How do I use JLabels?

Question

When I try to create a JLabel, it displays text perfectly and is placed fine within the container, but if I try to add an image to the label, nothing shows up.

ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("../media/link_walk.png", "hh");
JLabel j = new JLabel("hello");
j.setIcon(icon);
p.add(j);

possible duplicate of [How do I set a JLabel's background color?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2380314/how-do-i-set-a-jlabels-background-color) — trashgod, Apr 08 '11 at 20:17
Yes, that stuff helped with the background color, but it still refuses to display an image. — Sasha McCarn, Apr 08 '11 at 20:18
you must add the icon to the JLabel for the image to be displayed. I see that you've commented that part out. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Apr 08 '11 at 20:20
You should edit your question to include an [sscce](http://sscce.org/). — trashgod, Apr 08 '11 at 20:25

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 08 '11 at 21:22

If your app. is in Jar files and the image is an application resource, it will also be in a Jar file.

The ImageIcon constructor that accepts a String presumes the String represents a file path/name. A File object cannot be established to a resource in a Jar. For resources in a Jar, it is necessary to access them by URL.

To get an URL to something in a Jar, use something like..

URL urlToImage = this.getClass().getResource("/media/link_walk.png");
// Check the URL!
System.out.println("urlToImage is " + urlToImage);

Then use the ImageIcon constructor that accepts an URL.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 08 '11 at 20:14

1

JLabels are not opaque by default, and so background color changes won't be seen unless you make them opaque via setOpaque(true). Also the preferredSize of the JLabel will depend on the text it holds.

answered Apr 08 '11 at 20:14

Hovercraft Full Of Eels

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See also [How do I set a JLabel's background color?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2380314). – trashgod Apr 08 '11 at 20:16
@trash: thanks for that link. This seems to be a fairly common problem. – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Apr 08 '11 at 20:18
1

It's a popular duplicate and the tip of the [`opaque`](http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/painting/#props) property iceberg. :-) – trashgod Apr 08 '11 at 20:23

How do I use JLabels?

2 Answers2