Need help with printing console output to JTextArea

[ShinTec]

Hi forum
Im trying to find a solution to printing the console output to a JTextArea that is on a JPanel. I have found i simple solution by coverting the system.out.printf() in my code to using string.format and then assigning them to String values. But this is becaming more trouble then it worth. Is there a better way of doing this or are there any java swing books/ebook that explain how to this. Any help would be much appreciated thank you in advance

[camickr]

Message Console

[DarrylBurke]

Check out camickr's Message Console.

db

[ShinTec]

Alright how do i implement this thing cant add it to the panel directly what am i doing wrong heres my code

votePanelCode

import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintStream;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.util.ListIterator;

public class VotePanel extends JPanel implements ActionListener 
{
	//public attributes
	public static final int NO_OF_CHAR = 40;
	public static final int NO_OF_LINES = 15;
	//private attributes
	private JTextField fileOutputField;
	private JButton browseButton; 
	private JButton runElection;
	private JTextArea voteAreaOutput;
	private JScrollPane voteText; 
	
	/*this is for storing the name of the file
	 * retrieved by JFileChooser*/
	private String statefile;
	/*using election class in the actionPerformed()*/
	Election elec = new Election();
	
	
	//constuctor
	public VotePanel()
	{
		/*setting panelBackground color*/
		setBackground(Color.gray);
		
		fileOutputField = new JTextField(NO_OF_CHAR);
		fileOutputField.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
		fileOutputField.setEditable(false);
		
		//buttons for votePanel
		/*this button is for browsing the file*/
		browseButton = new JButton("Browse");
		browseButton.addActionListener(this);
	
		/*This button to run the election*/
		runElection = new JButton("Run Election");
		runElection.addActionListener(this);
		
		/*This is the textArea which will display the output of a program*/
		voteAreaOutput = new JTextArea();
		
		//voteAreaOutput.setEditable(false);
		//voteAreaOutput.setBackground(Color.white);
		 
		 /*Scroll bar for textArea*/
		//voteText = new JScrollPane(voteAreaOutput);
		//voteText.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
		
		/**/
		MessageConsole mc = new MessageConsole(voteAreaOutput);
		mc.redirectOut();
		mc.redirectErr();
		mc.setMessageLines(100);
		
		
		
		
		
		
		/*this section is where i add shit to the JPanel*/
		add(fileOutputField);
		add(browseButton);
		add(runElection);
		
		
	}
	
	
	@Override
	public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
	{
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		String buttonPressed = e.getActionCommand();
		
		if(buttonPressed.equals("Browse"))
		{
			String filename = File.separator+"tmp";
			JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser(new File(filename));

			// Show open dialog; this method does not return until the dialog is closed
			fc.showOpenDialog(new VotePanel());
			File selFile = fc.getSelectedFile();
			
			/*setting the variable stateName and setting the output of the JTextField*/
			setStatefile(selFile.getName());
			fileOutputField.setText(getStatefile());
		}
		if(buttonPressed.equals("Run Election"))
		{
			elec.seatFileReadIn(getStatefile());
			
			ListIterator<Seat> testL = elec.getsL().listIterator();
			Seat s = null;
			/*reading in parties and the votes*/
			while(testL.hasNext())
			{
				s = testL.next();
				s.partyFileReadIn();
				s.voteFileReadIn();
				s.CalculateSeatWinner();
			}
			
			elec.printOverallresult();
			
			
			
		}
		
	}

	//get set methods
	public void setStatefile(String statefile) 
	{
		this.statefile = statefile;
	}
	//-------------------------------------
	public String getStatefile() 
	{
		return this.statefile;
	}
	
}

and my JFrame code

import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.io.PrintWriter;

public class GuiMain extends JFrame 
{
	//public attributes
	/*frame size*/
	public static final int WIDTH = 1024;
	public static final int HEIGTH = 786;
	
	//private
	private JTabbedPane theTab;
	private static JTextArea test;
	
	/*Main*/
	public static void main(String[] args) 
	{
		GuiMain runGui = new GuiMain();
		runGui.setVisible(true);
	}
	
	/*constructors*/
	public GuiMain()
	{
		/*Naming JFrame*/
		super("Raymonds Voting Program");
		/*set size of window*/
		setSize(WIDTH,HEIGHT);
		/*setting default close operation*/
		setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		
		
		
		/*adding Panels to tab panel*/
		theTab = new JTabbedPane();
		theTab.add("Run",new VotePanel());
		theTab.add("Query",new SqlPanel());
		
		/*add tabbed panel to JFrame*/
		add(theTab);
	}
}

[ShinTec]

aww dont worry i fixed it . Ohhhhhhh it works beautifully thanks camickr and Darryl.Burke for this god send really appreciate it:D