GUI works for first 2 questions but then won't go onto the 3rd question

[Benjamin Scabbia]

Hey guys! I hope you're well! I am having trouble with my GUI. The code is rather long so I have tried to keep it relevant but again I apologize for the long code.
Here is my GameState enum:

public enum GameState{
	BEGIN, MIDDLE, END;
	}

And here is my GamePanels class:

public class GamePanels {		
	private Map<GameState, JPanel> lookup = new HashMap<GameState, JPanel>();
	private JPanel beginPanel, middlePanel, endPanel;
	private JLabel label = new JLabel();	
	private JButton btn1 = new JButton("Yes");
	private JButton btn2 = new JButton("No");
		
	public void begin(){	
	beginPanel = new JPanel();
    	beginPanel.setBackground(Color.MAGENTA);
    	label.setText("The begin question panel");    	
    	beginPanel.add(label);
    	beginPanel.add(btn1);
    	beginPanel.add(btn2);
    	lookup.put(GameState.BEGIN, beginPanel);
    	
    	btn1.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
    		public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
    			middle();
    			getC("Middle", GameState.MIDDLE);
    			getCardL("Middle");    			
    		}
    	});
	}
	
	public void middle(){
		middlePanel = new JPanel();
		middlePanel.setBackground(Color.RED);
    	label.setText("The middle panel question");
    	middlePanel.add(label);
    	middlePanel.add(btn1);
    	middlePanel.add(btn2);
    	lookup.put(GameState.MIDDLE, middlePanel);
    	
    	btn1.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
    		public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
    			end();
    			getC("End", GameState.END);    			    			
    			getCardL("End");
    		}
    	});
	}	
	public void end(){
		endPanel = new JPanel();
		endPanel.setBackground(Color.RED);
    	label.setText("The end panel question?");    
    	endPanel.add(label);
    	endPanel.add(btn1);
    	endPanel.add(btn2);
    	lookup.put(GameState.END, endPanel);
    	
	}

	/*Returns panel*/
	public JPanel getPanel (GameState state){
		JPanel panel = new JPanel();
		if(lookup.containsKey(state)){
			panel = lookup.get(state);
		}
		return panel;
	}
	/*returns container from GUI class*/
	public Container getCont(){	
		Main accessMain = new Main();
		Container cont = accessMain.getGui().getContainer();
		return cont;
	}
	/*returns existing instance of GUI which is instantiated in class Main*/
	public CardLayout getCL(){
		Main accessMain = new Main();
		CardLayout cardlayout = accessMain.getGui().getCardLayout();
		return cardlayout;
	}
	/*use method instead of getCont().add("Middle", getPanel(GameState.MIDDLE);*/
	public Component getC(String s, GameState state){		
			return getCont().add(s, getPanel(state));
	}
	//use this instead of getCL().show(getCont(), "Middle");
	public CardLayout getCardL(String s){
		CardLayout c = getCL();
		c.show(getCont(), s);
		return c;
	}	
}

Basically you start the program, then you get shown a question with 2 buttons (panel begin), which works fine, then you click btn1 (which has action listener), which activiates pannel middle, working fine, but then if I click the action listener from middle, it will not go onto the end panel.

The odd thing is that if I change code so the first panel action listener goes to the end panel, it works fine so it's almost like it's limited to 2? Does anyone have any idea what is going on? The GUI is basically supposed to replace one JPanel with another which holds different information.

For the full paste bin please look here: pasteBin

[Piet Souris]

hi Benjamin,

well, it is not that 'something' is limited to only 2. It is in how you set your actionlisteners
when you create the panels 'begin', 'middle' and 'end'.

Not that there is anything particular wrong, but the fact is that you use only ONE JButton
(called 'btn1') for these panels. And when you create panel 'middle', you reuse this
btn, and you invoke 'addActionListener' on btn1.

But this method does exactly what the name promises: it adds a new ActionListener
to whatever set of ActionListeners may already be present. In this case there is
indeed an existing ActionListener, namely the one that was added in the 'begin'
panel. So, when you click the button in the 'middle' panel, it is still the old
actionlistener that gets called, resulting in, well, the display of the middle panel...

Now, the neatest way to resolve this problem is by giving each panel its own
dedicated buttons.

Another way is: when you create panel 'middle', to first remove any existing
ActionListener. Now, if you look at the API, you see that you need to name
the AL that is to be removed. Since you added an anonymous AL, you do not have
a direct reference to the existing AL. So, one way to get it done nevertheless is the following
(I give the full 'middle()' method here)

public void middle(){
		middlePanel = new JPanel();
		middlePanel.setBackground(Color.RED);
    	label.setText("The middle panel question");
    	middlePanel.add(label);
    	middlePanel.add(btn1);
    	middlePanel.add(btn2);
    	lookup.put(GameState.MIDDLE, middlePanel);
    	
      ActionListener[] existingListeners = btn1.getActionListeners();      //  added
      for (ActionListener al: existingListeners) {                                   //  added
         btn1.removeActionListener(al);                                               //  added
      }                                                                                             //  added
    	btn1.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
    		public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
    			end();
    			getC("End", GameState.END);    			    			
    			getCardL("End");
    			
    			//System.out.println("red panel created");
    		}
    	});
	}

(ps: sorry for the ragged comments, but that is what this formatter does!)

And indeed, your coding is a bit, lets say, remarkable. for instance, to get
a reference to your GUI, you create a new instance of Main, just to get
access to its static member 'init'!

But having said that, your code is very nicely laid out and very clear qua structure,
and that made it for me easy to see what is going on!
So I would say: well done!

Greetz,
Piet

[Benjamin Scabbia]

Piet, thank you so much for time and help.

I did suspect it was an actionListener problem but I always thought that you could dynamically replace an actionListener by assigning a new one, which led me to believe it was a problem with my GUI implementation, if only I tested it with btn2! But your technique to remove the listener isdefinitely a neat trick!

I made the code easier to call by adding it in a method with one parameter, specifying which button listener the method needs to remove:

public void removeListener(JButton btn){
		ActionListener[] existingListeners = btn.getActionListeners();        
	     for (ActionListener al: existingListeners) {                          
	        btn.removeActionListener(al);
	}

//code above
removeListner(btn1);

Which works perfectly. Now I might create another method that automates the whole process. Thanks Piet for the nice comments aswell, I am learning through trial an error so I'm sure I will come back to it one day and have a good laugh ! All the best!
Ben

[Campbell Ritchie]

Good idea, but surely the method should be called removeAllListeners or similar?

[Benjamin Scabbia]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:Good idea, but surely the method should be called removeAllListeners or similar?

Technically it's only removing the action listener for the button given in the parameter. However, if I was creating a number of buttons on a panel, with actionListeners then if I wanted to remove all the actionListeners then for sure the more appropriate method should be called RemoveAllListeners();

[Campbell Ritchie]

No, it is removing all listeners from one button.

[Piet Souris]

hi Benjamin,

indeed a nice addition, this method.

What Campbell means is that this method does indeed remove all ActionListeners from the
button given. If that button only happens to have one AL, then that one AL gets removed.
Has it more AL's , then all these are removed.

But it does not remove ALL listeners, only ActionListeners. You could have a MouseListener,
a KeyboardListener, et cetera, added to the button, These will not get removed.

But this all is not relevant. Let us know when you have your masterpiece ready!

Greetz,
Piet

[Campbell Ritchie]

Take your point; removeAllActionListeners would be a better name. You could also write that as a generic method to remove all instances of a particular kind of Listener from a Component.