How can i make a JPopupMenu transparent?

Question

I'd like to customize the look of JPopupMenu so i made a custom class extending the JPopupMenu class on i overrode the paintComponent method as i would do for any component i need to customize.

public class CustomPopupMenu extends JPopupMenu {

    @Override
    public paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        //custom draw
    }
}

The only problem i have right know is that i'm not able to make the JPopupMenu transparent. I though setOpaque(false) would be enough, i was wrong.

How can i make a JPopupMenu transparent?

Answer 1

jpopupmenu is a window?

yes JPopup is container, for example

code for Java6 (have to change imports for Java7)

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import javax.swing.*;

public class TranslucentWindow extends JFrame {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private JMenuItem m_mniInsertRow;
    private JMenuItem m_mniInsertScrip;
    private JMenuItem m_mniDeleterRow;
    private JMenuItem m_mniDeleteExpiredScrip;
    private JMenuItem m_mniSetAlert;

    public TranslucentWindow() {
        super("Test translucent window");
        setLayout(new FlowLayout());
        add(new JButton("test"));
        add(new JCheckBox("test"));
        add(new JRadioButton("test"));
        add(new JProgressBar(0, 100));
        JPanel panel = new JPanel() {

            @Override
            public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
                return new Dimension(400, 300);
            }
            private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

            @Override
            protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
                super.paintComponent(g);
                g.setColor(Color.red);
                g.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());
            }
        };
        panel.add(new JLabel("Very long textxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "));
        add(panel);
        final JPopupMenu popupMenu = new JPopupMenu();
        m_mniInsertRow = new JMenuItem("Insert a Row");
        m_mniInsertRow.setOpaque(false);
        m_mniInsertScrip = new JMenuItem("Insert a Scrip");
        m_mniInsertScrip.setOpaque(false);
        m_mniDeleterRow = new JMenuItem("Delete a Row");
        m_mniDeleterRow.setOpaque(false);
        m_mniDeleteExpiredScrip = new JMenuItem("Delete a Expired Scrip");
        m_mniDeleteExpiredScrip.setOpaque(false);
        m_mniSetAlert = new JMenuItem("Set Alert");
        m_mniSetAlert.setOpaque(false);
        popupMenu.add(m_mniInsertRow);
        popupMenu.add(m_mniInsertScrip);
        popupMenu.addSeparator();
        popupMenu.add(m_mniDeleterRow);
        popupMenu.add(m_mniDeleteExpiredScrip);
        popupMenu.add(new JSeparator());
        popupMenu.add(m_mniSetAlert);
        panel.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {

            @Override
            public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
                if (e.isPopupTrigger()) {
                    int x = e.getX();
                    int y = e.getY();
                    popupMenu.show(e.getComponent(), x, y);
                }
            }
        });
        setSize(new Dimension(400, 300));
        setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                Window w = new TranslucentWindow();
                w.setVisible(true);
                com.sun.awt.AWTUtilities.setWindowOpacity(w, 0.7f);
            }
        });
    }
}

EDIT

interesting support for Translucency and Nimbus L&F, especially Painter reproducing quite correct Color (Gradiend too on movement over the screen), ligth version with important changes for JPopupMenu, still from Java6

image

from code

import com.sun.java.swing.Painter;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class TranslucentWindow extends JFrame {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private JPopupMenu popupMenu = new JPopupMenu();
    private JMenuItem m_mniInsertRow = new JMenuItem("Insert a Row");
    private JMenuItem m_mniInsertScrip = new JMenuItem("Delete a Row");
    private JMenuItem m_mniDeleterRow = new JMenuItem("Insert a Scrip");
    private JMenuItem m_mniDeleteExpiredScrip = new JMenuItem("Delete a Expired Scrip");
    private JMenuItem m_mniSetAlert = new JMenuItem("Set Alert");

    public TranslucentWindow() {
        super("Test translucent window");
        setLayout(new FlowLayout());
        add(new JButton("test"));
        add(new JCheckBox("test"));
        add(new JRadioButton("test"));
        add(new JProgressBar(0, 100));
        JPanel panel = new JPanel() {

            @Override
            public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
                return new Dimension(400, 300);
            }
            private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

            @Override
            protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
                super.paintComponent(g);
                g.setColor(Color.red);
                g.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());
            }
        };
        panel.add(new JLabel("Very long textxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "));
        panel.setComponentPopupMenu(popupMenu);
        add(panel);
        m_mniInsertRow.setOpaque(false);
        m_mniInsertScrip.setOpaque(false);
        m_mniDeleterRow.setOpaque(false);
        m_mniDeleteExpiredScrip.setOpaque(false);
        m_mniSetAlert.setOpaque(false);
        popupMenu.add(m_mniInsertRow);
        popupMenu.add(m_mniInsertScrip);
        popupMenu.addSeparator();
        popupMenu.add(m_mniDeleterRow);
        popupMenu.add(m_mniDeleteExpiredScrip);
        popupMenu.add(new JSeparator());
        popupMenu.add(m_mniSetAlert);
        setSize(new Dimension(400, 300));
        setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            for (UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo info : javax.swing.UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) {
                if ("Nimbus".equals(info.getName())) {
                    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName());
                    UIManager.getLookAndFeelDefaults().put("nimbusOrange", (new Color(127, 255, 191)));
                    UIManager.getLookAndFeelDefaults().put("PopupMenu[Enabled].backgroundPainter",
                            new FillPainter(new Color(127, 255, 191)));

                    break;
                }
            }
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
        } catch (InstantiationException ex) {
        } catch (IllegalAccessException ex) {
        } catch (javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {
        }
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                Window w = new TranslucentWindow();
                w.setVisible(true);
                com.sun.awt.AWTUtilities.setWindowOpacity(w, 0.7f);
            }
        });
    }

    static class FillPainter implements Painter<JComponent> {

        private final Color color;

        FillPainter(Color c) {
            color = c;
        }

        @Override
        public void paint(Graphics2D g, JComponent object, int width, int height) {
            g.setColor(color);
            g.fillRect(0, 0, width - 1, height - 1);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

The problem with a popup menu is that it may be realized as a top-level container (Window), and a window is opaque, no matter what value you set with setOpaque(), its opaque. But windows can be made translucent, too.

You can hack it by forcing the use of a heavyweight popup and brutally altering its opacity. Try this as a starting base for experiments (Java7):

import java.awt.Window;

import javax.swing.JPopupMenu;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class TranslucentPopup extends JPopupMenu {

    {
        // need to disable that to work
        setLightWeightPopupEnabled(false);
    }

    @Override
    public void setVisible(boolean visible) {
        if (visible == isVisible())
            return;
        super.setVisible(visible);
        if (visible) {
            // attempt to set tranparency
            try {
                Window w = SwingUtilities.getWindowAncestor(this);
                w.setOpacity(0.667F);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }

}

Note that it will not make submenus translucent!