Java Swing Validation?

Question

I am trying to create a Blackjack app with swing and I am having difficulty adding new cards when a player clicks hit button. I feel like it has something to do with the JLabel not being validated but I have no idea what that really means or how to fix the issues. Please help...

I am really new to Java swing so it might seem very intuitive problems but I hope someone can explain kindly...

Below is the code that I currently have and it deals two cards each for both dealer and player without duplication of cards but is unable to display newly dealt cards even though the card is chosen as I can see them on console...

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

        @SuppressWarnings("serial")
        public class PlayerHand extends JPanel {

            //declaring private vars

            private JLabel cardPonTable[] = new JLabel[11];
            private int cardP[] = new int[11];
            private Image cardPImage[] = new Image[11];

            private int cardOnTableCount = 0; //counter for number of cards on the table

            public PlayerHand(boolean firstDeal){
                setLayout(null);
                /**
                 * Deals the first two cards for the player
                 */
                if (firstDeal == true) { //run this code if true

                    //playerHand config
                    setBackground(new Color(238, 238, 238));
                    setLayout(null);

                    JLabel playersHandLabel = new JLabel("Player's Hand"); //creates a label indicating the bottom half of the screen is the player's hand

                    //player's hand label config
                    playersHandLabel.setFont(new Font("Lucida Grande", Font.PLAIN, 25));
                    playersHandLabel.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
                    playersHandLabel.setBounds(192, 314, 200, 80);

                    add(playersHandLabel); //add player's hand label to the container

                    //creates JLabel for two of the player's card, set the positions, and add to the container
                    cardPonTable[0] = new JLabel("");
                    cardPonTable[0].setBounds(80, 6, 220, 320);
                    add(cardPonTable[0]);

                    cardPonTable[1] = new JLabel("");
                    cardPonTable[1].setBounds(340, 6, 220, 320);
                    add(cardPonTable[1]);

                    System.out.println("Player's cards"); //indicate that the following is the player's dealt card on the console


                    CardDeal.createDeck(); //create a deck

                    //deal two card for the player
                    cardP[0] = CardDeal.cardDeal(); 
                    cardP[1] = CardDeal.cardDeal(); 

                    //get the image from the src folder

                    cardPImage[0] = new ImageIcon (this.getClass().getResource(cardP[0]+".png")).getImage(); 
                    cardPImage[1] = new ImageIcon (this.getClass().getResource(cardP[1]+".png")).getImage();

                    cardPonTable[0].setIcon(new ImageIcon (cardPImage[0])); //set the JLabel of the card to the image chosen above
                    cardOnTableCount++; //increase the counter by one
                    cardPonTable[1].setIcon(new ImageIcon (cardPImage[1])); //set the JLabel of the card to the image chosen above
                    cardOnTableCount++; //increase the counter by one


                }
                /**
                 * Do not deal the first two cards (instance made)
                 */

            }

            public void cardAdded() throws Exception  {

                //cardP1onTable.setBounds(cardP1onTable.getX()-50, cardP1onTable.getY(), (int)(WIDTH*0.7), (int)(HEIGHT*0.7));
                //cardP2onTable.setBounds(cardP2onTable.getX()-50, cardP2onTable.getY(), (int)(WIDTH*0.7), (int)(HEIGHT*0.7));

                PlayerHand newDealt = new PlayerHand(false); //creates an instance of playerHand method (send false as a parameter so that the method won't deal two cards again)

                System.out.println("Player's card dealt");

                newDealt.setLayout(null);

                cardPonTable[cardOnTableCount] = new JLabel("");
                cardPonTable[cardOnTableCount].setBounds(192, 6, 220, 320);
                newDealt.add(cardPonTable[cardOnTableCount]);
                cardP[cardOnTableCount] = CardDeal.cardDeal();
                cardPImage[cardOnTableCount] = new ImageIcon (newDealt.getClass().getResource(cardP[cardOnTableCount]+".png")).getImage();
                cardPonTable[cardOnTableCount].setIcon(new ImageIcon (cardPImage[cardOnTableCount]));

                cardOnTableCount++;
            }
        }

This code below is the JPanel that lets the player choose hit or stay

        import java.awt.Dimension;
        import javax.swing.JButton;
        import javax.swing.JPanel;
        import java.awt.GridLayout;
        import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
        import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

        @SuppressWarnings("serial")
        public class ChoiseBar extends JPanel{

            private JButton hitButton;
            private JButton stayButton;

            public ChoiseBar() {

                Dimension dim = getPreferredSize();
                dim.height = 100;
                setPreferredSize(new Dimension(1200, 100));

                hitButton = new JButton("HIT");

                hitButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

                    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                        try {
                            PlayerHand.cardAdded();
                        } catch (Exception e1) {
                            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                            e1.printStackTrace();
                        }

                    }

                });

                stayButton = new JButton("STAY");
                setLayout(new GridLayout(0, 2, 0, 0));



                add(hitButton);
                add(stayButton);
            }

        }

This is the MainFrame class where PlayerHand, DealerHand, and ChoiceBar is added.

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import java.awt.Color;

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class MainFrame extends JFrame{

//declaring private vars

private DealerHand dealerHand;
private PlayerHand playerHand;
private ChoiseBar choiseBar;

public MainFrame() {

    super("TABLE"); //calling the "TABLE" method in BJ_APP

    playerHand = new PlayerHand(true); //creates an instance of playerHand (firstDeal is true as it is the first deal)
    //playerHand config 
    playerHand.setForeground(new Color(0, 0, 0)); 
    playerHand.setBackground(new Color(238, 238, 238));
    playerHand.setLocation(300, 625);
    playerHand.setSize(600, 400);

    dealerHand = new DealerHand(); //creates an instance of dealerHand
    //playerHand config
    dealerHand.setLocation(300, 31);
    dealerHand.setSize(600, 429);

    choiseBar = new ChoiseBar(); //creates an instance of choiseBar
    //choiseBar config
    choiseBar.setSize(800, 120);
    choiseBar.setLocation(214, 472);

    getContentPane().setLayout(null); //mainFrame uses absolute layout


    //add these three containers to mainFrame
    getContentPane().add(choiseBar);
    getContentPane().add(playerHand);
    getContentPane().add(dealerHand);

    setSize(1200,1080); //set the size of mainFrame

    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); //the program will terminated when mainFrame is closed

    this.setVisible(true); //set mainFrame visible


}

}

Answer 1

What exactly does "keeping a reference" mean?

You do it all the time:

hitButton = new JButton("HIT");

Above you create an instance of a JButton a keep a reference to it.

Then in your code you change a property of the button by using:

hitButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() ...

Your custom panels are no different. You create a custom class with methods that you want to execute.

So somewhere in your code you need logic like:

PlayHand playHandPanel = new PlayHand();
ChoiceBar choiceBarPanel = new ChoiceBar( playHandPanel );
frame.add( playHandPanel );
frame.add( choiceBar );

Then in the constructor of your ChoiceBar you save the reference to the "playHandPanel" as an instance variable in your class. And then in the ActionListener for the button you can now invoke the cardAdded() method.