Draw on top of an Applet inside a Frame

Question

I am trying to create a Applet loader and I need to draw on top of the displayed Applet, however I can't seem to find a way to do that.

My original understanding was that Applet, by extending Component is just like any regular java.awt.Component that can be added inside Container that just have overriden paint method, but it seems like its not working.

In my initialization code I create a java.awt.Frame on which I add my custom implementation of java.awt.Container that has overriden all the paint methods so that they fill rect at x: 5, y:5 with size w:10, h:10 after calling parent method

However, when the applet is added, it always, no matter what is drawn on top of everything

public class AppletTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Frame frame = new Frame("Applet Test!");

        Container container = new Container() {

            @Override
            public void paint(Graphics g) {
                super.paint(g);
                g.fillRect(5, 5, 10, 10);
            }

            @Override
            public void paintAll(Graphics g) {
                super.paintAll(g);
                g.fillRect(5, 5, 10, 10);
            }

            @Override
            public void paintComponents(Graphics g) {
                super.paintComponents(g);
                g.fillRect(5, 5, 10, 10);
            }

            @Override
            public void print(Graphics g) {
                super.print(g);
                g.fillRect(5, 5, 10, 10);
            }

            @Override
            public void printComponents(Graphics g) {
                super.printComponents(g);
                g.fillRect(5, 5, 10, 10);
            }

            @Override
            public void update(Graphics g) {
                super.update(g);
                g.fillRect(5, 5, 10, 10);
            }

        };

        Dimension dimension = new Dimension(50, 50);
        container.setPreferredSize(dimension);

        Applet applet = new Applet() {
            @Override
            public void paint(Graphics g) {
                super.paint(g);
                g.fillRect(0, 0, 10, 10);
            }
        };

        container.add(applet);

        applet.setBounds(0, 0, 50, 50);


        frame.add(container);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);

        applet.init();
        applet.start();


    }

}

What are the steps that are needed to be taken to be able to draw on top of the Applet from its parent Container?

Here is also a screenshot of result of running the above code

If I however change the type of applet to Component such as

Component applet = new Component() {
    @Override
    public void paint(Graphics g) {
        super.paint(g);
        g.fillRect(0, 0, 10, 10);
    }
};

the result is correct

The limitations of required solution is that I cannot modify the Applet itself, as its a legacy component that's only provided as binary. I know there's a solution by doing bytecode modification, but due to the many flavors of Applets, that's out of the question.

Answer 1

Why container square is not visible

It's happen because of applet overlap drawaple area of container. You can see this, if setup background color of applet and change size:

applet.setBackground(Color.RED);
applet.setBounds(0, 0, 12, 12);

In result we can see red border (background of applet) under black square drawed on applet:

With your applet size and with red background of applet fully overlap container drawable area:

If you change Applet to Component you can see black square from container becouse of class Component not have background. I.e. change type of applet variable:

Component applet = new Component() {
//...
};
applet.setBackground(Color.RED);

You can see image as in your experiment:

Drawing on top of applet

What are the steps that are needed to be taken to be able to draw on top of the Applet from its parent Container?

It is not posible to draw on top of applet, except drawing directly on applet.

Using GlassPane not solve this problem for applets. I tried example from documentation

and replace code:

contentPane.add(new JButton("Button 1"));
contentPane.add(new JButton("Button 2"));

to:

Applet applet = new Applet() {
    @Override
    public void paint(Graphics g) {
        super.paint(g);
        g.fillRect(0, 0, 10, 10);
    }
};
applet.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 25));
applet.setBackground(Color.GREEN);
contentPane.add(applet);

In result we can see applet, which owerlap darawed circle:

Circle is fully drawed, if we change type of applet variable to JLanel.