Creating an actionlistener from a method in another class

Question

Hi well my code so far does something like this: Click a button, opens a combobox. I want to select an option on the ComboBox and depending on which option is picked i want to open another combobox using getSelectIndex().

Here are parts of my code which are relevant. I know I have to make the other comboboxes not visible or removed but at the moment I'm just trying to make a combobox appear. As you can see i have inserted the actionlistener for the button which works and opens the combobox.however when selecting a string in the combobox no event occurs. However when I run it, no comboboxes appear.

public class Work extends JFrame {
// variables for JPanel

  private JPanel buttonPanel;
  private JButton timeButton;

   public Work() 
 {
       setLayout(new BorderLayout()); 

      buttonPanel = new JPanel();
  buttonPanel.setBackground(Color.RED);
  buttonPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 500));
      add(buttonPanel,BorderLayout.WEST);
      timeButton = new JButton("Time"); 
  buttonPanel.add(timeButton);


  buttontime clickTime = new buttontime(); // event created when time button is clicked
  timeButton.addActionListener(clickTime);

    Time timeObject = new Time();
  timeObject.SelectTime();
  buttontime2 selectDest = new buttontime2();
  timeObject.getAirportBox().addActionListener(selectDest);



   }



       public class buttontime implements ActionListener { //creating actionlistener for clicking on timebutton to bring up a combobox
  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent clickTime)  {
           Time timeObject = new Time();
           timeObject.SelectTime();
           add(timeObject.getTimePanel(),BorderLayout.EAST);
           timeObject.getTimePanel().setVisible(true); 
           timeObject.getTimePanel().revalidate() ;
           timeObject.getAirportBox().setVisible(true);


  }
  }





          public class buttontime2 implements ActionListener{
  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent selectDest) {
   Time timeObject = new Time();
  timeObject.SelectTime();


  if(timeObject.getAirportBox().getSelectedIndex() == 1) {



  timeObject.getEastMidBox().setVisible(true);

  }

  else if(timeObject.getAirportBox().getSelectedIndex() == 2) {

  timeObject.getBirmBox().setVisible(true);
 }
  else if(timeObject.getAirportBox().getSelectedIndex() == 3) {

  timeObject.getMancbox().setVisible(true);
  }
  else if(timeObject.getAirportBox().getSelectedIndex() == 4) { 
 timeObject.getHeathBox().setVisible(true);
  }   

   }
  }



public static void main (String args[]) {
events mainmenu = new events(); //object is created


mainmenu.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
mainmenu.setSize(800,500);
mainmenu.setVisible(true);
mainmenu.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
mainmenu.setTitle("Learning how to use GUI");
mainmenu.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
mainmenu.setResizable(false);

}
}

my other class TIME

          import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

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

 class Time
{

  private JComboBox timeAirportbox;//comboboxes declared
  private JComboBox eastMidbox;
  private JComboBox mancBox;
  private JComboBox heathBox;
  private JComboBox birmBox;
  private String[] airport = {"","EM", "Bham", "Manc", "Heath"};//array of airports   declared
  private String[] destination = {"","NY", "Cali", "FlO", "MIAMI", "Tokyo"};//array      of    destinations declared
  private JPanel timePanel;

    public void SelectTime() {



 //combobox objects created

  timePanel = new JPanel();
  timePanel.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
  timePanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 400));

  timeAirportbox = new JComboBox(airport);//array is inserted into the JComboBox
  timePanel.add(timeAirportbox);
  timeAirportbox.setVisible(false);


  eastMidbox  = new JComboBox(destination);
  timePanel.add(eastMidbox);
  eastMidbox.setVisible(false);

  mancBox = new JComboBox(destination);
  timePanel.add(mancBox);
  mancBox.setVisible(false);

  heathBox = new JComboBox(destination);
  timePanel.add(heathBox);
  heathBox.setVisible(false);

  birmBox = new JComboBox(destination);
  timePanel.add(birmBox);
  birmBox.setVisible(false);




}



    public JPanel getTimePanel() {
    return timePanel;
    }

    public JComboBox getAirportBox() {
    return timeAirportbox;      
    }

    public JComboBox getEastMidBox() {  
    return eastMidbox;
    }       

   public JComboBox getMancbox() {
    return mancBox;
    }

  public JComboBox getHeathBox() {
    return heathBox;
    }

  public JComboBox getBirmBox()  {
    return birmBox;
    }       





    }

Answer 1

The Time object that is built in Work constructor is not used:

  Time timeObject = new Time();
  timeObject.SelectTime();
  buttontime2 selectDest = new buttontime2();
  timeObject.getAirportBox().addActionListener(selectDest);

As you are only applying the action listener selectedDest to the combobox of that timeObject, which is not used, then the listener will never be called.

You can do two things to make it work:

• Move the code that creates the listener and assign it to the combox in the first listener buttontime
• Create the Time object only once and store it as a member of your Work instance. As your listener is a non-static inner classes of the Work class, it will be able to use it instead of creating a new Time object.

Edit: I didn't see that in your second listener, you were AGAIN building a new Time object. This object is really a different one than the one you have created earlier, so modifying one will not affect the other. You really should create the Time object once and store it as a member variable of your Work class, and then use this object in your listeners instead of recreating it.

To be clear, do it like this:

public class Work extends JFrame {

    // ...

    private Time timeObject;

    public Work() {

        // ...

        timeObject = new Time();
        timeObject.SelectTime();
        buttontime2 selectDest = new buttontime2();
        timeObject.getAirportBox().addActionListener(selectDest);

    }

    public class buttontime implements ActionListener {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent clickTime)  {
            // use timeObject, don't create it and don't call SelectTime()
            // example:
            add(timeObject.getTimePanel(),BorderLayout.EAST);
            // ....
        }
    }

    public class buttontime2 implements ActionListener {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent clickTime)  {
            // use timeObject, don't create it and don't call SelectTime()

        }
    }
}

Also to note:

• You should not extends JFrame, there is no reason to do so. Refactor your code so that your frame is just a member variable of your Work class.
• Follow Java standard code conventions, especially use case properly with class names: buttonlistener should be ButtonListener, and method should start with lowercase: SelectTime should be selectTime.