Calling an external jar in classpath from a Java Application

Question

I have two java Swing applications and I need to be able to execute the first one from the second. I have compiled the first to a jar and placed it in the classpath of the second. I am calling the main class of the first jar from the application but all I see is a blank frame. The Main of my first Jar looks like this:

import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Frame;
import javax.swing.JDialog;
public class AskulLibrary extends Frame implements Runnable{
final Frame frame;
    public AskulLibrary(Frame frame) {
        this.frame = frame;
    }

    public void run() {
        frame.show();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JDialog.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
        // Throw a nice little title page up on the screen first
        new Splash().showSplash(3000);
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new AskulLibrary(new JLibrary()));
    }
}

I'm calling this main class from the second application like this:

import com.AskulLibrary;
import java.awt.Frame;
public class MainFrame extends JFrame{
       AskulLibrary lib;
       Frame frame;
     public MainFrame(){
    frame = new new Frame();
    lib = new AskulLibrary (frame);
    lib.run();

}

}

I'm doing something wrong somewhere because instead of initializing the first Jar I am getting an empty Frame. I do not want to run the jar like this although this is running the first program successfully:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("java -jar lib/Myfirstjar.jar");

1) `frame = new new Frame();` That would not compile. For better help sooner, post an [SSCCE](http://sscce.org/). 2) Why AWT rather than Swing? See this answer on [Swing extras over AWT](http://stackoverflow.com/a/6255978/418556) for many good reasons to abandon using AWT components. If you need to support older AWT based APIs, see [Mixing Heavyweight and Lightweight Components](http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/mixing-components-433992.html). — Andrew Thompson, Jun 11 '13 at 08:36

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

why not to use implemented methods in official API, How to Create a Splash Screen
(before Splash Screen was implemented in official APIs) use JWindow/JDialog but without using Runnable#Thread, use the quite strict logics described about Event Dispatch Thread in InitialThread instead, for both Top-Level Containers
see my question about reverse order, similair, but with interactive logics,

Calling an external jar in classpath from a Java Application

1 Answers1