Executable JARs, JFrames, and ActionListeners

Question

I'm fairly new to Java, and am currently attempting to create my first JAR executable file. I am using the Eclipse IDE and JDK 5.0. I use Eclipse's export option to create a JAR executable. When the JAR is exectued, it successfully creates and displays the intial JFrame; however, a second JFrame that is created by an ActionListener on a JButton, and is based on input from a JTextArea, is never created when the JButton is clicked on. The second JFrame also accesses txt files based upon the JTextArea input, each of which are contained inside of the JAR file as well. The program compiles and runs successfully when ran as a Java Application or SWT Application in Eclipse, so I am unsure why the export ability is not working.
   public FrameClass1()
      inputTextArea = new JTextArea(29, 95);
      inputTextArea.setFont(new Font("Courier New", 0, 12));
      //Adds the inputTextArea to a JScrollPane, and then adds it to the frame's Center
      buttonPanel = new JPanel();
      submitButton = new JButton("Submit");
      submitButton.addActionListener(new
         ActionListener()
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
               String textInput = inputTextArea.getText();
               //Output frame creation
               FrameClass2 outputFrame = new FrameClass2(textInput);
               outputFrame.setVisible(true);
      buttonPanel.add(submitButton);
      //buttonPanel is added to the frame's south portion
   }Any suggestions as to why the second frame class is not being generated and how to fix it are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

To capture the error messages, I've used this try-catch statement, though as I posted earlier, I am not familar with JARs. I have identified that my error is a IllegalArguementException, though I cannot find a precise location of where this exception occurs, as the exceptionOutputFrame is never populated with the stack trace. I've tried both e.getMessage() (below) and e.printStackTrace().toString() with both JLabels and JTextAreas, but the JPanel will not populate with data. Could anybody recommend a good method of outputing the stack trace? In addition, could someone explain the use of getResourceAsStream a little more? Should I be using the class ClassLoader's method or the interface ServletContext? I'm a little rough around the edges with the idea of a resource, so does anybody have a good online reference that I could look at?
     try
          // Insert output frame creation here.
          Class2 outputFrame = new Class2(textInput);
          outputFrame.setVisible(true);
     catch(Exception e)
          JFrame exceptionOutputFrame = new JFrame(e.getClass().getName());
          JScrollPane exceptionOutputScrollPane = new JScrollPane();
          JPanel exceptionOutputPanel = new JPanel();
          JTextArea exceptionOutputLabel = new JTextArea(e.getMessage());
          exceptionOutputPanel.add(exceptionOutputLabel);
          exceptionOutputScrollPane.add(exceptionOutputPanel);
          exceptionOutputFrame.add(exceptionOutputScrollPane);
          exceptionOutputFrame.setSize(exceptionOutputLabel.getWidth(), DEFAULT_HEIGHT);
          exceptionOutputFrame.setVisible(true);
     catch(Error e)
          JFrame errorOutputFrame = new JFrame(e.getClass().getName());
          JScrollPane errorOutputScrollPane = new JScrollPane();
          JPanel errorOutputPanel = new JPanel();
          JTextArea errorOutputLabel = new JTextArea(e.getMessage());
          errorOutputPanel.add(errorOutputLabel);
          errorOutputScrollPane.add(errorOutputPanel);
          errorOutputFrame.add(errorOutputScrollPane);
          errorOutputFrame.setSize(errorOutputLabel.getWidth(), DEFAULT_HEIGHT);
          errorOutputFrame.setVisible(true);
     }