Get text field information from one class and show it on a JTextArea on another class

Question

I have a class BasicInfoWindow that gets the user information such as name, address, etc. I then have another class ReviewandSubmit where it show the the texts the user entered from BasicInfoWindow in the JTextArea. I am using card layout to switch between each panel. I am not sure how to send the info from BasicInfoWindow and receive it from ReviewandSubmit. Here is my code so far:

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

public class Main extends JPanel
{
    private static void createAndShowGUI()
    {
        final Main test = new Main();

        JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());

    JPanel southPanel = new JPanel();
    buttonPanel.add(southPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

    final JButton btnNext = new JButton("NEXT");
    final JButton btnPrev = new JButton("PREVIOUS");

    buttonPanel.add(btnNext, BorderLayout.EAST);
    buttonPanel.add(btnPrev, BorderLayout.WEST);

    btnNext.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
    {
        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
        {
            test.nextCard();
        }

    });

    btnPrev.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
    {
        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
        {
            test.prevCard();
        }

    });

    JFrame frame = new JFrame("Employment Application");
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.getContentPane().add(test);
    frame.getContentPane().add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    //frame.setSize(750,500);
    frame.pack();
    frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    frame.setResizable(false);
    frame.setVisible(true);
}

public static void main(String [] args)
{
    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
    {
        @Override 
        public void run()
        {
            createAndShowGUI();
        }
    });
}

private CardLayout cardLayout = new CardLayout();
private JPanel cardShowingPanel = new JPanel(cardLayout);

public Main()
{
    BasicInfoWindow window1 = new BasicInfoWindow();
    cardShowingPanel.add(window1, "1");

    EmploymentHistoryWindow window2 = new EmploymentHistoryWindow();
    cardShowingPanel.add(window2, "2");

    EducationAndAvailbleWindow window3 = new EducationAndAvailbleWindow();
    cardShowingPanel.add(window3, "3");

    ReviewAndSubmitWindow window4 = new ReviewAndSubmitWindow();
    cardShowingPanel.add(window4, "4");


    setLayout(new BorderLayout());

    add(cardShowingPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
}

public void nextCard()
{
    cardLayout.next(cardShowingPanel);
}

public void prevCard()
{
    cardLayout.previous(cardShowingPanel);
}

public void showCard(String key)
{
    cardLayout.show(cardShowingPanel, key);
}


}

BasicInfo Class ommitted some methods

public class BasicInfoWindow extends JPanel
{
    private JTextField txtName, txtAddress, txtCity, txtState, txtZipCode, txtPhoneNumber, txtEmail;
    private JComboBox cbDate, cbYear, cbMonth;
    private JLabel labelName, labelAddress, labelCity, labelState, labelZipCode, labelPhoneNumber, labelEmail, labelDOB;
    private JButton btnClear;

    public BasicInfoWindow()
    {
        createView();
    }

    private void createView()
    {
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        add(panel);

        northPanel(panel);

        centerPanel(panel);

        southPanel(panel);
    }

    public ArrayList<HiringPersonInfo> sendInfo()
    {
        String name = txtName.getText();
        String address = txtAddress.getText();
        String city = txtCity.getText();
        String state = txtState.getText();
        String zip = txtZipCode.getText();
        String phone = txtPhoneNumber.getText();
        String email = txtEmail.getText(); 
        String DOB = cbMonth.getSelectedItem() + " " + cbDate.getSelectedItem() + " " + cbYear.getSelectedItem();

        HiringPersonInfo addNewInfo = new HiringPersonInfo(name, address, city, state, zip, phone, email, DOB);

        ArrayList<HiringPersonInfo> personInfo = new ArrayList();
        personInfo.add(addNewInfo);

        return personInfo;

    }

ReviewAndSubmit class

public class ReviewAndSubmitWindow extends JPanel
{
    private JButton btnSubmit;

    public ReviewAndSubmitWindow()
    {
        createView();
    }

    private void createView()
    {
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        add(panel);

        northPanel(panel);
        centerPanel(panel);
        southPanel(panel);
    }

    private void northPanel(JPanel panel)
    {
        JPanel northPanel = new JPanel();
        panel.add(northPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);

        JLabel labelMessage = new JLabel("Review and Submit");
        labelMessage.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 25));
        northPanel.add(labelMessage, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    }

    private void centerPanel(JPanel panel)
    {
        JPanel centerPanel = new JPanel();

        JTextArea showReview = new JTextArea();
        showReview.setLineWrap(true);
        showReview.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        showReview.setEditable(false);
        JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(showReview);
        scrollPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(600, 385));
        centerPanel.add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);

        BasicInfoWindow getInfo = new BasicInfoWindow();
        showReview.append(getInfo.sendInfo().toString());

        panel.add(centerPanel);
    }

    private void southPanel(JPanel panel)
    {
        JPanel southPanel = new JPanel();
        panel.add(southPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

        btnSubmit = new JButton("SUBMIT");
        // creates a new file
        southPanel.add(btnSubmit);
    }   
}

Answer 1

You could use a Singleton Pattern in the HiringPersonInfo class to instantiate one instance of the class and then during the submit you could add that instance of that class to an ArrayList.

Singleton Patterns can be used to create one instance of the object that can be shared by all the classes in that package. You can think of it like a "global" variable in a way for OOP.