Question

So basicly I’m a little confused here, I’m using WindowsPro Builder plugin for eclipse, and it makes all the JFrame components in a custom initialize () class. This creates a question for me, normally I define my components in the beginning so I can access them publicly trough my program. No I have a second class, but i cant access my components. For example I cant figure out how to make a unified ActionListener for the whole initialize class.

I also want to get the input from the textarea, but how can I do so? When everything is outside the scope? As you can se i call the class SaveToFile, in that class i want to get the input from the textarea, but how would i do this?

 import javax.swing.*;


 public class FunctionsGUI  {

private JFrame frame;

/**
 * Launch the application.
 */
public static void main(String[] args) {
    EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            try {
                FunctionsGUI window = new FunctionsGUI();
                window.frame.setVisible(true);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    });
}

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

}

/**
 * Initialize the contents of the frame.
 */
private void initialize ()   {

    try {
          UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
        } catch(Exception e) {
          System.out.println("Error setting native LAF: " + e);
        }

    frame = new JFrame();
    frame.setBounds(100, 100, 571, 531);
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    SpringLayout springLayout = new SpringLayout();
    frame.getContentPane().setLayout(springLayout);

    JTextPane textPane = new JTextPane();
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, textPane, 10, SpringLayout.NORTH, frame.getContentPane());
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, textPane, 10, SpringLayout.WEST, frame.getContentPane());
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.SOUTH, textPane, 462, SpringLayout.NORTH, frame.getContentPane());
    springLayout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.EAST, textPane, 545, SpringLayout.WEST, frame.getContentPane());
    frame.getContentPane().add(textPane);
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    frame.setTitle("Calcolo");


    JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
    frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);

    JMenu mnFile = new JMenu("File");
    menuBar.add(mnFile);

    final JMenuItem mntmSave = new JMenuItem("Save");
    mntmSave.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            SaveToFile sv = new SaveToFile();
        }
    });
    mnFile.add(mntmSave);

    JMenu mnOptions = new JMenu("Options");
    menuBar.add(mnOptions);

    JMenu mnHelp = new JMenu("Help");
    menuBar.add(mnHelp);

    final JMenuItem AboutMenu = new JMenuItem("About");
    AboutMenu.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            if (e.getSource().equals(AboutMenu)) {
                 JDialog dialog = new JDialog();
                    dialog.setTitle("Search Dialog");
                    dialog.getContentPane().add(new JLabel("Just a test"));
                    dialog.setSize(300,300);
                    dialog.setDefaultCloseOperation(JDialog.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
                    dialog.setLocationRelativeTo(frame);
                    dialog.setVisible(true);

            if (e.getSource().equals(mntmSave));
                SaveToFile sv = new SaveToFile ();
            }
        }
    });
    mnHelp.add(AboutMenu);

}
}

Answer 1

I would like to show you a way. Have a constructor in SaveToFile class which can accept String as below. Pass the text from you textpane to this constructor or method as String. Or even a method is good. But have any one of these two.

public class SaveToFile {

    public SaveToFile(String textinput) {
        System.out.println(textinput);
    }

    // if you prefer to have a differrent method do like below.

    public void doSomething(String textinput) {
            System.out.println(textinput);
    }
}

Now change your listener to like like below,

final JMenuItem mntmSave = new JMenuItem("Save");
    mntmSave.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            SaveToFile sv = new SaveToFile(textPane.getText());
        }
});

If you don’t want a constructor then,

final JMenuItem mntmSave = new JMenuItem("Save");
        mntmSave.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                  SaveToFile sv = new SaveToFile();
                  sv.doSomething(textPane.getText());
            }
});

What I am doing is I’m sending a text from the textpanel to the SaveToFile class. There you can use this String. Make sure that you declare JTextPane as final like below

final JTextPane textPane = new JTextPane();

Now you got a text from textpane whcih is in another class to SaveToFile class. As I said its just “A Way not THE way”.