JLabel background image... weird behaviour?

Question

I have an image that has to make up a 8x8 grid, so it is a background for the board.

I have been told it is possible to do this using ImageIcon and a JLabel, which I tried and it doesn't seem to work.

It doesn't allow me to add components to it (piece, which is also a JLabel).
Also when the program is running and I click on a square- it disappears, which is not ideal as it is supposed to be the background.

Here is the code:

      for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
       {
        for (int j = 0; j < 8; j++)
        {
            square=new JLabel();
            square.setIcon(icon);
            chessBoard.add( square );
        }
       }

The full code: http://pastebin.com/YdavUmGz

Am I doing something horribly wrong with this background image?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

How are you loading the image? Is the image not appearing? You can only set one IconImage to one JLabel, so if you want 64 (8 X 8) images, you need 64 JLabels. It would be simpler to just have one big image that is a grid (8 X 8). Just a thought. — John, Mar 21 '13 at 02:51
The images are appearing fine exactly how I need it, however I feel like the movement code is affecting it because I can drag the squares. But it's supposed to be the background for the pieces. — user1902535, Mar 21 '13 at 02:53
I'd get rid of the `JLayeredPane`. Simply use the `GridLayout` for the time been. You can add other components to `JLabel`, so you should start be setting the grid label's layout to something like `BorderLayout`. Then when you click on, you can simply add your `JLabel` piece to it. — MadProgrammer, Mar 21 '13 at 02:54
Where would I put the MouseListener then? and would the mouse dragging still work? Because they are attacked to the JLayeredPane. — user1902535, Mar 21 '13 at 02:59
@user1902535 It depends. You could place the mouse listener on each individual "grid" label. DnD would still work and you could even use the `GlassPane` instead — MadProgrammer, Mar 21 '13 at 03:01
I would be extremely grateful if you could show me an example of either implementation, as I'm quite confused about how to go about this. (My first time using Java/Swing) — user1902535, Mar 21 '13 at 03:09
This posting shows one way to drag images around a chess board: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4674686/131872 — camickr, Mar 21 '13 at 03:14
@MadProgrammer ehhh ... again proposing that ... suboptimal approach of adding something to a non-container. Simply don't - the outcome is undetermined, undefined, implementation/laf dependent, can change (read: break) without notice. DontDontDont! — kleopatra, Mar 21 '13 at 11:34
@kleopatra This is probably something we will never agree on. My personal preference would be to use a custom panel capable of painting the background, but sometimes we need a simpler solution. JLable (for good or bad) is a container. The label it self is painted, by the UI in the paintComponent method BEFORE the children. The only risk (as I see it) is that the UI will change the layout IN the paint routine, which is a significant NO NO and would be more worrying then me adding something to the label. JLabel is the only component that has Icon support by default - unless you make your own ;) — MadProgrammer, Mar 21 '13 at 20:20
it's completely undefined what the outcome is - relying on undefined stuff in productions is .. worst practice. As experienced developers, we shouldn't start the ch.. cough ...newbies doing it - at least not until they can weigh the pros/cons themselves. — kleopatra, Mar 22 '13 at 09:18

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 21 '13 at 07:47

Are you looking for something like this?

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

public class ChessBoard extends JFrame {

    private JPanel panel;

    public ChessBoard() {
        panel = new JPanel();
        panel.setLayout(new GridLayout(8, 8, 0, 0)); //Create the board
        //Add JLabels
        for (int i = 0; i < 64; i++) {
            JLabel label = new JLabel();
            label.setIcon(
                    new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("images/face.png")));
            panel.add(label);
        }
        //Add the panel to the JFrame
        this.add(panel);
        this.pack();
        this.setVisible(true);
        this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
                    UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new ChessBoard();
            }
        });
    }
}

enter image description here

JLabel background image... weird behaviour?

1 Answers1