Displaying an image in Java Swing

Question

public class MinesweeperMenu extends MinesweeperPanel{

private JPanel picture = new JPanel();
private JButton play = new JButton("Play");
private JButton highScores = new JButton("High Score and 
Statistics");
private JButton changeMap = new JButton("Create Custom 
or Change Map");
private JButton difficulty = new JButton("Custom or
Change Difficulty");
private JButton user = new JButton("Change User");
Image img;

public MinesweeperMenu()
{
    // Set Layout for the menu
    LayoutManager menuLayout = new BoxLayout(menu, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
    menu.setLayout(menuLayout);

    // Set Layout for the window
    LayoutManager windowLayout = new BorderLayout();
    window.setLayout(windowLayout);

    // Add buttons to the panels
    menu.add(play);
    menu.add(highScores);
    menu.add(changeMap);
    menu.add(difficulty);
    menu.add(user);

    // Add picture to the frame
    try{
    File input = new File("./setup/images/MineMenuPicture.jpg");
    img = ImageIO.read(input);
    }
    catch(IOException ie)
    {
        System.out.println(ie.getMessage());
    }

    // Add action listeners
    changeMap.addActionListener(new ChangeMapListener());   

}


public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
{
    // POSITION OF THE PICTURE
    int x = 650;
    int y = 585;
    g.drawImage(img, x, y, null);
}

public void displayFrame()
{
    // Display Frame
    window.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    window.setVisible(true);
}

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    MinesweeperMenu menu = new MinesweeperMenu();
    window.pack();
    menu.displayFrame();
    window.repaint();
}
}


public class MinesweeperPanel extends JFrame{

public static final Color COLOR_KEY = new Color(220, 110, 0);

// Initialize all the objects
public static JFrame window = new JFrame("Minesweeper++");
public static JPanel menu = new JPanel();

// Close the current window
public static void close()
{
    window.setVisible(false);
    window.dispose();
}



}

I can't get my image to display in the frame. I've tried everything, but I'm getting the impression it's a mistake that I'm not realizing since I am new to Java Swing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You're making things difficult for yourself by having a very confusing program structure, and I suggest that you simplify things a lot.

For one, there's no need for your current MinesweeperMenu class to extend MinesweeperPanel, and for the latter class to extend JFrame. Then you have a static JFrame somewhere else -- that's too many JFrames, and to boot, you're trying to display your image in one JFrame but showing the other one that doesn't have the picture. Your program needs just one JFrame and it should probably be created, stuffed with its contents, packed and displayed in one place, not scattered here and there as you're doing.

You're trying to display the picture in a paintComponent override, but this method will never get called since your class extends JFrame (eventually) and JFrame doesn't have this method. You're using the right method, but the class should be extending JPanel, and you should have an @Override annotation above the paintComponent method block to be sure that you're actually overriding a parent method.

You should get rid of all static everything in this program. The only thing static here should be the main method and perhaps some constants, but that's it.

There are more errors here, and I have too little time to go over all of them. Consider starting from the beginning, starting small, getting small bits to work, and then adding them together.

For instance, first create a very small program that tries to read in an image into an Image object, place it in a ImageIcon, place the ImageIcon into a JLabel, and display the JLabel in a JOptionPane, that simple, just to see if you can read in images OK, for example, something like this:

import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

public class TestImages {

   // *** your image path will be different *****
   private static final String IMG_PATH = "src/images/image01.jpg";

   public static void main(String[] args) {
      try {
         BufferedImage img = ImageIO.read(new File(IMG_PATH));
         ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(img);
         JLabel label = new JLabel(icon);
         JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, label);
      } catch (IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

Then when you've done this, see if you can now create a JPanel that shows the same Image in its paintComponent method, and display this JPanel in a JOptionPane.

Then create a JFrame and display the image-holding JPanel in the JFrame.

Through successive iterations you'll be testing concepts, correcting mistakes and building your program.