Accessing Jtextfield from outer action listener

Question

I am trying to access JTextField text namely 'searchBox' from outer action listener created in outer class.

GUI:

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

public class MyFrame extends JFrame
{
   public int stat1_var;
   public int stat2_var;
   public int stat3_var;
   public String stat4_var;
   private int statX_bound = 50;
   private int statY_bound = 280;
   public String url;

/*
* @param width  The width of the frame.
* @param height The height of the frame.
* @param title  The title of the frame.
*/


public MyFrame(int width, int height, String title, int stat1_var, int stat2_var, int stat3_var, String stat4_var)
{
  this.stat1_var = stat1_var;   //threading var
  this.stat2_var = stat2_var;   //spiders var
  this.stat3_var = stat3_var;   //results var
  this.stat4_var = stat4_var;   //other var

  initUI(width, height, stat1_var, stat2_var, stat3_var, stat4_var);

  this.setSize(width,height);   //set frame size
  this.setTitle(title);     //set frame title
  this.setVisible(true);    //set visible
  this.setResizable(false); //disable resizable frame

}


private void initUI(int width, int height, int stat1_var, int stat2_var, int stat3_var, String stat4_var) 
{
      ImageIcon ic = new ImageIcon("background.jpg");//background image source
      JDesktopPane dp = new JDesktopPane(); //create desktop pane
      JLabel lbl = new JLabel(ic);  //create label
      JPanel transparentPanel = new JPanel(); //create a JPanel

      lbl.setBounds(0, 0, width, height);  //bounds for the background

      transparentPanel.setOpaque(false);  
      transparentPanel.setBounds(0, 0, width, height);//bounds for the panel
      transparentPanel.setLayout(null);//default layout
      setLayeredPane(dp);

      JTextField searchBox = new JTextField("http://", 40); //keyword search box
      searchBox.setEditable(true);
      searchBox.setBounds(250, 130, 300, 25);
      searchBox.setToolTipText("Enter domain to be crawled");
      transparentPanel.add(searchBox);
      searchBox.setActionCommand("url");
      searchBox.addActionListener(new listeners(this));


       JButton crawlBtn = new JButton("Crawl"); // search button
       crawlBtn.addActionListener(new listeners(this));
       crawlBtn.setBounds(555, 130, 80, 25);
       crawlBtn.setActionCommand("crawl");
       crawlBtn.setToolTipText("crawl domain");
       transparentPanel.add(crawlBtn);//end

      JTextField searchBox2 = new JTextField("", 40); //crawl url search box
      searchBox2.setEditable(true);
      searchBox2.setBounds(250, 160, 300, 25);
      searchBox2.setToolTipText("enter your keywords");
      transparentPanel.add(searchBox2);     //end

      JButton jumpBtn = new JButton("Jump!"); // search button
      jumpBtn.addActionListener(new listeners(this));
      jumpBtn.setBounds(555, 160, 80, 25);
      jumpBtn.setActionCommand("crawl");
      jumpBtn.setToolTipText("crawl domain");
      transparentPanel.add(jumpBtn);//end

      JLabel stat1 = new JLabel("Threads: " + stat1_var);  //stat labels
      stat1.setToolTipText("Threads");
      stat1.setBounds(statX_bound, statY_bound, 300, 25);
      statY_bound += 25; //place the label one place below 
      transparentPanel.add(stat1);

      JLabel stat2 = new JLabel("Spiders: " + stat2_var);  //stat labels
      stat2.setToolTipText("Spiders");
      stat2.setBounds(statX_bound, statY_bound, 300, 25);
      statY_bound += 25; //place the label one place below 
      transparentPanel.add(stat2);

      JLabel stat3 = new JLabel("Results found: " + stat3_var);
      stat3.setToolTipText("Results found");
      stat3.setBounds(statX_bound, statY_bound, 300, 25);
      statY_bound += 25; //place the label one place below 
      transparentPanel.add(stat3);

      JLabel stat4 = new JLabel("Status: " + stat4_var);
      stat4.setToolTipText("Status");
      stat4.setBounds(statX_bound, statY_bound, 300, 25);
      statY_bound += 25; //place the label one place below 
      transparentPanel.add(stat4);          

      dp.add(lbl,new Integer(50));  
      dp.add(transparentPanel,new Integer(350));

      setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE); //close the app if close button clicked

} //end constructor

public void paint(Graphics g) 
{ 
  super.paint(g); //call superclass' paint method 
  g.setColor(Color.BLACK); 

} //end method paint 

} //end class MyFrame

And this is the outer class listener:

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.File;

public class listeners implements ActionListener
{
    private MyFrame myframe;
    public listeners(MyFrame myframe){
        this.myframe = myframe;
        //String source = e.getSource();
    }

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
        String action = event.getActionCommand();

        if (action == "url")
        {
         myframe.url = searchBox.getText(); //<----- I am trying to obtain this from the gui
        }

    }
}

I am trying to obtain the searchBox text value(arrows above) to the url variable from GUI class. Can anyone please help me with this? I have been looking for the solution for 3 hours now...

Answer 1

Use getSource to obtain a reference to the JTextField

JTextField searchBox = (JTextField) e.getSource();

Answer 2

Declare your JTextField variable as instance var. (outside of initUI method) and create getter method. Then call it in your listeners class:

myframe.url = myframe.getSearchBox().getText();;

Other sidenotes:

1. Name your classes properly. Names of classes begin with upper cases.

2. Do not extend your class with JFrame if you are not going to override some methods or to define new methods.

3. DON'T use absolute positioning for swing components! Use proper layout manager.