Java observer and observable

Question

Can anyone explain why the update method on printobserver is not being called when I click the button on this JFrame?

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.SocketException;
import java.util.Observable;
import java.util.Observer;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;


/**
 * 
 */

/**
 * @author james
 *
 */
public class Driver extends JFrame {


    /**
     * @param title
     */
    public Driver() {
        super("click me");

        setSize(400, 400);
        //set up observer

        final ButtonObservable gw = new ButtonObservable();
        Observer o1 = new PrintObserver();
        gw.addObserver(o1);

        setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setExtendedState(Frame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);        

        JButton connectBtn = new JButton("print me"); //$NON-NLS-1$
        connectBtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {         
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                gw.buttonPress();
            }
        });

        panel.add(connectBtn);


    }

    /**
     * @param args
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        JFrame mypane = new Driver();
        mypane.setVisible(true);

    }

}

class PrintObserver implements Observer
{
    public void update(Observable o, Object arg)
    {
        int x = ButtonObservable.getX();
        File jf = new File("/home/foo/bar");
        try {
            jf.createNewFile();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        System.out.println("Blah var -= " + x);
    }
}

class ButtonObservable extends Observable
{
    private static int x = 0 ;

    @Override
    public int countObservers()
    {
        return this.countObservers();
    }

    public void buttonPress()
    {
        x += 1;
        this.notifyObservers();

    }

    /**
     * @return the x
     */
    public static final int getX() {
        return x;
    }
}

Answer 1

You need to call Observable.setChanged. Notice that the API docs for notifyObservers starts with "If this object has changed, as indicated by the hasChanged method".

But really, I strongly suggest not using java.util.Observable and Observer.