JButtons need to modify 8 JTextFields using an Array. Listen to Buttons or Text?

Question

This is homework. Beginning Java class. Still wrapping my head around this stuff.

This questions Extends this one

So there is a button for First, Prev, Next, and Last

Each should modify

Item ID, Name, Rating, Price, Units, Value, Fee, ValueW/Fee, Total Inventory Value

The last one is a static total of all units)

I am not sure if I should make each button do multiple calls like this.

productName.setText( product.getProductName() ); itemNumber.setText( String.valueOf( product.getItemNumber() ) );

Or make each JTextArea listen for the button then change its field. Does that even work?

Answer 1

Register an ActionListener for each button. In the body of that ActionListener's actionPerformed method, get the item to display and pass it to a method that will be responsible for setting the values to the text fields.

Something like:

JButton button = new JButton("Next");
button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        DVDObject obj = getNextDVD();
        populateFields(obj);
    }
});

...

private DVDObject getNextDVD() {
    // gets the next object to display
    // you could call this method for each of the buttons, 
    // passing in an argument that determines which Object
    // to return (first, last, next, previous, whatever)
}

private void populateFields(DVDObject dvd) {
    // write out the values from the object passed in to the
    // fields
}

I'm guessing you've got some kind of collection of objects that contain all the information about DVDs, I've taken a stab in the dark and called it "DVDObject" here.