Open image in Swing Application

Question

Hi,
I'm having trouble getting an image to open into my swing application and I cant figure out whats wrong. In response to selecting the "Open" button or menu item a JFileChooser opens up and i select an image but the image doesn't actually load. If anyone could help i'd really appreciate it.
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import javax.imageio.*;
class PhotoEditor extends JPanel implements ActionListener {
     * Create the GUI and show it.  For thread safety,
     * this method should be invoked from the
     * event-dispatching thread.
    JMenu imageMenu, effectsMenu;
    JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser();
    BufferedImage img = null;
       public JMenuBar createMenuBar() {     
     JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
    /* Build the first menu: */
    JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
    menuBar.add(fileMenu);
    fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
    //a group of JMenuItems under the File option:
        String[] menuItems1 = {"Open", "Save","Save As..", "Close"};
    String[] menuIcons1 = {"Open.gif", "Save.gif", "", ""};
    for (int i = 0; i<menuItems1.length; i++)
              JMenuItem fileMI = new JMenuItem(menuItems1, new ImageIcon(menuIcons1[i]));
          fileMI.addActionListener(this);
          fileMenu.add(fileMI);
//adding a separator to the drop down menu list
fileMenu.addSeparator();
JMenuItem exitMI = new JMenuItem("Exit", new ImageIcon("Exit.gif"));
exitMI.addActionListener(this);
fileMenu.add(exitMI);
/* Code which builds all the menu here */
return menuBar;
     public JToolBar createToolBar() {     
     JToolBar toolB = new JToolBar(FlowLayout.LEFT);
toolB.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
// contentPane.add(toolB, "North");
JButton newButton = new JButton(new ImageIcon("new24.gif"));
newButton.addActionListener(this);
toolB.add(newButton);
newButton.setToolTipText("New");
newButton.setActionCommand("New");
//adding a separator to the drop down menu list
toolB.addSeparator();
JButton openButton = new JButton(new ImageIcon("open24.gif"));
openButton.addActionListener(this);
toolB.add(openButton);
openButton.setToolTipText("Open");
     openButton.setActionCommand("Open");
/* More code building the toolbar*/
return toolB;
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Object eventSource = e.getSource();
if ((eventSource instanceof JMenuItem) || (eventSource instanceof JButton));{
String label = (String) e.getActionCommand();
//Sets up the Action Listeners
if (label.equals("Exit")) {
System.exit(0);
// Closes application
else if (label.equals("Open")) {
     openImage();
/* More codes for each button or menu item */
protected void openImage() {
          int returnVal = fc.showOpenDialog(this);
if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
File file = fc.getSelectedFile();
     try {
               img = ImageIO.read(file);
                    catch (IOException e1) {
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
     super.paintComponent(g);
g.drawImage(img, 500, 500, null);
private static void createAndShowGUI() {
//Create and set up the window.
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Photo Editor");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
//Create a main label to put in the content pane.
JLabel main = new JLabel();
// main.setOpaque(true);
// main.setBackground(new Color(128, 128, 128));
main.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(800, 600));
//Set the menu bar and add the label to the content pane.
PhotoEditor mainmenu = new PhotoEditor();
frame.setJMenuBar(mainmenu.createMenuBar());
     frame.getContentPane().add(mainmenu.createToolBar(), BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
frame.getContentPane().add(main, BorderLayout.CENTER);
//Display the window.
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
public static void main(String[] args) {
//Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
//creating and showing this application's GUI.
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowGUI();

Answer 1

Your PhotoEditor class extends JPanel. In that class you override paintComponent(). But you never add the panel to the GUI, so that method is never invoked.
Personally I would have the PhotoEditor class extend JFrame. Then in the constructor you build all the components for the frame
a) build the menu
b) build the toolbar
Then I would create a PhotoPanel class that you extend and override the paintComponent(). Then you add this panel to the GUI as your main panel.
For a simple example of drawing a background image on a panel search the forum for my BackgroundImage example.