How to load an image using Toolkit

[pappyj77]

Hi anyone, please i am very new to Java and this forum too, i need help trying to create a banner for my GUI but i am trying to use the toolkit to load it. i have tried everything i can to load the image but i cant, no error occurred but the image did not load too...

please take a look at this code and help me correct what i am doing wrong. i can post the rest of the code if require it. Thank you very much.

toolkit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
if(toolkit.getScreenSize().getWidth() > 600)
setSize(600, 575);
else
setSize((int)toolkit.getScreenSize().getWidth(),(i nt)toolkit.getScreenSize().getHeight() - 20);
setResizable(false);
Dimension dimension = getSize();
setLayout(new FlowLayout());

Image image = getToolkit().getImage("images/defaultbanner.gif");

[Fubarable]

Your Toolkit may be looking in the wrong place for the image. Note that it will look by default into the user directory which you can identify using:

System.out.println(System.getProperty("user.dir"));

One solution is to use the full path to the image, and another is to use a URL to the image, and this solution will look for the image in a path relative to the class paths for this application. You can create this URL via the class#getResource(...) method.

[pappyj77]

thank you for your quick response. i have tried that too but still no result, i even copied the image to the same directory to make things easier, but still nothing...

[pappyj77]

and i dont know how to do the second option, "and another is to use a URL to the image"

[Fubarable]

You may need to show more of your code and give more information on just where this image is located. If you post code, please don't forget to use code tags (please see my signature below). Also, have you run the little snippet of code in my post above to see just where Java is looking to find your image?

[pappyj77]

Here is the entire code, trying to create a chat system, but am stuck at the GUI. and its very rough too. yes i have run the snippet thank you.
the image is located in C:\Users\PMO\Desktop\threadchat\images.

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

class  MainView extends JFrame	{
	private JLabel lbl;
	private JButton sendBtn;
	private JTextArea genMsg, frndLst;
	private JTextField msgF;
	private JMenuBar menubar;
	private JMenu loginmenu, aboutmenu;
	private JMenuItem loginitem, disconnectitem, seperatoritem, quititem, aboutitem;
	private Toolkit toolkit; 
	
	public MainView()	{
		
		toolkit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();		
		if(toolkit.getScreenSize().getWidth() > 600)
		setSize(600, 575);
		else
		setSize((int)toolkit.getScreenSize().getWidth(),(int)toolkit.getScreenSize().getHeight() - 20);			
		setResizable(false);
		Dimension dimension = getSize();	
		setLayout(new FlowLayout());	

		Image image = getToolkit().getImage("images/defaultbanner.gif");
		System.out.println(System.getProperty("user.dir"));


		setTitle("FRESHER MARKETING COMPANY");		
		addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
		public void windowClosing(WindowEvent evt) { System.exit(0);}});
	

		menubar = new JMenuBar();
		loginmenu = new JMenu("Login");		
		loginitem = new JMenuItem("Login");
		
		disconnectitem = new JMenuItem("Disconnect");
		seperatoritem = new JMenuItem("---------------");
		quititem = new JMenuItem("Quit");

		loginmenu.add(loginitem);
		loginmenu.add(disconnectitem);
		loginmenu.add(seperatoritem);
		loginmenu.add(quititem);
		
		aboutmenu = new JMenu("Help ");
		aboutitem = new JMenuItem("About ");

		aboutmenu.add(aboutitem);
		
		menubar.add(loginmenu);
		menubar.add(aboutmenu);
		setJMenuBar(menubar);

		Container container = getContentPane();
		container.setLayout(new FlowLayout());

		// create General Message Screen
		genMsg = new JTextArea(30,45);
        genMsg.setEditable(false);
        genMsg.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Times New Roman", 0, 12)); // NOI18N
		genMsg.setLineWrap(true);
		container.add( new JScrollPane( genMsg ));

		// create Friend List View
		frndLst = new JTextArea(30, 15);
		frndLst.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Times New Roman", 0, 12)); // NOI18N
		container.add( new JScrollPane( frndLst));
		frndLst.setEditable(false);
		frndLst.setLineWrap(true);

		lbl = new JLabel ("Message:");
		container.add(lbl);

		// create Message Field
		msgF = new JTextField(38);
		msgF.setEnabled( true );
		msgF.setText("");
        msgF.requestFocus();
		msgF.addActionListener(

		new ActionListener() 
		{
			// send message to client
			public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent event )
			{
			//	sendData( event.getActionCommand() );
			}
		} // end anonymous inner class
		); // end call to addActionListener
		container.add(msgF);
		
			// create Send Button
		sendBtn = new JButton ("Send");
		container.add(sendBtn);


		setVisible( true );
	
		
	}
	
	public static void main(String[] args) 
	{
	MainView application = new MainView();
	
	application.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
	}
}

[camickr]

You read the Image but you don't do anything with it. Create an ImageIcon, using the image and add the icon to a JLabel. Also, you should try using ImageIO to read the image. Or you can also look at How to Use Icons (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Using Swing Components) for working examples.

[pappyj77]

thank you very much Camickr, the image has loaded at last, may not be the best or tidy way but it did the job . here is what i added below;

		// create an ImageIcon
		ImageIcon banner =new ImageIcon("images\\defaultbanner.gif");  
		bannerLabel = new JLabel(banner);
		container.add(bannerLabel);

not so hard afterall.