How to create background of JFrame transparent in java but keeping buttons visible?

Question

I am making my JFrame transparent by:

myFrame.setUndecorated(true);
myFrame.setBackground(new Color(1.0f,1.0f,1.0f,0.0f)); 

It makes JFrame transparent but also lost window strip and close button. To make window appear visible I used

AWTUtilities.setOpacity(this, 0.5f);

but I found that this method is only available for java 6 and packaged in AWT package which is restricted in java 7. and the method is also changed in java 7 which is now

Window.setOpacity(float opacity);

but it does not working, Can anyone tell me how to make transparent window and buttons visible along with transparent frame.

Answer 1

This will make the frame look a bit different, but I think this is what you want:

import java.awt.Color;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;


public class TransparentExample extends JFrame {

    public TransparentExample() {

        super("TransparentExample");

        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.add(new JButton("Button"));

        setContentPane(panel);
        setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 0));
        setSize(500, 500);
        setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);

        TransparentExample frame = new TransparentExample();
        frame.setVisible(true);

    }

}

---

If it works it should look like this: