Making a transparent jpanel

[maureencioe]

I am writing a Java program which is supposed to display a "picture" of a switch and then add status boxes over each port. These boxes which I implemented as jpanels change color based on the status of the port, they also have tool tip info.

I can successfully read the jpeg file and paste it to a jlabel in my jframe. I can update my status jpanels as well.

My problem is that I can't seem to get the transparency working on the status jpanel. My switch jpeg doesn't show through. The setOpaque just isn't working. I have stripped down the code and included it. For simplicity, I only have a single status jpanel indicating the port for the router connection.

I would appreciate any suggestions.
Maureen