How to display a JFreeChart in a JFrame JLabel

Question

I have spent most of the day reading "The JFreeChart Class Library v1.0.13 Developer Guide" and associated examples. I believe I know how to create the chart, I am just not clear on how to display it in a JFrame JLabel. When I tried this

LineChartDemo1 chart = new LineChartDemo1("Chart title");
jLabelChart.add(chart);
chart.setVisible(true);

I got

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: adding a window to a container

I see that what I am trying is illegal, but what approach should I use to display the chart? Should I not be using a JLabel?

/**
 * A simple demonstration application showing how to create a line chart using
 * data from a {@link CategoryDataset}.
 */
public class LineChartDemo1 extends ApplicationFrame {

    /**
     * Creates a new demo.
     *
     * @param title  the frame title.
     */
    public LineChartDemo1(String title) {
        super(title);
        JPanel chartPanel = createDemoPanel();
        chartPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 270));
        setContentPane(chartPanel);
    }

    /**
     * Creates a sample dataset.
     *
     * @return The dataset.
     */
    private static CategoryDataset createDataset() {
        DefaultCategoryDataset dataset = new DefaultCategoryDataset();
        dataset.addValue(212, "Classes", "JDK 1.0");
        dataset.addValue(504, "Classes", "JDK 1.1");
        dataset.addValue(1520, "Classes", "JDK 1.2");
        dataset.addValue(1842, "Classes", "JDK 1.3");
        dataset.addValue(2991, "Classes", "JDK 1.4");
        dataset.addValue(3500, "Classes", "JDK 1.5");
        return dataset;
    }

    /**
     * Creates a sample chart.
     *
     * @param dataset  a dataset.
     *
     * @return The chart.
     */
    private static JFreeChart createChart(CategoryDataset dataset) {

        // create the chart...
        JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createLineChart(
            "Java Standard Class Library",   // chart title
            null,                       // domain axis label
            "Class Count",                   // range axis label
            dataset,                         // data
            PlotOrientation.VERTICAL,        // orientation
            false,                           // include legend
            true,                            // tooltips
            false                            // urls
        );

        chart.addSubtitle(new TextTitle("Number of Classes By Release"));
        TextTitle source = new TextTitle(
                "Source: Java In A Nutshell (5th Edition) "
                + "by David Flanagan (O'Reilly)");
        source.setFont(new Font("SansSerif", Font.PLAIN, 10));
        source.setPosition(RectangleEdge.BOTTOM);
        source.setHorizontalAlignment(HorizontalAlignment.RIGHT);
        chart.addSubtitle(source);

        CategoryPlot plot = (CategoryPlot) chart.getPlot();
        plot.setRangePannable(true);
        plot.setRangeGridlinesVisible(false);
        URL imageURL = LineChartDemo1.class.getClassLoader().getResource(
            "OnBridge11small.png");
        if (imageURL != null) {
            ImageIcon temp = new ImageIcon(imageURL);
            // use ImageIcon because it waits for the image to load...
            chart.setBackgroundImage(temp.getImage());
            plot.setBackgroundPaint(null);
        }
        // customise the range axis...
        NumberAxis rangeAxis = (NumberAxis) plot.getRangeAxis();
        rangeAxis.setStandardTickUnits(NumberAxis.createIntegerTickUnits());

        ChartUtilities.applyCurrentTheme(chart);

        // customise the renderer...
        LineAndShapeRenderer renderer
                = (LineAndShapeRenderer) plot.getRenderer();
        renderer.setBaseShapesVisible(true);
        renderer.setDrawOutlines(true);
        renderer.setUseFillPaint(true);
        renderer.setBaseFillPaint(Color.white);
        renderer.setSeriesStroke(0, new BasicStroke(3.0f));
        renderer.setSeriesOutlineStroke(0, new BasicStroke(2.0f));
        renderer.setSeriesShape(0, new Ellipse2D.Double(-5.0, -5.0, 10.0, 10.0));
        return chart;
    }

    /**
     * Creates a panel for the demo (used by SuperDemo.java).
     *
     * @return A panel.
     */
    public static JPanel createDemoPanel() {
        JFreeChart chart = createChart(createDataset());
        ChartPanel panel = new ChartPanel(chart);
        panel.setMouseWheelEnabled(true);
        return panel;
    }

    /**
     * Starting point for the demonstration application.
     *
     * @param args  ignored.
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LineChartDemo1 demo = new LineChartDemo1(
                "JFreeChart: LineChartDemo1.java");
        demo.pack();
        RefineryUtilities.centerFrameOnScreen(demo);
        demo.setVisible(true);
    }

}

Answer 1

Your example code works perfectly, but I don't see any point in putting your ChartPanel (a subclass of JPanel) in a JLabel. Note that LineChartDemo1 extends ApplicationFrame (a subclass of JFrame), which inherits the latter's default BorderLayout. You can add your chart to the center and place other components accordingly.

public LineChartDemo1(String title) {
    super(title);
    JPanel chartPanel = createDemoPanel();
    chartPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 270));
    this.add(chartPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    this.add(new JLabel("Mouse wheel!", JLabel.CENTER), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
}

Here's a related demo, and don't overlook the examples in org.jfree.chart.demo. For convenience, each of the API docs links to the corresponding source code.