retreiving text

[droidus]

I am prompting a user for a response in my program. here is my code that puts in the prompt:

String answer = gui.askGetInput("There were errors creating the file.  Would you like to continue ahead with diagnostics? (Type \"y\" or \"yes\", or \"n\" or \"no\".) This will only take a minute.");

and then the method:

public String askGetInput(String outText) {
		// Update textArea with question
		writeToTextArea(outText);
		jbtnSubmit.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
			public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
				// Wait for the user to respond, and press the submit button
			}
		});
		return uI.getText();
	}

i tried adding this inside the actionPerformed:

userInput = uI.getText();

But i got this error:

Cannot refer to a non-final variable userInput inside an inner class defined in a different method

How can i work this, so that i can return a value once as the user hits submit? i know i can't return anything in the actionPerformed method...

[KevinWorkman]

With this approach, you won't be returning anything. More likely, you'll be calling a separate function that indicates the user has pressed the button and the program should continue. You might also want to look into using a dialog though.

[droidus]

why would a dialog be better? what would be some benefits of that? i thought it may get annoying everytime i wanted to ask them for something, a pop-up would appear.

[KevinWorkman]

The benefits are that a dialog can block the main window and allow you to return a value from that method. Your approach will not. I understand why you're taking your approach, but if you want to be able to return something from that method, a dialog is the way to go.

[droidus]

hm, would there be a better way about designing this program that you would recommend? or is the dialog definitely the way to go?

[KevinWorkman]

hm, would there be a better way about designing this program that you would recommend? or is the dialog definitely the way to go?

It's really up to you. I feel you on the annoyance with too many dialogs. You can take your approach, but you won't be able to just return a value- you'll have to do whatever blocking of the GUI you need to do (if any), then respond appropriately when the user presses the button. It's not really complicated, it's just different from what you seem to be expecting.

[droidus]

basically, to give a general overview, my program is a tasks manager. it asks if you would like to edit, list, delete tasks. from there then, it takes action. what task number would you like to delete? which one would you like to modify? please modify each field to modify the existing task. i was thinking maybe something like text fields for when modifying a task, so that i could just print to these text fields so they can easily modify them. anyone else have any other ideas?