loading disk image into NSImage - swift

Question

I am trying to create a CALayer to apply to my view. But, before I even get to that I cannot get an image to load from disk.
What am I doing wrong?
import Cocoa
class ViewController: NSViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
let image = NSImage(contentsOfFile: "/Users/Shared/background.png")!
let imageView = NSImageView(image: image)
self.view.addSubview(imageView)
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
}
override var representedObject: Any? {
didSet {
// Update the view, if already loaded.
}
}
}
I have used contentsOfFile as well as byReferencingFile and it doesn't change the behavior. The file exists at that path.
UPDATE: This doesn't work either.
import Cocoa
class ViewController: NSViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
let fileURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/Users/carroll/Desktop/background.jpg")
let image = NSImage(contentsOf: fileURL)
print(image)
let imageView = NSImageView(image: image)
self.view.addSubview(imageView)
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
}
override var representedObject: Any? {
didSet {
// Update the view, if already loaded.
}
}
}
So this is what is printing to the console:
Optional(<NSImage 0x600003310aa0 Size={576, 828} Reps=(
"NSBitmapImageRep 0x60000260e4c0 Size={576, 828} ColorSpace=(not yet > loaded) BPS=8 BPP=(not yet loaded) Pixels=2400x3450 Alpha=NO Planar=NO Format=(not yet loaded) CurrentBacking=nil (faulting) CGImageSource=0x600000246a60"
)>)
2020-08-10 11:46:57.767358-0500 My App[83208:8822749] Metal API Validation Enabled
2020-08-10 11:46:57.832881-0500 My App[83208:8822749] VPA info: plugin is INTEL, AVD_id = 1080010, AVD_api.Create:0x131373c15
From what I see above from the print statement it looks like it is getting the image, but it shows not loaded yet and then for the CurrentBacking it shows nil (faulting).
UPDATE 2 I was able to get the background to display, but I do not understand why this works and why I have to have set self.view.wantsLayer = true when the Apple Documentation says this property is already set to true as default.
import Cocoa
class ViewController: NSViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.view.wantsLayer = true
let image = NSImage(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: "/Users/Shared/background.jpg"))
self.view.layer?.contents = image
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
}
override var representedObject: Any? {
didSet {
// Update the view, if already loaded.
}
}
}