Ability to access a Text Area from a different class

Question

How would i be able to run this function from my main() to build the gui, and then use code from elsewhere to handle the button click and retrieve input from the text field?

package main;

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

public class Gui {

public static void mainGUI() {
    UIManager.put("swing.boldMetal", Boolean.FALSE);
    java.net.URL imgApp = ClassLoader.getSystemResource("res/app.png");
    JFrame mainWin = new JFrame("jIRC");
    mainWin.setSize(1024, 720);
    mainWin.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    mainWin.setIconImage(new ImageIcon(imgApp).getImage());

    Container panel = mainWin.getContentPane();
    panel.setLayout(null);

    JTextArea inputBox = new JTextArea();
    inputBox.setSize(300, 100);
    inputBox.setLocation(500, 250);

    JButton sendButton = new JButton();
    sendButton.setText("Send");
    sendButton.setFont(new Font("Helvetica", Font.ITALIC, 16));
    sendButton.setSize(72, 32);
    sendButton.setLocation(500, 500);

    panel.add(inputBox);
    panel.add(sendButton);
    mainWin.setVisible(true);
}
}

Here's my class with the main function:

public class Run{

public static void main(String[] args) {

    main.Debug.startupDebug();
    main.Gui.mainGUI();
}
}

How would I go about placing some of my code in a non-static field?

Hovercraft Full Of Eels · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-03T23:11:40.740

4

You've got everything in a static method, and that won't allow you to use any of the power of object-oriented programming. Consider creating OOP-compliant classes non-static fields and methods and with public getter and setter methods, and this way other classes can affect the behavior of this class.

Edit
You posted:

public class Run{ 
  public static void main(String[] args) { 
    main.Debug.startupDebug(); 
    main.Gui.mainGUI(); 
  } 
}

But what you need to do instead is something like:

public class Run{ 
  public static void main(String[] args) { 
    GUI gui = new GUI();
    Debug debug = new Debug();

     debug.setGui(gui);
     gui.setDebug(debug);

     gui.startGui();
  } 
}

Or something similar. Again avoid using static anything.

edited Apr 03 '13 at 23:11

answered Apr 03 '13 at 23:04

Hovercraft Full Of Eels

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@DrZarreh: please post this code as an edit to your question since code does not format well in comments. – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Apr 03 '13 at 23:08
@DrZarreh: if you want to leverage Java to its fullest, yes, you will not regret this. – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Apr 03 '13 at 23:19
@DrZarreh: if you want to see a bigger example of having separate classes handle the GUI or view portion vs the listener or control section, please have a look at my answer in [this question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15728619/using-a-jfilechooser-with-swing-gui-classes-and-listeners/15729267#15729267). – Hovercraft Full Of Eels Apr 03 '13 at 23:21
I'm taking a look at it now, and im cleaning up my code abit. – Dr Zarreh Apr 03 '13 at 23:44

Ability to access a Text Area from a different class

1 Answers1