How do you make such complex GUI in Java? Is it possible with Gwt? Or need to use something else?

Question

My goal is to make a simple GUI which almost look like this attached screenshot.

But while using Awt, Swing i have never found yet such combo/buttons nor i have found something like transparent window which showing my desktop background.

I am very desperate to make something similar, but i am not sure which framework i can use?

Can i do this above UI, with GWT? or is there something else?

Answer 1

See this: How to Create Translucent and Shaped Windows

Answer 2

Java has always supported translucent windows on Mac (from at least OS X 10.4 but probably way before that too).

However on Windows you need at least Java 1.6.0_10 to be able to do translucent windows directly from Java.

If for whatever reason you're stuck with an older Java you can use JNA. They've got examples as to how to create translucent windows on OS X, Windows and Linux and these examples work even on older JVMs.

As I type this JNA is located here:

https://github.com/twall/jna

Here's the code for their alpha/translucent example (where you can drag a picture with an alpha channel, like a PNG with an alpha channel and then choose the opacity):

https://github.com/twall/jna/tree/master/contrib/alphamaskdemo/com/sun/jna/contrib/demo

Now what you want to do can be done but there are gotchas: you need to be careful about several things. For example mouse events: if you want catch them or not when they happen on an area that is "fully transparent" (if you want to catch them, you can cheat and make your translucent window nearly --but not fully-- transparent).

What you want to do is a bit like a HUD: there are definitely HUDs done in Java but as far as I know they weren't build using GUI builder tools. You'll probably have to code it manually (or at least some part of it manually).