Thread: Adding components to my GUI over a background image

How are you doing the background image? And what layouts have you tried? Check out your options here: A Visual Guide to Layout Managers (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Laying Out Components Within a Container) and keep in mind that you can nest layouts.

That's because you're adding a JPanel, not a JLabel. Unless you mean something else?

And you probably don't want to load the image each time your JFrame is repainted. Load it once and store it in a variable, then just use the already loaded image.

...and why is your super.paint() happening after you paint the image? Doesn't that just clear the image?

ah i took out the label stuff cause it kept removing the bg when it did go on the frame

when would it get repainted? i thought once its up there thats it

and i thought the super goes after lol guess i need to reread how to paint lol this is becoming harder than i originally thought

Edit: ah what does the super part do? cause i removed it and it still puts the image on the bg...i also stored the image in a variable like you said

edit again: i tried something different now for the label i used setBounds to move it around and put it before i made the window opaque and now it sits on top of the bg

Well, you've got a few problems here. I recommend you read through this: Lesson: Performing Custom Painting (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing)

Also, does your Jar have access to that file? What is being returned by your getImage() method?

Read that tutorial, and figure out the file access issue, and post an updated SSCCE with your most recent code (after you read that tutorial and fix anything that you see in it), and we'll go from there.

thanks norm i did that now and i read through that paint guide and figured i need a panel so i added that and works good

i also took everything out of the main() and put it its own methods

now i just have 1 more question...how come you need a panel instead of painting on the jframe?

package smackthepet;
 
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.net.URL;
 
public class MyPanel extends JPanel{
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
 
	public Image bgpic;
 
	public MyPanel() {
		setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
		URL bg = Msmack.class.getResource("bg.png");
		bgpic = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(bg);
 
		JLabel heading = new JLabel("Smack The Pet 1.0");
		heading.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 32));
		Dimension headingSize = heading.getPreferredSize();
		heading.setBounds(79,22,headingSize.width,headingSize.height);
		add(heading);
	}
	public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
		return new Dimension(410, 510);
	}
 
	public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
		super.paintComponent(g);
		g.drawImage(bgpic,0,0,getSize().width,getSize().height,this);
	}
 
}

package smackthepet;
 
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
 
public class Msmack {
 
	public Msmack() {
 
	}
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGUI(); 
            }
        });
 
	}
 
	private static void createAndShowGUI() {
		JFrame mFrame = new JFrame("Smack The Pet 1.0");
		mFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		mFrame.add(new MyPanel());
		mFrame.pack();
		mFrame.setResizable(false);
		mFrame.setVisible(true);
	}
 
}

so this is how i have it now anything i should do differently? and thanks for all the help everyone