I've made the initialize method public, didn't help and I've set visible to true both here and the external class as seen below, any help would be appreciated. I created the gui using the window builder tool from eclipse

```
GeneralWindow frame = new GeneralWindow();
                        frame.setVisible(true);

```

package gui;

```
import java.awt.EventQueue;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import java.awt.Font;

public class GeneralWindow extends JFrame{

    private JFrame frame;
    private JTextField textField;

    /**
     * Launch the application.
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        try {
            for (LookAndFeelInfo info : UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels()) {
                if ("Nimbus".equals(info.getName())) {
                    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(info.getClassName());
                    break;
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            // If Nimbus is not available, you can set the GUI to another look and feel.
        }

        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try {
                    GeneralWindow window = new GeneralWindow();
                    window.frame.setVisible(true);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });
    }

    /**
     * Create the application.
     */
    public GeneralWindow() {
        initialize();
    }

    /**
     * Initialize the contents of the frame.
     */
    private void initialize() {
        frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setBounds(100, 100, 450, 300);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.getContentPane().setLayout(null);

        JButton btnNewButton = new JButton("Order");
        btnNewButton.setBounds(309, 12, 115, 23);
        frame.getContentPane().add(btnNewButton);

        JButton btnNewButton_1 = new JButton("Search");
        btnNewButton_1.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            }
        });
        btnNewButton_1.setBounds(309, 46, 115, 23);
        frame.getContentPane().add(btnNewButton_1);

        JButton btnNewButton_2 = new JButton("Stock");
        btnNewButton_2.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
            }
        });
        btnNewButton_2.setBounds(309, 80, 115, 23);
        frame.getContentPane().add(btnNewButton_2);

        JButton btnNewButton_3 = new JButton("Emplyoees");
        btnNewButton_3.setBounds(309, 114, 115, 23);
        frame.getContentPane().add(btnNewButton_3);

        JButton btnNewButton_4 = new JButton("Price Amend");
        btnNewButton_4.setBounds(309, 148, 115, 23);
        frame.getContentPane().add(btnNewButton_4);

        JButton btnNewButton_5 = new JButton("Total");
        btnNewButton_5.setBounds(309, 182, 115, 23);
        frame.getContentPane().add(btnNewButton_5);

        textField = new JTextField();
        textField.setBounds(10, 228, 178, 20);
        frame.getContentPane().add(textField);
        textField.setColumns(10);

        JLabel lblProductcodeBar = new JLabel("Productcode Bar");
        lblProductcodeBar.setFont(new Font("Tahoma", Font.BOLD, 11));
        lblProductcodeBar.setBounds(10, 209, 125, 14);
        frame.getContentPane().add(lblProductcodeBar);

        JButton btnEnter = new JButton("Enter");
        btnEnter.setBounds(198, 227, 89, 23);
        frame.getContentPane().add(btnEnter);

        JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
        textArea.setBounds(10, 11, 277, 196);
        frame.getContentPane().add(textArea);
    }

}

```