Transparancy Secret Of Yahoo Widget Engine Revealed

Well recently I moved one of my yahoo widgets to a new location and guess what i noticed! It revealed the yahoo widget's transparency secret...It uses the same old method that we use in java,the robot method("The method that most of the people did not like")!! and thats the truth here are the sequence of images:

1) before I hit the start button
2)I hit the start button
3)Upon press the start button again(notice that the captured image of the menu bar on the upper left widget):
4)After refreshing:
Should I conclude that the robot method is not that bad after all!huh?

Make The Swing Fly

Recently this thing struck my head that i can make my JFrame(Swing components)"Fly In" when the application is started and fly out when the quit button is hit and ended up with the following code.Use it and add a better entrance and exit effect to your applications!!!!!
I'll be adding it to NYouTube.

Enjoy!
:-)

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Test extends JFrame {

JFrame f;
JButton jb;
Dimension t;
public Test(){
f=new JFrame("Flying window");
jb=new JButton("Quit");
//Get the screen size
t=Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
jb.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
//The Fly Out effect
for(int i=t.width/2;i>=0;i-=2)
{
f.setLocation(i,i);
f.repaint();

}
System.exit(0);
}
});

f.getContentPane().add(jb);
f.pack();
f.setSize(100,100);
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(3);
f.setVisible(true);
//The Fly In effect
for(int i=0;i<=t.width/2;i+=2)
{
f.setLocation(i,i);
f.repaint();

}

}
public static void main(String[] s)
{
new Test();
}

}

Here Is Some Bad News And Good News As Well

Well to begin with the bad news first:All my Applications at GSOC for NYoutube have been rejected...........This depressed me a lot!!!!!!!!

Well i cannot stay depressed there is always a next time so its time to move on......

Here is the good news!!!!!!!

Now i will be coding for NYoutube by myself and will try to make as user friendly and as attractive as possible i will keep giving updates here itself also i have these internal exams of my college on 26th of this month and external semester exams approaching on the 17th of next month....so the coding will be a bit slower but i will try to complete it as soon as possible....
;-)

Transparent Window In Java Back With A BANG

Here is another version of code for Transparent Window in Java seems to be better than any of the previous version and has a blur effect to emulate the Vista look.Here is the code:

import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.*;

import java.awt.event.*;

import java.awt.image.*;



public class TransparentBackground extends JComponent

implements ComponentListener, WindowFocusListener, Runnable {

private JFrame _frame;

private BufferedImage _background;

private long _lastUpdate = 0;

private boolean _refreshRequested = true;



private Robot _robot;

private Rectangle _screenRect;



private ConvolveOp _blurOp;

public TransparentBackground(JFrame frame) {

_frame = frame;



try {

_robot = new Robot();

} catch (AWTException e) {

e.printStackTrace();

return;

}



Dimension dim = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();

_screenRect = new Rectangle(dim.width, dim.height);



float[] my_kernel = {

0.10f, 0.10f, 0.10f,

0.10f, 0.20f, 0.10f,

0.10f, 0.10f, 0.10f};

_blurOp = new ConvolveOp(new Kernel(3, 3, my_kernel));



updateBackground();

_frame.addComponentListener(this);

_frame.addWindowFocusListener(this);

new Thread(this).start();

}


protected void updateBackground() {

_background = _robot.createScreenCapture(_screenRect);

}



protected void refresh() {

if (_frame.isVisible() && this.isVisible()) {

repaint();

_refreshRequested = true;

_lastUpdate = System.currentTimeMillis();

}

}


protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {

Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;



Point pos = this.getLocationOnScreen();



BufferedImage buf = new BufferedImage(getWidth(), getHeight(), BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);

buf.getGraphics().drawImage(_background, -pos.x, -pos.y, null);



Image img = _blurOp.filter(buf, null);

g2.drawImage(img, 0, 0, null);



g2.setColor(new Color(255, 255, 255, 192));

g2.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());

}

public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent e) {
refresh();
}



public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent e) {

repaint();

}



public void componentResized(ComponentEvent e) {

repaint();

}



public void componentShown(ComponentEvent e) {

repaint();

}

public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e) {

refresh();

}



public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e) {

refresh();

}

public void run() {

try {

while (true) {

Thread.sleep(100);

long now = System.currentTimeMillis();

if (_refreshRequested && ((now - _lastUpdate) > 1000)) {

if (_frame.isVisible()) {

Point location = _frame.getLocation();

_frame.setLocation(-_frame.getWidth(), -_frame.getHeight());

updateBackground();

_frame.setLocation(location);

refresh();

}

_lastUpdate = now;

_refreshRequested = false;

}

}

} catch (InterruptedException e) {

e.printStackTrace();

}

}



public static void main(String[] args) {

JFrame frame = new JFrame("Transparent Window");

TransparentBackground bg = new TransparentBackground(frame);



frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);



frame.getContentPane().add(bg);

frame.pack();

frame.setSize(200, 200);

frame.setLocation(500, 500);

frame.setVisible(true);

}

}


For Mac Users you need to simply write the following

import java.swing.*;
.......
public class TransparentBackground{

.......//code here
.......//code here
.......//code here
.......//code here

 frame.setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 0));
}

Transparent window "in SkinL&f No Good"!!!

Eric Bruke's blog entry in one of his blog entry said that the skin look and feel is the best alternative to making a transparent window well here is what happens when you try to move the window from one location to another



Well i have improved upon the transparent Window in Swing Hacks wait for my next post to get the code

Using XML as database with Java

here is how you can use XML file as a database,you can get the driver here

here is how you can connect to the database:

try {
 // Load the DB2 JDBC Type 2 Driver with DriverManager
 Class.forName("COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.app.DB2Driver");
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}



Here is an example of XML as database
Import the package:

import com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Xml;

getting connection:

connection = DriverManager.getConnection(url, user, pass);

the prepare statement:

PreparedStatement stmt = connection.prepareStatement(sql);


Result Set:

 option 1:
ResultSet resultSet = stmt.executeQuery();

option 2:

InputStream inputStream = resultSet.getBinaryStream(1);

 option 3:
DB2Xml db2xml = (DB2Xml) resultSet.getObject(1);


Selecting a XML value:

String sql = "SELECT PID, DESCRIPTION from XMLPRODUCT where PID = ?";
PreparedStatement stmt = connection.prepareStatement(sql);
stmt.setString(1, "100-105-09");
ResultSet resultSet = stmt.executeQuery();
String xml = resultSet.getString("DESCRIPTION"); // or
InputStream inputStream = resultSet.getBinaryStream("DESCRIPTION"); // or
Reader reader = resultSet.getCharacterStream("DESCRIPTION"); // or
DB2Xml db2xml = (DB2Xml) resultSet.getObject("DESCRIPTION");

you can use other methods available in java

• getString( )
• getBinaryStream( )
• getCharacterStrem( )
• getObject( )

Inserting in XML file

String sql = "INSERT INTO xmlproduct VALUES(?, ?)";
PreparedStatement stmt = connection.prepareStatement(sql);
stmt.setString(1, "100-105-09");
File binFile = new File("productBinIn.xml");
InputStream inBin = new FileInputStream(xmlFile);
stmt.setBinaryStream(2, inBin, (int) binFile.getLength());
stmt.execute();

all you need is the db2 drivers you can find it here

https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?lang=en_US&source=swg-dm-db2jdbcdriver

Transparent Window Looking Better

Thanks to Eric Bruke's blog entry i got to know the problems in the problem with the Transparent window so here are the tweaks remove the threading part from the program but that might affect the speed of processing of your computer so copy and use the following alternative code thraeding still involved but a few minor changes like i changed the refresh period and the quickRrefresh() that was put there as a comment, i removed the coments.The new improved code and replaces refresh() in "public void run()" with quickRefresh()
here is the improved code:

import java.awt.*;
import java.util.Date;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class BGTest1 {

public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Transparent Window");
TransparentBackground bg = new TransparentBackground(frame);
bg.setLayout(new BorderLayout());

JButton button = new JButton("This is a button");
bg.add("North",button);
JLabel label = new JLabel("This is a label");
bg.add("South",label);
frame.getContentPane().add("Center",bg);
frame.pack();
frame.setSize(300,300);
frame.show();
}

}
class TransparentBackground extends JComponent
implements ComponentListener, WindowFocusListener,
Runnable {
private JFrame frame;
protected Image background;
private long lastupdate = 0;
public boolean refreshRequested = true;

public TransparentBackground(JFrame frame) {
this.frame = frame;

updateBackground();
frame.addComponentListener(this);
frame.addWindowFocusListener(this);
new Thread(this).start();
}

public void updateBackground() {
try {
Robot rbt = new Robot();
Toolkit tk = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
Dimension dim = tk.getScreenSize();
background = rbt.createScreenCapture(
new Rectangle(0,0,(int)dim.getWidth(),(int)dim.getHeight()));
} catch (Exception ex) {
p(ex.toString());
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}

public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
Point pos = this.getLocationOnScreen();
Point offset = new Point(-pos.x,-pos.y);
g.drawImage(background,offset.x,offset.y,null);
}


public void componentShown(ComponentEvent evt) { repaint(); }
public void componentResized(ComponentEvent evt) { repaint(); }
public void componentMoved(ComponentEvent evt) { repaint(); }
public void componentHidden(ComponentEvent evt) { }

public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent evt) { refresh(); }
public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent evt) { refresh(); }

public void refresh() {
if(this.isVisible() && frame.isVisible()) {
repaint();
refreshRequested = true;
lastupdate = new Date().getTime();
}
}


private boolean recurse = false;
public void quickRefresh() {
p("quick refresh");
long now = new Date().getTime();
if(recurse ||
((now - lastupdate) < recurse =" true;" location =" frame.getLocation();" recurse =" false;" lastupdate =" now;" now =" new"> 5)) {
if(frame.isVisible()) {
Point location = frame.getLocation();
frame.hide();
updateBackground();
frame.show();
frame.setLocation(location);
quickRefresh();
}
lastupdate = now;
refreshRequested = false;
}
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
p(ex.toString());
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}


public static void p(String str) {
System.out.println(str);
}

}