Communication of components

Question

Hi,
I have a question about how other developers implement communication of components in a Swing application.
I'll try to explain the question whith this little example (I omit superflous code):
public Class JFatherPannel extends JPannel {
  public JFatherPannel(){
    JPannel jSubPannel1 = new JSubPannel1();
    JPannel jSubPannel2 = new JSubPannel2();
    container.add(jSubPannel1);
    container.add(jSubPannel2);
public Class JSubPannel1 extends JPannel {
  public JSubPannel1(){
    JButton jButtonSubPannel1 = new JButton();
    jButtonSubPannel1.addActionListener(myActionListenerSubPannel1);
    container.add(jButtonSubPannel1);
public Class JSubPannel2 extends JPannel {
  public JSubPannel2(){
    JButton jButtonSubPannel2 = new JButton();
    jButtonSubPannel2.addActionListener(myActionListenerSubPannel2);
    container.add(jButtonSubPannel2);
} What I want to do is call a method of JSubPannel2 when the button of JSubPannel1 is clicked. And the question is:
�How is this used to be implemented? �Which is the smartest solution? �Do I need to pass object references at
constructors? This last solution could be valid for little applications, but when the application grows and
hierarchy goes bigger this is a mess of objects cross references.
Thanks.

Answer 1

It is not so messy if you use interfaces.
Anyway, you could put the code in a different class, so that all the panel only need a reference to an instance of that class.
Or you could use the FatherPanel as an intermediary by passing a reference to the constructors of the children, or by making it a Singleton.
The choice is yours.