Cannot resolve symbol..Swing / MDI

Question

I'm somewhat new to Java.
I have an MDI app that I am creating. The main routine is in DeskTop.java.
When DeskTop.class is run:
1)Main creates a generic UserID class from userID.java( has two private strings and 4 methods to get userid, passwd, and set userid, passwd).
This info will be used throughout the app to connect to various MySQL Dbs.
2)Main creates the main application JFrame and a JMenu.
One of the JMenuItems, named Logon creates a JInternalFrame (basically a login box with userid and password field and JButton called continue. An ActionPerformed is added to a continue JButton.
There are many other JInternalFrames on the menu that have various DB functions.
I need to have the action performed on the ActionEvent of the continue button access the UserID class and it's setUserID() and setPasswd() methods and set the (uid, pw) fields in the object. Yet anytime I try to access this object from the Logon object, I get a Cannot resolve symbol:
This is a summary of the action performed on the continue button:
uid = txt_userID.getText();
userid = new String(uid).trim();
pw = pw_password.getPassword();
password = new String(pw).trim();
UserID.setUserID(userid); /*UserID is the other object.Error is on*/
UserID.setPasswd(password); /*the decimal point.*/
All objects have a public constructor and the methods I am trying access are declared public.
Files consist of (all in same directory):
DeskTop.java (main JFRAME)
PasswordBox.java ( JInternalFrame)
UserIDPW.java (JInternalFrame)
AddCompany.java (JInternalFrame)
etc. ( other JInternalFrames)
etc. ( other classes)
Thanks for any input. If someone has a better method of making a MDI database app in Java, some info would be great.
There will be other classes outside the gui. I am trying to build the business logic and the gui as seperate as I can.

Answer 1

This may sound silly to ask, but without seeing all
the code in this case you can imagine it's difficult
to say - I presume that UserID is a class (ie a
template for an object) rather than an object itself
and that setUserID, setPasswd are static functions.
The files you list dont include a UserID.java, so this
means you haven't got a PUBLIC class called UserID
(you may have one with private or package / friendly
access) - hence you can't access it from outside. I am
new myself - but this looks a likely candidate. [ I
try to answer questions so that I can learn myself,
but now I am off to bed!]Thank for the reply.
The main function creates a public UserID object and it created the main gui JFrame DeskTop object. UserID has a public constructor and public methods.
main function:
public static void main(String args[]) {
userIDPW userID = new userIDPassword();
JFrame f = new DeskTop();
Dimension screensize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
f.setSize(screensize);
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.setVisible(true);
The DeskTop object has a JMenuitem in it called Login, it opens an InternalJFrame called PasswordBox.
PasswordBox takes a userid and pw and then it needs to send the userid and pw to the userID object with two of its methods:
Methods in userID object:
public void setUserID(String userid)
{ this.userid = userid; }
public void setPasswd(String passwd)
( this.passwd = passwd; }
How doed one access this object (userID)? I have tried (from the PasswordBox) with no success:
uid = txt_userID.getText();
userid = new String(uid).trim();
pw = pw_password.getPassword();
password = new String(pw).trim();
userID.setUserID(userid); --this fails, with Cannot resolve symbol
userID.setPasswd(password); --this fails, with Cannot resolve symbol