How do I implement an ActionListener from a different class?

[lyric island]

I've been working on a simple game with a GUI and some buttons, and I'm having trouble using the ActionListener. I want to have my ActionListener instructions in my main class "FinalGame.java", and I want to send it to the UI class "UI.java". I tried to pass it as a parameter and it isn't working. What should I do?

[worthy owl]

What is you actual end goal?

The simple answer is, when you action is called, use the ui attribute you have to call a method from it and do whatever you want.

So, instead of passing the choice handler to your ui, try the opposite.

Also, you might be interested in checking out MVC. This would help you make simpler interactions between your components

[torpid jetty]

ActionListener can work as an external class or as a closure (inner class or anonymous inner class or private class)

in your case, ChoiceHandler is a non-static inner class

private ChoiceHandler choiceHandler;

public void createUI(final ChoiceHandler choiceHandler) {
this.choiceHandler = choiceHandler;

...
} 

button.addActionListener(choiceHandler);

also all your elements in UI are "package protected"

in your specific case why not put ChoiceHandler in it's own public class ?

like what are you trying to achieve "glue code wise" ?

you can simply have this:

// final is important here
final JButton button = new JButton();
// final this proxying
final UI parent = this;

button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
  @Override
  public void actionPerformed(final ActionEvent event) {
    /* ... any final variable can be called from here...      this anonymous class is also known as functional interface via @FunctionalInterface and a Java closure */

parent.frame.setTitle("CLICKED");
  }
});

similar to JavaScript closure:

button.addActionListener(function(event) {
 // ...
});

[lyric island]

hey @torpid jetty thanks for the help

I've decided to put choicehandler in its own class, but i don't really know how to instantiate it and call it across the ui and main game classes

[torpid jetty]

well, if you try to glue things, you want the closure approach

or at least extend the public class into a closure

otherwise pass everything in the ActionListener constructor

If you tell me what should happens when you "click" then I can tell you few approach 😛

[lyric island]

@torpid jetty hey, so I've "finished" the game I was trying to work on.

now im thinking I just leave choicehandler alone and instead just toss the story methods into another class since they take up the bulk of the code

[torpid jetty]

new Random().nextInt() is wrong you should have only one static instance and not reseeding, also use
private static final SecureRandom RANDOM = SecureRandom.getInstanceStrong();

("" + energy); should be (Integer.toString(energy))

if (treasurePicked.equals("Lead")) {

always use YODA style IF

if ("Lead".equals(treasurePicked)) {

or even better enum

String[] treasureOptions = {"Copper", "Zinc", "Nickel"};

should be extracted static final

with enum you could avoid

        if (treasurePicked.equals("Iron")) {
            money += 300;
            mainTextArea.setText("You found Iron!"
                    + "\n\n(Well, this just cured my iron deficiency.)");
        }
        else if (treasurePicked.equals("Platinum")) {
            money += 2000;
            mainTextArea.setText("You found Platinum!"
                    + "\n\n(This should sell for a HEFTY amount.)");
        }
        else if (treasurePicked.equals("Gold")) {
            money += 5000;
            mainTextArea.setText("You found Gold!\n\n"
                    + "(GOLD. GOLD. GOLD. YES.)");
        }

with just

if (treasurePicked.isValid()) {
  money += treasurePicked.getMoney();
  final String text = treasurePicked.getText();
  mainTextArea.setText(text);
}

you could also refactor GameEvent into another enum

but your game works fine

[lyric island]

Hi, thanks so much for your help

I'm definitely going to try to clean up my code with your suggestions

But, I still can't figure out how to separate the code in my game to different classes

I tried putting some of the methods into this class and then calling them in the main code using story.(method name), and it causes a bunch of errors right after the GUI opens

I hope I'm not bothering you too much

[torpid jetty]

try Eclipse J2EE IDE, refactor functionality 😉 extract code into method / class

your game core logic should not use any AWT

basically, you should be able to write a console text game with the same core as a textual view
or as a web game with an HTML view, also makes your code easier to unit test with a "predefined seed" to avoid random

[lyric island]

I played around with the refactor function and I eventually got it to do what I needed, thank you so much!