JInternalFrames to listen to JDesktopPane events

Question

Is there any easy way to have my jinternalframes be the best of both worlds

• embedded when I want them to act as part of jdesktoppane
• also movable and able to handle their own events

Hopefully this picture will help out. Right now I have my code to drag the item to your player and it inserts into next available backpack slot, but I also want to be able to drag it to any of the backpack slots, but as you can see it paints below. Is there any quick and dirty way to remedy this? My JDesktopPane has a panel on top that is where everything is painted to(besides the jinternalframes of course). Sorry for all of the code and no SSCCEE. Just felt it would better to show my logic.

theDesktop.addMouseMotionListener(new MouseMotionListener() {
    @Override
    public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
        updateMouseCursor(e);
        if (MapGamePanel.draggingItem){
            Point point = e.getPoint();
            MapGamePanel.currentX = point.x;
            MapGamePanel.currentY = point.y;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {
        updateMouseCursor(e);
    }
});

theDesktop.addMouseListener(new MouseListener() {
    @Override
    public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
        if (e.getButton() == MouseEvent.BUTTON1){ //left
            int whiteLeftSpace = (theDesktop.getWidth() - xTiles*32)/2;
            boolean inGamePanel = e.getX() > whiteLeftSpace && e.getX() < (xTiles*32 + whiteLeftSpace) && e.getY() < yTiles*32;
            String globalCoords = localToGlobalCoords((e.getX()-whiteLeftSpace)/32 + "," + e.getY()/32);
            if (inGamePanel){
                //looking for tiles with no mobs or players and loot
                String[] globalCoordsSplit = globalCoords.split(",");
                int globalX = Integer.parseInt(globalCoordsSplit[0]);
                int globalY = Integer.parseInt(globalCoordsSplit[1]);
                if ((!(globalX == characterX && globalY == characterY)) && //not under character
                        ((globalX-1) == characterX || globalX == characterX || (globalX+1) == characterX) && //(+/-) 1 xTile
                        ((globalY-1) == characterY || globalY == characterY || (globalY+1) == characterY)){ //(+/-) 1 yTile
                    HashMap <String, String> dropsToDrag = new HashMap <String, String>();
                    Boolean mobPresent = false;
                    Boolean playerPresent = false;
                    if (MapGamePanel.entityInfoHashTable.containsKey(globalCoords)){ //no mobs/npcs
                        mobPresent = true;
                    }
                    Iterator<Entry<String, String>> it = MapGamePanel.entityInfoHashTable.entrySet().iterator();
                    while (it.hasNext()) {
                        Entry<String, String> pairs = it.next();
                        String key = pairs.getKey();
                        if (!key.contains(",") && !key.contains("-")){
                            String[] values = pairs.getValue().split("\\|");
                            String tempCoords = values[0];
                            if (globalCoords.equals(tempCoords)){ //player on spot
                                playerPresent = true;
                            }
                        } else if (key.contains("-")){
                            String[] splitKey = key.split("-");
                            if (splitKey[0].equals(globalCoords)){
                                dropsToDrag.put(key, pairs.getValue());
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    int smallEntityId = Integer.MAX_VALUE; //2147483647
                    if (!mobPresent && !playerPresent && !dropsToDrag.isEmpty()){
                        Iterator<Entry<String, String>> it2 = dropsToDrag.entrySet().iterator();
                        while (it2.hasNext()) {
                            Entry<String, String> pairs = it2.next();
                            String[] keyWithPK = pairs.getKey().split("-");
                            String tmpCoords = keyWithPK[0];
                            String[] coordsSplit = tmpCoords.split(",");
                            int tempX = Integer.parseInt(coordsSplit[0]);
                            int tempY = Integer.parseInt(coordsSplit[1]);
                            int tmpEntityId = Integer.parseInt(keyWithPK[1]);
                            String[] values = pairs.getValue().split("\\|");
                            String tmpId = values[0];
                            int tmploot_amt = Integer.parseInt(values[1]);
                            String tmploot_filename = values[2];
                            if (tmpEntityId < smallEntityId){
                                smallEntityId = tmpEntityId;
                                MapGamePanel.dragItemXCoord = tempX;
                                MapGamePanel.dragItemYCoord = tempY;
                                MapGamePanel.dragItemEntityId = tmpEntityId;
                                MapGamePanel.dragItemId = tmpId;
                                MapGamePanel.dragItemAmt = tmploot_amt;
                                MapGamePanel.draggingItemFilename = tmploot_filename;
                            }
                        }
                        MapGamePanel.draggingItem = true;
                        Point point = e.getPoint();
                        MapGamePanel.startX = point.x;
                        MapGamePanel.startY = point.y;  
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
        if (e.getButton() == MouseEvent.BUTTON3){ //right
            movementBitKeys.keyReleased(87);
            movementBitKeys.keyReleased(68);
            movementBitKeys.keyReleased(83);
            movementBitKeys.keyReleased(65);
            mouseHeld = false;
        }
        if (MapGamePanel.draggingItem){
            int whiteLeftSpace = (theDesktop.getWidth() - xTiles*32)/2;
            String[] globalCoords = localToGlobalCoords((MapGamePanel.currentX-whiteLeftSpace)/32 + "," + MapGamePanel.currentY/32).split(",");
            int globalX = Integer.parseInt(globalCoords[0]);
            int globalY = Integer.parseInt(globalCoords[1]);

            String[] startCoords = localToGlobalCoords((MapGamePanel.startX-whiteLeftSpace)/32 + "," + MapGamePanel.startY/32).split(",");
            int startX = Integer.parseInt(startCoords[0]);
            int startY = Integer.parseInt(startCoords[1]);
            if (globalX == characterX && globalY == characterY){
                    sendToServer("pickupItem|" + startX + "," + startY + "-" + MapGamePanel.dragItemEntityId + "|backpack|-1|" + MapGamePanel.dragItemAmt);
            } else if (((globalX-1) == characterX || globalX == characterX || (globalX+1) == characterX) &&
                    ((globalY-1) == characterY || globalY == characterY || (globalY+1) == characterY)){
                if (!(startX == globalX && startY == globalY)){
                    sendToServer("moveItem|" + startX + "," + startY + "-" + MapGamePanel.dragItemEntityId + "|ground|" + globalX + "," + globalY + "|-1|" + MapGamePanel.dragItemAmt);
                }
            }
            MapGamePanel.draggingItem = false;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {}

    @Override
    public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {}

    @Override
    public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {}
});

}

EDIT where I mess around with JLayeredPane due to the suggestions.

public static JFrame frame;
public static JLayeredPane theDesktop;
public static MapGamePanel gamePanel; //where all my game tiles draw
    ....//lines removed
theDesktop = new JDesktopPane();
theDesktop.setOpaque(false);
theDesktop.add(backpackFrame, JLayeredPane.DEFAULT_LAYER);
theDesktop.add(gamePanel, JLayeredPane.DEFAULT_LAYER);
theDesktop.add(new JLabel("THIS SHOULD SHOW UP ABOVE THE OTHER CRAP, but does not"), JLayeredPane.DRAG_LAYER);
    ....//lots of lines removed
frame.getContentPane().add(theDesktop);

Answer 1

DragLabelOnLayeredPane and ChessBoard are good examples that use JLayeredPane.

GlassPaneDemo shows dragging on the glass pane.

JComponent#setComponentPopupMenu() would be a way to add a context menu.

Answer 2

In order to solve this I have created a JLabel that I will always update for when an item is in my (draggingItem boolean) state. Here is some code. Thanks everyone for all of the help and ideas...

public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
    updateMouseCursor(e);
    if (MapGamePanel.draggingItem){
        Point point = e.getPoint();
        MapGamePanel.currentX = point.x;
        MapGamePanel.currentY = point.y;
        dragJLabel.setBounds(MapGamePanel.currentX, MapGamePanel.currentY, 32, 32);
    }
}

public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
    MapGamePanel.startX = point.x;
    MapGamePanel.startY = point.y;
    dragJLabel = new JLabel(MapGamePanel.draggingItemFilename);
    dragJLabel.setBounds(MapGamePanel.startX, MapGamePanel.startY, 32, 32);
    theDesktop.add(dragJLabel, JLayeredPane.DRAG_LAYER);
}

Same thing for mouseReleased, I will just remove the JLabel. Also as you can see in my screenshot there is no image yet, just text, just codes this real fast so I could provide an answer here to help others...