Develop Reference

Java Swing Background image repeat and maximized window

I want to make my application header repeated image like similar to ccleaner application header , below. I want to also put logo right top corner but when I maximizing the window , it stays in the middle. I am currently using netbeans.
Similar to ;
CSS Background Repeat ,

Okay, well do you have an attempt within your netbeans project? Something visual like a screen shot of your running application that we can work with.
If you have set your panel to the size of the JFrame then you have two options.
1. Lock the JFrame from resizing at all: Prevent Window resizing on Java (Netbeans)
2. Make the application scale/resize with the JFrame: JFrame Resizing in Desktop Application - NetBeans
Let me know if those help.
A lot of Netbeans (in terms of sizing/responsiveness) is about setting the Frame/Panel/ect... attributes so that they are all the same (locked or re-size'able)

Java - Screen Change Transitions

I have been working on a game and the code is some what solid. I have about 7 classes and it runs with no bugs but the graphics don't run smoothly. At the beginning of the game there is a start menu like almost every other game. The menu looks great but when I press the button the screen blinks white before the level comes on. I am using pure java with a simple Jframe and GamePanel. I also use very basic double buffering. The level image loads in a different class the the GamePanel one which contains the start screen image. I have looked into moving the level image into the GamePanel and nothing changed. Feel free to ask me any questions to go more in depth.
Thanks,
Dev

Drawing outside a window in Java?

Is it possible to simply paint() (or use some other function) to the screen in Java? As in draw over everything else on some coordinates of the screen itself, not inside some window.
If not, is it possible to make an invisible window that takes up the entire screen and use its glass pane to do it? Would complications arise from doing this? (Such as not being able to click on other applications)
Are there any other ways?
Thanks.
Edit: I'm not trying to do full screen with this, by the way.

When you paint() in Java, you're painting only within the confines of the size and location of what is being paint()ed.
If you're looking to do full screen stuff, there are tutorials for that:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/extra/fullscreen/index.html

In theory, you can create an transparent undecorated maximized JFrame. This will allow you to "paint" over the desktop. Problems are obvious: if an application stays behind this window, it will not receive any mouse events.
Months ago, I made an evil cheat to draw directly on Windows Explorer's Desktop: mixing some .NET coding with JNI and Sun's internal classes - that's surreal, but works.

how to create a drop down menu java app on the desktop to hold desktop icons (java)

I'm trying to create a java desktop application that holds desktop icons. The app will be a menu/panel that is invisible until you hover your cursor near the top of the screen, at which point the menu full of desktop icons will drop down. To add new icons to the menu one must simply drag icons from the desktop into the menu and they should snap to grid. As I am an intermediate level programmer but I havn't ever done a GUI app before in any language, I was wondering if someone could help me out, both with how to approach the problem and on the packages and methods I should be using. Also, I'm thinking of doing this with NetBeans unless you have any other suggestions.
Thanks,
Andrew

As an alternative to Chad's option, you could also do this by creating a frame and using Java's transparent window capability to make the frame transparent (or translucent, if you want a hint that it's there), and using mouse entered/exited events to return the frame to its normal "solid" opacity.
Personally I'd try this solution just because I'd rather use event-based notification than polling the mouse position, but I expect it's more work than the other alternative.
As to drag and drop, I haven't used it extensively enough in Java to give any solutions, but it's not immediately obvious (from a cursory internet search) of how to handle native desktop drag and drops. I'd suggest starting with some dnd tutorials within an application so that you really understand Java's drag and drop API and capabilities.

You can use java.awt.MouseInfo to get the location of the mouse at any point in time, even if you don't have any windows open.
So, you could start a java program, then in your main loop poll the mouse location. If it's in the 'top', then you can open a window.
You can use the easiest thing to do would be to use JButtons or JLabels with images to represent the desktop icons. Just load the image you want to use and stick that on as a label.
I'd start by going through swing tutorial and writing a few simple GUI programs to get the hang of it.
But the MouseInfo thing is what you need to tell when the mouse is at the top of the screen.

JDialog Not Displaying When in Fullscreen Mode

I have an application that runs in fullscreen mode and has been working fine. Now I need to add a simple, undecorated dialog and I'm running into trouble. If I run the application maximized but not in fullscreen, the dialog displays and functions as expected. When I switch back to fullscreen, the dialog will not display.
The dialog extends JDialog and only contains a JSlider and a couple of buttons. It is undecorated and not modal. (I disabled modality for testing purposes -- it was a pain to force exit the app every time the dialog blocked input.) I'm entering full screen mode using setFullScreenWindow(), passing in the main JFrame for the app. It doesn't make a difference if I set that very JFrame as the owner of the JDialog or not. Nor does it seem to help if I call toFront() on the dialog.
The dialog seems to be active -- especially since it blocks input if I make it modal -- but just not showing or being hidden. So, is there any obvious trick to displaying a JDialog in fullscreen mode? Something I might be overlooking or omitting?
If there's no obvious solution, I can post some code later. Unfortunately, I don't have time right now.

JOptionPane.showInternalXXXDialog()
methods render dialogs as JInternalFrames.
Maybe you could consider using a JIternaFrame to simulate the dialog box.

And in fact, as M1EK alluded in his answer and I mentioned in a comment, Java applications in full screen mode will not allow other windows to show over them. The Javadoc API for GraphicsDevice reads:
Windows cannot overlap the full-screen window. All other application windows will always appear beneath the full-screen window in the Z-order.
In the end, I reconfigured my application so that it doesn't enter full screen mode until a bit later. This still gives me a fairly class presentation at the start and allows my JDialog to function as it should. The transition to full screen mode is quick and smooth, even in the "middle" of my app.

Do you really want to be in full-screen mode for this app? That's more of a gaming feature - to get more direct access to the frame-buffer, I always thought. Have you read this tutorial:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/extra/fullscreen/index.html
Really seems to me not to be the best choice for a Swing app with child windows.

Try to use this. Is not an exclusive full screen but it is close enough.
setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
setUndecorated(true);