Can't get menu items to be displayed

Question

Hello,
The answer to my problem is probably quite simple but I can't see it and its driving me crazy, basically I can't get my menu items to be displayed like file, create and search. But what ever I add to the file menu items like open or save isn't displayed and I don't know why I think it may have to do with the action listeners but I'm not sure how or why or it could be because of where it is placed in the code, but again I'm not sure. Any help will be appreciated thanks!
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.geom.GeneralPath;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
class CharacterEditor2 extends JFrame implements ActionListener
  private Container pane;
  public JPanel sidebar = new JPanel();
public JPanel library;
  public JPanel interface1 = new JPanel();
  private JPanel interface2 = new JPanel();
  public JPanel cards = new JPanel();
  public CardLayout layout = new CardLayout();
  public JButton headb = new JButton ("Head");
  public JButton bodyb = new JButton ("Body");
  private JButton legsb = new JButton ("Legs");
  private JButton handsb = new JButton ("Hands");
  private JButton freeHandb = new JButton ("Free Hand");
  private JButton eyesb = new JButton ("Eyes");
  private JButton mouthb = new JButton ("Mouth");
  private JButton earsb = new JButton ("Ears");
  private JButton noseb = new JButton ("Nose");
  private JButton hairb = new JButton ("Hair");
  public CharacterEditor2()
    addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter(){
      public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e){
        System.exit(0);}});
    pane = getContentPane();
    setTitle("JHH");
    library = new library();
    interface2.setBackground(Color.red);
    interface1.setBackground(Color.green);
    Panel p1 = new Panel();
    p1.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,0));
    sidebar.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,0));
    addButton(sidebar, headb);
    addButton(sidebar, bodyb);
    addButton(sidebar, legsb);
    addButton(sidebar, handsb);
    addButton(sidebar, freeHandb);
    addButton(sidebar, eyesb);
    addButton(sidebar, mouthb);
    addButton(sidebar, earsb);
    addButton(sidebar, noseb);
    addButton(sidebar, hairb);
    JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
    this.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
    JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
    menuBar.add(fileMenu);
    JMenuItem openMI = new JMenuItem("Open");
    openMI.addActionListener(this);
    fileMenu.add(openMI);
    JMenuItem saveMI = new JMenuItem("Save");
    saveMI.addActionListener(this);
    fileMenu.add(saveMI);
    JMenuItem closeMI = new JMenuItem("Close");
    closeMI.addActionListener(this);
    fileMenu.add(closeMI);
    fileMenu.addSeparator();
    JMenuItem exitMI = new JMenuItem("Exit");
    exitMI.addActionListener(this);
    fileMenu.add(exitMI);
    JMenu createMenu = new JMenu("Create");
    menuBar.add(createMenu);
    JMenuItem entryMI = new JMenuItem("Entry");
    entryMI.addActionListener(this);
    createMenu.add(entryMI);
    JMenu searchMenu = new JMenu("Search");
    menuBar.add(searchMenu);
    JMenuItem searchCharacterMI = new JMenuItem("Search by Character");
    searchCharacterMI.addActionListener(this);
    searchMenu.add(searchCharacterMI);
    JMenuItem searchBackgroundMI = new JMenuItem("Search by Background");
    searchBackgroundMI.addActionListener(this);
    searchMenu.add(searchBackgroundMI);
    JMenuItem searchMovieMI = new JMenuItem("Search by Movie.");
    searchMovieMI.addActionListener(this);
    searchMenu.add(searchMovieMI);
    p1.add(sidebar);
    p1.add(interface1);
    p1.add(interface2);
    p1.add(library);
   //add scroller to library
   JScrollPane scroller =
         new JScrollPane(library,    
                   JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS,
                   JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
     scroller.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,100));
     p1.add(scroller, library);
    pane.add(p1, BorderLayout.CENTER);
  private void addButton (Container c, JButton b)
    b.addActionListener(this);
    c.add(b);
  public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt)
((CardLayout)library.getLayout()).show(library, evt.getActionCommand());
  public static void main(String[] args)
    CharacterEditor2 window = new CharacterEditor2();
    window.setTitle("Character Editor");
    window.setSize(900, 700);
    window.setVisible(true);
}

Answer 1

It's because you are mixing Swing components and AWT components. The menu items are actually displayed, but they are hidden behind the panel with all the buttons. Things will work fine if you change the following line:
Panel p1 = new Panel();  // This is an AWT panel. Use this instead:
JPanel p1 = new JPanel();Read more about it here:
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/mixing/