How to make my Java destop application show an image before it starts?

Question

I'm using NetBeans IDE 6.8 (Mac Version). which tool of their GUI builder will assist me in doing this?

What I want is is to show the user an image while my application is loading for couple of seconds before I show him the application. How can I do that? initializing

Answer 1

If you have Java 6 installed, checkout the Splash-Screen tutorial.

Answer 2

actually, you can do that by using the -splash flag in the java program... for example, you want to show the image splash.jpg when you run main.class,

so what you will do is,

java -splash:pathoftheimage/splash.jpg main

Answer 3

As you're running on a MAC you probably won't have access to Java 6 and so will have to build the splashscreen yourself. You should run code similar to the following early in your initialisation cycle (i.e. so that the splashscreen dialog is displayed for the maximum amount of time).

JDialog dlg = new JDialog();
// Remove dialog decorations to make it look like a splashscreen.
dlg.setUndecorated(true);
dlg.setModal(true);
dlg.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
// Load image.
ImageIcon img = new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/foo/bar/splash.png");
// Add image to center of dialog.
dlg.add(img, BorderLayout.CENTER);
dlg.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
dlg.setVisible(true);

// ... Perform application initialisation here.

// Initialisation complete so hide dialog.
dlg.setVisible(false);
dlg = null;