How can I use methods from tabs in a JTabbedPane.

[Charles Mulloy]

I am writing a program that will help keep track of characters (like from books, movies, etc). As of right now I have a method that will create a JPanel and add it to the JTabbedPane. I could also probably delete them at will. But because the number of tabs is undetermined at runtime, I have to do this:

tabbedPane.add(name, new JPanelMaker());

The JPanelMaker is a JPanel form that I have. It is my intention to have a method go through each and every currently open tab and get the data from it (JTextFields and such). If possible, I would like a way to use the methods of the component in a particular tab. Kinda like how I do with vectors so I can load a file and be right where I left off.

Vector vector = new Vector();
...
vector.elementaAt(i).method();

Is there a way to access methods from component in a specified tab?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Are you asking (1) how to iterate over the tabs, or (2) how to do something with a tab once you've got a reference to it as a Component?

[Charles Mulloy]

I'm trying to reference the component in the tab, which will always be a JPanel.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

The getComponentAt() method gives you the component at a particular index; the indexes run from 0 to (number of tabs) - 1. The return value is a Component, but you can cast it to whatever you know it to be (i.e., a JPanel).

[Charles Mulloy]

I have no clue how to cast. I googled it and the tutorials all use arithmetic examples. When I add to the tabbedPane I do this.

tabbedPane.addTab(Methods.getStringFromUser("Character Name"), new CharacterPanel());

CharacterPanel extends JPanel, and getStringFromUser() is a dialog method I use to get strings from the user. How would I cast in this instance?

edit: I think I should also mention that CharacterPanel has a getText() method that returns the text in a JTextField.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Whenever you have a reference whose type is some parent class (like JPanel,) but you know that actually it's pointing to an instance of some subclass (like CharacterPanel), you can use a cast. The cast in this case is telling the compiler that you know something it does not. In this case is would like like

CharacterPanel myPanel = (CharacterPanel) myTabbedPane.getComponentAt(0);

That "(CharacterPanel)" is the cast. You might want to read these two articles, and then I guarantee you'll understand this stuff perfectly:

http://www.javaranch.com/campfire/StoryCups.jsp
http://www.javaranch.com/campfire/StoryPassBy.jsp

[Charles Mulloy]

Awesome! It works perfectly. Now I have to figure out an easy way to delete the tabs and I'll be on easy street.

Also thanks for the links. They help immensely.