Adding actionlistener to menuItem

Question

hi...i'm trying to add an actionListener to a menuItem. i looked at the tutorial on "how to use menus" but i cant seem to execute the menuitem. here's my code...
public class Controller implements ActionListener
    GUI gui;
    public Controller(GUI g)
        gui = g;
        gui.menuItem.addActionListener(this);
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
        gui.menuItem = (JMenuItem)(e.getSource());
        if (gui.menuItem.getText().equals("New Database"))
            System.out.println("Hello");
}where the class GUI is where the menItems have been added to the menus. i'm just trying out for one menuItem first but i wont get the "hello" printed on the screen...can someone give me some assistance on this given that i havent used JMenuItems before...thx in advance...

Answer 1

As carnickr said we really need the source from GUI to be able to help you more. Even without looking at GUI it's apparent that you're methodology is lacking. Depending on design and requirements I can think of many different ways you might need to handle menu item actions. I can't think of a single one that would involve comparing the text, which is what you're doing.
First of all, adding a listener to a public field of a different class is inherently the product of a flawed design or bad design itself. Your code should look more like this:
JMenuItem newDatabase = new JMenuItem("New Database");
JMenuItem openDatabase = new JMenuItem("Open Database");
JMenuItem closeDatabase = new JMenuItem("Close Database");
ActionListener listener = new ActionListener() {
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
          if (e.getSource() == newDatabase) {
               System.out.println("New database clicked");
          } else if (e.getSource() == openDatabase) {
               System.out.println("Open database clicked");
          } else fi (e.getSource() == closeDatabase) {
               System.out.println("Close database clicked");
newDatabase.addActionListener(listener);
openDatabase.addActionListener(listener);
closeDatabase.addActionListener(listener);Obviously an anonymous class is not always appropriate. The important thing here is that you're comparing the reference to see if it's the same Object, not trying to compare the text. If you post GUI and a little more about what you're trying to do we can try and give you some pointers on how to design it better.