless you implement the glass pane's
paintComponent method so that it does something, and it can intercept input events for the root
pane. In the next section, you'll see an example of using a glass pane.
The layered pane
Serves to position its contents, which consist of the content pane and the optional menu bar. Can also
hold other components in a specified Z order. For information, see The Layered Pane.
The content pane

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The container of the root pane's visible components, excluding the menu bar. For information on
using the content pane, see Using Top-Level Containers.
The optional menu bar
The home for the root pane's container's menus. If the container has a menu bar, you generally use
the container's setJMenuBar method to put the menu bar in the appropriate place. For more
information on using menus and menu bars, see How to Use Menus.

The Glass Pane

The glass pane is useful when you want to be able to catch events or paint over an area that already
contains one or more components. For example, you can deactivate mouse events for a multi-component
region by having the glass pane intercept the events. Or you can display an image over multiple components
using the glass pane.

Here's a picture of an application that demonstrates glass pane features. It contains a check box that lets you
set whether the glass pane is "visible" — whether it can get events and paint itself onscreen. When the glass
pane is visible, it blocks all input events from reaching the components in the content pane. It also paints a
red dot in the place where it last detected a mouse-pressed event.

Try this:

1. Click the Launch button to run GlassPaneDemo using Java™ Web Start (download JDK 7
or later). Alternatively, to compile and run the example yourself, consult the example index.

2. Click Button 1.
The button's appearance changes to show that it's been clicked.
3. Click the check box so that the glass pane becomes "visible," and then click Button 1
again.
The button does not act clicked because the glass pane intercepts all the mouse events.
The glass pane paints a red circle where you release the mouse.
4. Click the check box again so that the glass pane is hidden.
When the glass pane detects an event over the check box, it forwards it to the check box.
Otherwise, the check box would not respond to clicks.

The following code from GlassPaneDemo.java shows and hides the glass pane. This program happens to
create its own glass pane. However, if a glass pane doesn't do any painting, the program might simply attach
listeners to the default glass pane, as returned by getGlassPane.

myGlassPane = new MyGlassPane(...);

changeButton.addItemListener(myGlassPane);
frame.setGlassPane(myGlassPane);

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...
class MyGlassPane extends JComponent
implements ItemListener {
...
//React to change button clicks.
public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent e) {
setVisible(e.getStateChange() == ItemEvent.SELECTED);
}
...
}

The next code snippet implements the mouse-event handling for the glass pane. If a mouse event occurs
over the check box, then the glass pane redispatches the event so that the check box receives it.

...//In the implementation of the glass pane's mouse listener:

public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {
redispatchMouseEvent(e, false);
}

.../* The mouseDragged, mouseClicked, mouseEntered,

* mouseExited, and mousePressed methods have the same
* implementation as mouseMoved. */...

public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {

redispatchMouseEvent(e, true);
}

private void redispatchMouseEvent(MouseEvent e,

boolean repaint) {
Point glassPanePoint = e.getPoint();
Container container = contentPane;
Point containerPoint = SwingUtilities.convertPoint(
glassPane,
glassPanePoint,
contentPane);

if (containerPoint.y < 0) { //we're not in the content pane

//Could have special code to handle mouse events over
//the menu bar or non-system window decorations, such as
//the ones provided by the Java look and feel.
} else {
//The mouse event is probably over the content pane.
//Find out exactly which component it's over.
Component component =
SwingUtilities.getDeepestComponentAt(
container,
containerPoint.x,
containerPoint.y);

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if ((component != null)
&& (component.equals(liveButton))) {
//Forward events over the check box.
Point componentPoint = SwingUtilities.convertPoint(
glassPane,
glassPanePoint,
component);
component.dispatchEvent(new MouseEvent(component,
e.getID(),
e.getWhen(),
e.getModifiers(),
componentPoint.x,
componentPoint.y,
e.getClickCount(),
e.isPopupTrigger()));
}
}

//Update the glass pane if requested.

if (repaint) {
glassPane.setPoint(glassPanePoint);
glassPane.repaint();
}
}

Here is the code in MyGlassPane that implements the painting.

protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {

if (point != null) {
g.setColor(Color.red);
g.fillOval(point.x - 10, point.y - 10, 20, 20);
}
}

The Layered Pane

A layered pane is a container with depth such that overlapping components can appear one on top of the
other. General information about layered panes is in How to Use Layered Panes. This section discusses the
particulars of how root panes use layered panes.

Each root pane places its menu bar and content pane in an instance of JLayeredPane. The Z ordering that
the layered pane provides enables behavior such as displaying popup menus above other components.

You can choose to put components in the root pane's layered pane. If you do, then you should be aware that
certain depths are defined to be used for specific functions, and you should use the depths as intended.
Otherwise, your components might not play well with the others. Here's a diagram that shows the functional
layers and their relationship:

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The table below describes the intended use for each layer and lists the JLayeredPane constant that
corresponds to each layer:

Layer Name Value Description

FRAME_CONTENT_LAYER new The root pane adds the menu bar and content pane to
Integer(-30000) its layered pane at this depth.

DEFAULT_LAYER new Integer(0) If you don't specify a component's depth when adding
it to a layered pane, the layered pane puts it at this
depth.

PALETTE_LAYER new Integer(100) This layer is useful for floating tool bars and palettes.

MODAL_LAYER new Integer(200) Modal internal-frame dialogs would belong in this

layer.

POPUP_LAYER new Integer(300) Popups go in this layer because they need to appear
above just about everything.

DRAG_LAYER new Integer(400) Intended to be used when a component is being

dragged. The component should return to its regular
layer when dropped.

Here is a picture of RootLayeredPaneDemo, which is a version of LayeredPaneDemo that uses the root
pane's layered pane, rather than creating a new layered pane.

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Try this:

1. Click the Launch button to run RootLayeredPaneDemo using Java™ Web Start (download
JDK 7 or later). Alternatively, to compile and run the example yourself, consult the example

index.
2. Move the cursor around in the window, so that Duke moves on top of other components.
Note that when the cursor is on top of non-label components — whether it's in the content
pane or in the Java-look-and-feel provided title bar — Duke's movement is temporarily
stopped. This is because mouse-motion events go to the component that's deepest in the
containment hierarchy and is interested in mouse events. The mouse-motion listener that
moves Duke is registered on the layered pane, and most of the components in that pane
(with the exception of the labels) happen to have mouse-motion listeners. When the mouse
moves over an interested component in the layered pane, the layered pane doesn't get the
event and the interested component does.
3. Making sure the Top Position in Layer check box is selected, change Duke's layer to Yellow
(-30000).
As before, he appears on top of other components, except for the Magenta (0) and Cyan
(301) rectangles.
4. Keeping Duke in the Yellow layer, click the check box to send Duke to the back of layer
-30000.
Duke disappears because the content pane and all the components in it are now above
him.
5. Change Duke's layer to Cyan (301), move Duke down a bit so he's standing on the top
edge of the Yellow rectangle, and then press Space to bring up the combo box's drop-down
list.
If the look and feel implements the drop-down list as a lightweight popup, Duke appears on

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top of the drop-down list.

The Root Pane API

The tables that follow list the API for using root panes, glass panes, and content panes. For more information
on using content panes, go to Using Top-Level Containers. Here are the tables in this section:

Using a Root Pane

Setting or Getting the Root Pane's Contents

The API for using other parts of the root pane is described elsewhere:

The Layered Pane API

The Menu API

Using a Root Pane

Method Purpose

JRootPane getRootPane()
Get the root pane of the applet, dialog, frame, internal frame, or
(in JApplet, JDialog, JFrame,
window.
JInternalFrame, and JWindow)

static JRootPane If the component contains a root pane, return that root pane.
getRootPane(Component) Otherwise, return the root pane (if any) that contains the
(in SwingUtilities) component.

JRootPane getRootPane() Invoke the SwingUtilities getRootPane method for the

(in JComponent) JComponent.

Set or get which button (if any) is the default button in the root
void setDefaultButton(JButton)
pane. A look-and-feel-specific action, such as pressing Enter,
JButton getDefaultButton()
causes the button's action to be performed.
Setting or Getting the Root Pane's Contents
The following methods are defined in JApplet, JDialog, JFrame, JInternalFrame, JRootPane, and
JWindow, unless noted otherwise.
Method Purpose

void setGlassPane(Component)
Set or get the glass pane.
Component getGlassPane()

void setLayeredPane(JLayeredPane)
Set or get the layered pane.
Container getLayeredPane()

void setContentPane(Container)
Set or get the content pane.
Container getContentPane()

void setJMenuBar(JMenuBar)
JMenuBar getJMenuBar() Set or get the menu bar.
(not defined in JWindow)

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Examples that Use Root Panes

Every Swing program has a root pane, but few reference it directly. The examples in the following list
illustrate how to use features of JRootPane or the glass pane. Also see these lists:

Examples that Use Layered Panes

Examples that Use Menus
Examples that Use Frames (for examples of using content panes)

Example Where Described Notes

Uses a glass pane that paints a bit and redispatches
GlassPaneDemo This section
events.
Adapts LayeredPaneDemo to use the root pane's layered
RootLayeredPaneDemo This section
pane.
ListDialog How to Use Lists Sets the default button for a JDialog.
How to Make
FrameDemo2 Sets the default button for a JFrame.
Frames

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