Adding JPanel/Containers/Images/JButtons/Etc Ontop of a Background image?

Question

Been searching around yet to no avail on how I can essentially add Objects on top of a contentpane/background image. Essentially I have to create a Board Game and my task is to make the GUI. I need to make a Center location to hold my pieces then be able to move the pieces to the spots. As of right now I just have a background image of my board and would like to add components to make it interactive yet, I cant seem to overlay the interactive components on top of my background image.

Here's my code:

public class Lotus{

    private static JPanel _panel = new JPanel(); 
    private static JFrame _frame = new JFrame("Lotus"); 
    private static Container _pieces = new Container(); 

    public static void main(String[] args){
        /**

        JLabel A = new JLabel("");
        A.setOpaque(true);
        A.setBackground(Color.BLACK);
        _frame.add(_pieces); 
        _pieces.add(A); 
        _frame.setAlwaysOnTop(_pieces);
                */

        try{

            _frame.setContentPane(new JLabel(new ImageIcon(
                 ImageIO.read(new File("C:\\Users\\Martin\\Pictures\\pic625580.jpg")))));

        }catch(IOException e){

            System.out.println("Image is not Found.");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        Toolkit tk = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();  
        int xSize = ((int)tk.getScreenSize().getWidth());  
        int ySize = ((int)tk.getScreenSize().getHeight());  
        _frame.setSize(xSize,ySize); 
        Container contentPane = _frame.getContentPane();
        contentPane.setLayout(null); 
        _frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); 
        //_frame.pack();
        _frame.setVisible(true);

        /**
        JLayeredPane mainLayer = new JLayeredPane();
        _frame.add(mainLayer, BorderLayout.CENTER); 
        JLabel label = new JLabel("LABEL", JLabel.CENTER); 
        label.setBounds(100,100,200,100);
        label.setOpaque(false);
        _frame.getContentPane().setComponentZOrder(label, 0);
        //label.setVisible(true); 
        label.setBackground(Color.CYAN);
        mainLayer.add(label,1); 
        mainLayer.moveToFront(_frame);
        */    
    }

EDIT:

Ok so I tried the approach below yet, my JFrame is now not showing up, and looking the Java console for some reason it is terminating the program. Code:

public static void main(String[] args){

    class Board extends JPanel{

        JFrame _frame = new JFrame("Lotus");

        Image image = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage("C:\\Users\\Martin\\Pictures\\pic625580.jpg");

        public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {

            JLabel A = new JLabel("");
            A.setOpaque(true);
            A.setBackground(Color.BLACK);

            Board b = new Board(); 
            _frame.setContentPane(b);
            _frame.setVisible(true);
            _frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

            super.paintComponent(g); 
            g.drawImage(image,0,0,A); 
            g.fillOval( 50,50,5,5 ); 

    }
        public Dimension getPreferredSize() {

            return new Dimension( 300,300); 


    }

Answer 1

You'll have to subclass JPanel overriding paintComponent to do the drawing stuff. For instance:

public class Board extends JPanel {

    Image image = ... // load it here

    public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        super.paintComponent(g); // fatal

        g.drawImage(image,0,0,this); // omitted label

        g.fillOval( 50,50,5,5 ) // circle 5x5 at pixel 50x50

        // etc.
    }
}

Now you should also override getPreferredSize , to tell the layout manager how big the board should be:

    public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
        return new Dimension(300,300) // your required size...
    }

Then set Board as the content pane.