Java JFrame Window not appearing when run from Eclipse

Question

A very simple problem. I try to run a very simple demo to created and display a Window Frame from Eclipse, and nothing happens. No errors, no window, the code runs to completion.

I added breakpoints and made sure the code runs as expected. The code is straight from Java tutorials (FrameDemo), I just renamed the package to fit where I placed it (other code from this package runs fine):

package ui;

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

/* FrameDemo.java requires no other files. */
public class FrameDemo {
    /**
     * Create the GUI and show it.  For thread safety,
     * this method should be invoked from the
     * event-dispatching thread.
     */
    private static void createAndShowGUI() {
        //Create and set up the window.
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("FrameDemo");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        JLabel emptyLabel = new JLabel("");
        emptyLabel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(175, 100));
        frame.getContentPane().add(emptyLabel, 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();
            }
        });
    }
}

My setup (Kepler SR2):

eclipse.buildId=4.3.2.M20140221-1700
java.version=1.8.0_05
java.vendor=Oracle Corporation
BootLoader constants: OS=macosx, ARCH=x86_64, WS=cocoa, NL=en_US
Framework arguments: -product org.eclipse.epp.package.java.product -keyring /Users/steve/.eclipse_keyring -showlocation
Command-line arguments: -os macosx -ws cocoa -arch x86_64 -product org.eclipse.epp.package.java.product -keyring /Users/steve/.eclipse_keyring -showlocation

I also checked Configuration -> error logs; still nothing, no errors. I tried other similar demos, same results.

Any help would be appreciated as I have been stuck on this for over a day.

It should display as I see nothing wrong with the code. Have you tried re-loading Eclipse from scratch? — Hovercraft Full Of Eels
Have you tried running it using a different IDE or from the terminal? — Dioxin
@Vince - exporting it to a jar, and then running it from the terminal works, the window pops up. — user4061565
@user4061565: no, I wouldn't advise you do that as this site is mainly about answering such questions. Instead, try to write a clean answer to your own question, post it, and then accept it later after the time limit allows. This is the type of stuff we want and need here (I think) because your doing this will likely help future users, and that's what it's all about. — Hovercraft Full Of Eels

user4061565 user4061565 · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-20T18:06:05

It turns out I had a library problem. I had had imported all the jars in the .lib directory from jfreechart. In reality only two were needed and some unnecessary ones were labeled swt and experimental. Once I removed all the ones that were not needed, did a clean, and rebuilt, everything worked fine.

Oddly, changing the order of the jfreechart library (which included the conflicting jars) to the bottom did not help, the extra jars had to be removed.

Not a jfreechart issue, obviously my own library import issue. If you run into this I suggest you try to remove some of the libraries that may be conflicting, then clean, build, and run again.

Thanks to Hovercraft Full Of Eels and everyone else who responded for helping me out.

Java JFrame Window not appearing when run from Eclipse

2 Answers