calling JPanel's JTextField from another JPanel class

[k2k]

hi, i have a JPanel class which has a form liked constructor. I would like to get data from the JTextFieldss in the constructor by another class which needs the JTextField info. please see code below and point out reason pan.idField not working. thanks very much.

// this is the class having the constructor i need to call from another class
import java.sql.*;
import java.text.MessageFormat;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class RecordCP extends JPanel implements ActionListener
{
	private DataHolder dh = new DataHolder();
	private JFrame frame; 
	private JTextField idField, fnField, lnField, phoneField, addField, cityField, stateField, zipField, 
	                   sexField, ageField, hourlyField, hoursField;
	private JButton saveButton, cancelButton, updateButton, searchButton, searchPreButton, clearButton;
	private int id, age;
	private String fn=null, ln=null, phone=null, add=null, city=null, state=null, zip=null, sex=null;
	private double hourly, hours;
	private LinkedList<Employee> employeeList = new LinkedList<Employee>();
	private int count=-1, countTotal=0;
	
	public RecordCP(JFrame frame)
	{
		this.frame = frame;
		GridLayout gl = new GridLayout(15,2);   // for the main panel
		//panel = new JPanel();
		this.setBackground(java.awt.Color.white);
		this.setLayout(gl);
		
		//////the labels and fields /////// 
		this.add(new JLabel("Employee Serial #:"));
		idField = new JTextField();
		this.add(idField);
		this.add(new JLabel("First Name:"));
		fnField = new JTextField();
		this.add(fnField);
		this.add(new JLabel("Last Name:"));
		lnField = new JTextField();
		this.add(lnField);
		this.add(new JLabel("Telephone:"));
		phoneField = new JTextField();
		this.add(phoneField);
		this.add(new JLabel("Address:"));
		addField = new JTextField();
		this.add(addField);
		this.add(new JLabel("City:"));
		cityField = new JTextField();
		this.add(cityField);
		this.add(new JLabel("State:"));
		stateField = new JTextField();
		this.add(stateField);
		this.add(new JLabel("Zip Code:"));
		zipField = new JTextField();
		this.add(zipField);
		this.add(new JLabel("Sex:"));
		sexField = new JTextField();
		this.add(sexField);
		this.add(new JLabel("Age:"));
		ageField = new JTextField();
		this.add(ageField);
		this.add(new JLabel("Hourly Rate:"));
		hourlyField = new JTextField();
		this.add(hourlyField);
		this.add(new JLabel("Hours per week:"));
		hoursField = new JTextField();
		this.add(hoursField);
		    
	    saveButton = new JButton("Add Record");
	    //saveButton.addActionListener(this);
	    saveButton.addActionListener(new AddRecord(this));  --> parsing 
	    this.add(saveButton);
  // ... more code but i didn't put it here

// this is the class i need the JTextField from the above class's constructor
import java.sql.*;
import java.text.MessageFormat;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class AddRecord implements ActionListener 
{
	private JPanel pan;
	
	AddRecord(JPanel p)
	{
		this.pan = p;     /// the above class's JPanel becomes the JP here
		
	}

	
	public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
	{
		if(pan.g.idField.getText().equals(""))  /// why this doesn't work???
		{
			JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Employee ID must be entered!");
			status=false;
		}

[Fubarable]

Your main problem that I see (besides someone posting spam after your post) is that your pan variable in the GetRecord class is a JPanel variable, not a RecordCP variable. So pan has no knowledge of RecordCP's fields, methods, etc.

Regardless, my recommendation is to keep RecordCP's fields private and only allow them to be accessed by public getters. One way to do this (simplified by use of "magic numbers", sorry) is like so:

MyGui.java

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class MyGui
{
  // mainpanel holds all of gui components
  private JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
  private JTextField idField = new JTextField(10);
  private JTextField fnField = new JTextField(10);
  private JTextField lnField = new JTextField(10);
  private JTextField[] fields = {idField, fnField, lnField};
  private String[] labelStrs = 
    {"Employee Serial #:", "First Name:", "Last Name"};
  private JButton saveBtn = new JButton("Add Record");

  public MyGui()
  {
    // each a one column grid
    JPanel labelPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1, 5, 5));
    JPanel fieldPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1, 5, 5));
    for (int i = 0; i < fields.length; i++)
    {
      labelPanel.add(new JLabel(labelStrs[i]));
      fieldPanel.add(fields[i]);
    }
    
    JButton quitBtn = new JButton("Quit");
    quitBtn.addActionListener(new QuitListener());
    
    JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 0, 15, 0));
    buttonPanel.add(saveBtn);
    buttonPanel.add(quitBtn);
    
    int ebgap = 5;
    mainPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(ebgap, ebgap, ebgap, ebgap));
    // make borderlayout to allow easy placement of grid columns
    mainPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout(10, 10));
    mainPanel.add(labelPanel, BorderLayout.WEST);
    mainPanel.add(fieldPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    mainPanel.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH); // buttons on bottom
  }
  
  private class QuitListener implements ActionListener
  {
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
    {
      // get the root window that holds the mainPanel
      Window win = SwingUtilities.getWindowAncestor(mainPanel);
      // and dispose of it
      win.dispose();
    }
  }
  
  // public method to allow control class to add action listener 
  // to save button
  public void addSaveBtnListener(ActionListener al)
  {
    saveBtn.addActionListener(al);
  }
  
  // public getters for all the text fields.  Better would be to 
  // have a HashMap of JTextFields and use the label strings as a 
  // "property" that allows us to extract the text from a chosen
  // field
  public String getId()
  {
    return idField.getText();
  }
  
  public String getFirstName()
  {
    return fnField.getText();
  }
  
  public String getLastName()
  {
    return lnField.getText();
  }

  // get the mainPanel so can be placed in JFrame
  public JComponent getMainJPanel()
  {
    return mainPanel;
  }

}

MyAddRecord.java

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

public class MyAddRecord implements ActionListener
{
  private MyGui gui;
  
  public MyAddRecord(MyGui gui)
  {
    this.gui = gui;
  }

  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0)
  {
    System.out.println("ID is: " + gui.getId());
    System.out.println("First Name: " + gui.getFirstName());
    System.out.println("Last Name: " + gui.getLastName());
  }

}

MyMain

import javax.swing.JFrame;

public class MyMain
{
  private static void createAndShowUI()
  {
    MyGui gui = new MyGui();
    gui.addSaveBtnListener(new MyAddRecord(gui));
    
    JFrame frame = new JFrame("GUI");
    frame.getContentPane().add(gui.getMainJPanel());
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.pack();
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    frame.setVisible(true);
  }

  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
    {
      public void run()
      {
        createAndShowUI();
      }
    });
  }
}

[k2k]

very good suggestion, thanks

[Fubarable]

You're quite welcome!