How to use code from one class in another? (Java)

Question

I'm making a tank game and to avoid redundancy I'm making classes to extend. My MenuPanel looks like this atm (I've only written the code that matters for the question) (knop = dutch for button)

public class MenuPanel extends JPanel implements ActionListener
{

    private JButton playKnop, highScoreKnop, quitKnop, HTPKnop;
    private ImageIcon play, HS, quit, HTP;
    private Tanks mainVenster;

    public MenuPanel(Tanks mainVenster) 
    {
        this.mainVenster = mainVenster;
        this.setLayout(null); 

        int x = 95; 
        int width = 200; 
        int height = 50;    


        play = new ImageIcon(PlayPanel.class.getResource(/buttons/PLAY.png));
        playKnop = new JButton(play);
        playKnop.setBounds(x, y, width, height);
        playKnop.addActionListener(this);

        HS = new ImageIcon(PlayPanel.class.getResource(/buttons/HS.png));
        highScoreKnop = new JButton(HS);
        highScoreKnop.setBounds(x, 460, width, height);
        highScoreKnop.addActionListener(this);

        HTP = new ImageIcon(PlayPanel.class.getResource(/buttons/HTP.png));
        HTPKnop = new JButton(HTP);
        HTPKnop.setBounds(x, 515, width, height);
        HTPKnop.addActionListener(this);

        quit = new ImageIcon(PlayPanel.class.getResource(/buttons/QUIT.png));
        quitKnop = new JButton(quit);
        quitKnop.setBounds(x, 570, width, height);
        quitKnop.addActionListener(this);

        this.add(playKnop);
        this.add(quitKnop);
        this.add(HTPKnop);
        this.add(highScoreKnop);

        validate();
    }
}

because the code to make the buttons is exactly the same (except for the backgroundPath and the y-coordinate) I made a class button:

package menu;

import java.awt.Image;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JButton;

public class button 
{


    public JButton button;
    public ImageIcon buttonImage;

    public int x = 95;
    public int width = 200;
    public int height = 50;

    public String backgroundPath;
    public int y;



    public button(String backgroundPath, int y)
    {
        this.backgroundPath = backgroundPath;
        this.y = y;

        buttonImage = new ImageIcon(PlayPanel.class.getResource(backgroundPath));
        button = new JButton();
        button.setBounds(x, y, width, height);;
        button.addActionListener(this); 
    }



}

that way, my menuPanel COULD look like this:

    package menu;

    @SuppressWarnings("serial")
    public class MenuPanel extends JPanel implements ActionListener
    {

    private button playKnop, highScoreKnop, quitKnop, HTPKnop;
    private JTextField naam;
    private Tanks mainVenster;



    public MenuPanel(Tanks mainVenster) 
    {
        this.mainVenster = mainVenster;
        this.setLayout(null);       

        playKnop = new button("/buttons/PLAY.png", 350);        
        highScoreKnop = new button("/buttons/HS.png", 460);
        quitKnop = new button("/buttons/QUIT.png", 515);
        HTPKnop = new button("/buttons/HTP.png", 570);


        this.add(playKnop);
        this.add(quitKnop);
        this.add(HTPKnop);
        this.add(highScoreKnop);


        validate();

    }


}

I don't know why, but when I do this the buttons won't appear, although the code from the button class is correct (bc when I use the code in the menuPanel itself it works)

I don't know how to fix this problem and I have multiple problems like this in my whole JavaProject, but if someone could explain me how to fix this I could get rid of all the redundancy in my project.

Thanks in advance, Lola

Thank you all so much! a combination of your answers helped me to let the buttons appear, but for some kind of reason the images don't load with them. my code now looks like:

public class MenuPanel extends JPanel implements ActionListener {

private Button playKnop, highScoreKnop, quitKnop, HTPKnop;

private Tanks mainVenster;

int x = 95, width = 200, height = 50;

public MenuPanel(Tanks mainVenster) 
{
    this.mainVenster = mainVenster;
    this.setLayout(null);

    playKnop = new Button("/buttons/PLAY.png", 350, this);      
    highScoreKnop = new Button("/buttons/HS.png", 460, this);
    quitKnop = new Button("/buttons/QUIT.png", 515, this);
    HTPKnop = new Button("/buttons/HTP.png", 570, this);

    this.add(playKnop);
    this.add(quitKnop);
    this.add(HTPKnop);
    this.add(highScoreKnop);

    validate();

}

public class Button extends JButton
{
    JButton button;
    ImageIcon buttonImage;

    String backgroundPath;
    int y;


    public Button(String backgroundPath, int y, MenuPanel menuPanel)
    {
        super();
        this.backgroundPath = backgroundPath;
        this.y = y;

        buttonImage = new ImageIcon(PlayPanel.class.getResource(backgroundPath));
        this.setBounds(x, y, width, height);;
        this.addActionListener(menuPanel); 
    }
}

}

(all the buttons do work!)

Answer 1

Firstly, all class names should begin with a capital letter as a convention, this does not affect compilation but is good practice.

Now, for your actual problem, the first thing that stands out to me is that your Button Class does not extend anything. This to me seems to be the reason why it does not appear on the screen. I would suggest making Button extend JButton:

public class Button extends JButton {
// Implementation Code
}

This is similar to how your MenuPanel extends JPanel. The JPanel cannot render a custom Button that you wrote. By extending JButton it will be able to render it as it knows how to interact with a JButton