Communication between two different JFrames?

Question

Hello as maybe you have heard about GIMP or something like that which uses different frames As a complete gui so I was wondering how to do such frames communications when both(maybe multiple) frames are loaded in memory and are visible.

I have gone through some articles but they were not so satisfactory, if anyone have a good example or tutorial then please share.

Regards Alok sharma

Answer 1

Basically, it's just a matter of having a reference to frame A in frame B, and a reference to frame B in frame A :

public class FrameA extends JFrame {
    private FrameB frameB;

    public void setFrameB(FrameB frameB) {
        this.frameB = frameB;
    }

    public void foo() {
        // change things in this frame
        frameB.doSomethingBecauseFrameAHasChanged();
    }
}

public class FrameB extends JFrame {
    private FrameA frameA;

    public void setFrameA(FrameA frameA) {
        this.frameA = frameA;
    }

    public void bar() {
        // change things in this frame
        frameA.doSomethingBecauseFrameBHasChanged();
    }
}

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        FrameA frameA = new FrameA();
        FrameB frameB = new FrameB();
        frameA.setFrameB(frameB);
        frameB.setFrameA(frameA);
        // make both frames visible
    }
}

Most of the time, interfaces are introduced to decouple the frames (listeners, etc.), or a mediator is used in order to avoid too much linkings between all the frames, but you should get the idea.

Answer 2

If you are separating out your "Control" logic from your "View" logic in a MVC type pattern this should be as simple as just referencing a different component.

Just like a JFrame might have multiple panels and your application can make changes to several panels based on actions in a single panel. Your application can have multiple frames that can be affected by actions in a single frame.