get a textfield value from a frame to an applet

[nick stanish]

i have an awt applet that upon clicking a certain area, it opens a frame with textboxes and buttons, however when i use textbox.getText(); the compiler says symbol can't be found
how can i pass a textfield value from the frame?

 public void init() {
		   	   restitution = .5;
		   	   velocity = 0;
		   	   gravity = 9.8;
		   	   spf = .032;
	  		   scale = 1;
		  addMouseListener(this);
		  addMouseMotionListener(this);
		  addKeyListener(this);
		  setLayout(null);
		  setBackground (Color.white);
		  //images
		  popup = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/popup.png");
		  clear = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/clear.png");
		  play = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/play.png");
		  pause = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/pause.png");
		  sound_on = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/sound_on.png");
		  sound_off = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/sound_off.png");
		  background = getImage (getCodeBase(), "media/background.png");
		  //for window frame options
		  Button[] enterButton = new Button[5];
		  Label[] label = new Label[5];
		  Checkbox soundBox = new Checkbox("",true);
		  TextField[] textBox = new TextField[5];
		  label[0] = new Label("Velocity");
		  label[1] = new Label("Restitution");
		  label[2] = new Label("Gravity");
		  label[3] = new Label("Scale");
		  label[4] = new Label("SPF");
		  textBox[0] = new TextField(velocity + "");
		  textBox[1] = new TextField(restitution + "");
		  textBox[2] = new TextField(gravity + "");
		  textBox[3] = new TextField(scale + "");
		  textBox[4] = new TextField(spf + "");
		  for(int x = 0;x<  5; x++){
		  	enterButton[x] = new Button("Enter");

		  	if (x==1){
		  			  window.add(soundBox);
		  		  }
		  	else{
		  			  window.add(new Label(""));
		  		  }
		  	enterButton[x].addActionListener(this);
		  	textBox[x].addActionListener(this);
		  	window.add(label[x]);
		  	window.add(textBox[x]);
		  	window.add(enterButton[x]);

	 	}
	   }
...
class frame extends Frame implements WindowListener, ActionListener{
	frame(String title){
	  super(title);
	  addWindowListener(this);
	  setLayout(new GridLayout(5,4));//rows,columns
	  MenuBar menu = new MenuBar();
	  setMenuBar(menu);
	  setResizable(false);
	  setSize(250,200);
	  Menu fileMenu = new Menu("File");
	  menu.add(fileMenu);
	  MenuItem exitMenu = new MenuItem("Exit");
	  exitMenu.addActionListener(this);
      fileMenu.add(exitMenu);
	}
...

[Wim Vanni]

Would you mind adding the stack trace?

Cheers,
Wim

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome to the Ranch

As you have been told, we need to know the details of the error before we can help.

[Andrew Thompson]

nick stanish wrote:i have an awt applet that upon clicking a certain area, it opens a frame with textboxes and buttons, however when i use textbox.getText(); the compiler says symbol can't be found
how can i pass a textfield value from the frame?

textbox is an array of TextFields, so textbox[0].getText() should work to get the text of the first.

As an aside.

For better help sooner, post an SSCCE.

Why on earth are you dealing with an AWT GUI in this millennium?

[nick stanish]

heres the errors:

javac PS.java
PS.java:122: cannot find symbol
symbol  : variable textBox
location: class PS
                   if (evt.getSource() == textBox[0] || evt.getSource() == enterButton[0]){
                                          ^
PS.java:122: cannot find symbol
symbol  : variable enterButton
location: class PS
                   if (evt.getSource() == textBox[0] || evt.getSource() == enterButton[0]){
                                                                           ^
PS.java:124: cannot find symbol
symbol  : variable textBox
location: class PS
                               velocity = Double.parseDouble(textBox[0].getText());
                                                             ^
3 errors

i forgot to include the actionPerformed

import java.applet.*;
 import java.awt.*;
 import java.awt.event.*;
 import java.net.*;
 import java.text.*;
 import java.lang.*;
/**
 * Copyright 2011 ---
 * this program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3
 *
 **/
  public class PS extends Applet implements Runnable, MouseListener,MouseMotionListener,ActionListener, KeyListener {
	   	//************************
	   	//* start custom methods *
	   	//************************
	   	private String formatTime(double seconds){
	   		String time;
	   		double minutes = 0;
	   		if (seconds >= 60){
				minutes = seconds / 60;
				seconds = seconds % 60;
	   		}
	   		time = formatInt(minutes) + ":"+ formatDecimal(1,seconds);
	   		return time;
	   	}
	   	private void playSound(AudioClip sound){
	   		/*
	   		if(soundBox.getState()){
				sound.play();
	   		}
	   		*/
	   	}
	   	private double formatDecimal(int x, double formatThis){
	   		if (x > 0){
				int count = 0;
				String decimals = "#.";
				while(count < x){
						decimals = decimals + "#";
						count++;
				}
				DecimalFormat form = new DecimalFormat(decimals);
				formatThis = Double.valueOf(form.format(formatThis));
	   		}
	   		return formatThis;

	   	}
	   	private int formatInt(double formatThis){
	   		int formatted = 0;
	   		DecimalFormat form = new DecimalFormat("#");
	   		formatted = Integer.valueOf(form.format(formatThis));
	   		return formatted;
	   }
	   //**********************
	   //* end custom methods *
	   //**********************

	   /**
	   *
	   * declarations
	   *
	   **/
	   Frame window = new frame("Options");
	   Image background, mImage, popup, clear, play, pause, sound_on, sound_off;
	   public int scale;
	   public double restitution, velocity, gravity, spf;
	   /**
	   * end declarations
	   **/
	   public void init() {
		   	   restitution = .5;
		   	   velocity = 0;
		   	   gravity = 9.8;
		   	   spf = .032;
	  		   scale = 1;
		  addMouseListener(this);
		  addMouseMotionListener(this);
		  addKeyListener(this);
		  setLayout(null);
		  setBackground (Color.white);
		  //images
		  popup = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/popup.png");
		  clear = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/clear.png");
		  play = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/play.png");
		  pause = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/pause.png");
		  sound_on = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/sound_on.png");
		  sound_off = getImage(getCodeBase(), "media/sound_off.png");
		  background = getImage (getCodeBase(), "media/background.png");
		  //for window frame options
		  Button[] enterButton = new Button[5];
		  Label[] label = new Label[5];
		  Checkbox soundBox = new Checkbox("",true);
		  TextField[] textBox = new TextField[5];
		  label[0] = new Label("Velocity");
		  label[1] = new Label("Restitution");
		  label[2] = new Label("Gravity");
		  label[3] = new Label("Scale");
		  label[4] = new Label("SPF");
		  textBox[0] = new TextField(velocity + "");
		  textBox[1] = new TextField(restitution + "");
		  textBox[2] = new TextField(gravity + "");
		  textBox[3] = new TextField(scale + "");
		  textBox[4] = new TextField(spf + "");
		  for(int x = 0;x<  5; x++){
		  	enterButton[x] = new Button("Enter");

		  	if (x==1){
		  			  window.add(soundBox);
		  		  }
		  	else{
		  			  window.add(new Label(""));

		  		  }
		  	enterButton[x].addActionListener(this);
		  	textBox[x].addActionListener(this);
		  	window.add(label[x]);
		  	window.add(textBox[x]);
		  	window.add(enterButton[x]);

	 	}
	   }
	   public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
		   if (evt.getSource() == textBox[0] || evt.getSource() == enterButton[0]){
		   try {
			       velocity = Double.parseDouble(textBox[0].getText());
				} catch(Exception e) { System.err.print("Gravity entered is invalid");}
			}
	   }

theres more to it of course but i think that should be everything needed, and the first post had the class for the frame i'm using

I chose awt because i'm more familiar with it than swing and the paint method is easier to use then adding a canvas and painting that component

[Andrew Thompson]

nick stanish wrote:
I chose awt because i'm more familiar with it than swing ..

You may be more familiar with AWT, but the people helping you have mostly forgotten it.

nick stanish wrote:
..theres more to it of course but i think that should be everything needed,..

I stated what I needed in order to provide further help, and that is not it. Since I can't be of any further help here, ..Good luck with it.

[nick stanish]

Oh? What am I missing?

[Andrew Thompson]

nick stanish wrote:Oh? What am I missing?

I should explain where I'm coming from. The SSCCE document (on which I'm somewhat of an authority) has some very specific requirements for code that calls itself an SSCCE. Those things are the words that make up the abbreviation.

The 1st word is 'short'. A 'short' example of a compilation problem would not have 5 TextFields and Labels, but just 2. It would not have 5 images, but 2, or in fact, if that was not part of the compilation problem, it would not have any images at all.

Often in the process of shortening code, bugs can be discovered. That probably does not apply here, but if you trim out all the cruft, it makes the problem shorter to look at. It makes it easier to help.

The 2nd 'C' stands for 'Correct', which means it should show the same errors for you, as for me. When I went to compile the code, the first message I got was something to do with a missing } at the end of the code. Once that was fixed, the compiler reported a number of errors including the ones you described, but also others to do with the declared interfaces that had not been implemented. I began to comment them out, one by, when I struck yet another error that I could..

Then I thought, 'stuff this'. By the time I'd have your code anywhere near to producing the compilation errors you reported, it would no longer be the same code. I could just as easily write the code for you. But I have no intention of doing the latter, and since you could not make it easy for me to investigate the code as an SSCCE, I felt my efforts were best spent helping people that can post an SSCCE.

So, ..I don't know where we can go from here. Can you produce something that is an SSCCE?

[nick stanish]

Andrew Thompson wrote:Can you produce something that is an SSCCE?

alright yeah i'll skim it down to as basic as i can make it

EDIT

 import java.applet.*;
 import java.awt.*;
 import java.awt.event.*;

public class PS extends Applet implements Runnable,ActionListener {
	   Frame window = new MyFrame("Options");
	   public double value;
	public void init() {
		TextField textBox = new TextField("");
		textBox.addActionListener(this);
		window.add(textBox);
	   }
	   public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
		   try {
			    value = Double.parseDouble(textBox.getText());
				}
		   catch(Exception e) {}
			}
	   public void start (){
		   Thread th = new Thread (this);
		   th.start ();
		   repaint();
	   }
	   public void run (){
		while(true){
		   			repaint();
		   	try{
		   		Thread.sleep (1000);
		   	}
		   	catch (InterruptedException ex){
			}
	     }
       }
}

class MyFrame extends Frame{
	MyFrame(String title){
	  super(title);
	  setLayout(new GridLayout(5,4));//rows,columns
	  setSize(250,200);
	}
}

and the compile error

javac PS.java
PS.java:15: cannot find symbol
symbol  : variable textBox
location: class PS
                            value = Double.parseDouble(textBox.getText());
                                                       ^
1 error

[Campbell Ritchie]

Apart from the poor design in addActionListener(this), where did you declare textBox?

[nick stanish]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:Apart from the poor design in addActionListener(this), where did you declare textBox?

right above the addActionListener
line 9 TextField textBox = new TextField("");

[Paul Clapham]

So you're declaring it as a local variable in the init() method?

[nick stanish]

I believe so, where would be a better place to declare it?

[Paul Clapham]

Have you reviewed your text or tutorial to find out the ramifications of using a local variable?

[nick stanish]

No I haven't, I'm not using a text or a tutorial, the first time I wrote this program there was no problem, but now that I'm using a frame in addition to the applet window then I guess it does cause a problem

[Paul Clapham]

So you're learning Java by asking questions on the forum? Not a good strategy. Here's a link to the Oracle tutorial about variables; as you will see there's a lot more tutorials beyond that. I would strongly suggest working through more tutorials beyond that one.

[nick stanish]

I'll see what i can do, Thanks for your time and replies