Extract text of JTextArea in WindowClosing event()...

Question

I downloaded the Framework.Java sample code, which creates a new instance of a window. I want to be able to retrieve the text from the JTextArea of a JFrame when the user closes the window.
I am using this code:
        frame.addWindowListener
       (new WindowAdapter() {
         public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e)
            System.out.println("pane.getText()=" + frame.pane.getText());
          System.exit(0);
        });Unfortunately, I am getting this error:
    "Error: variable pane not found in class.javax.swing.JFrame"How do I get at this text? How do I get the content pane in general? Full source code below:
import  java.net.*;
import  javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Framework extends WindowAdapter {
    public int numWindows = 0;
    private Point lastLocation = null;
    private int maxX = 500;
    private int maxY = 500;
    public Framework() {
        Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
        maxX = screenSize.width - 50;
        maxY = screenSize.height - 50;
        makeNewWindow();
    public void makeNewWindow() {
        final JFrame frame = new MyFrame(this);  //*
        numWindows++;
        System.out.println("Number of windows: " + numWindows);
        if (lastLocation != null) {
            //Move the window over and down 40 pixels.
            lastLocation.translate(40, 40);
            if ((lastLocation.x > maxX) || (lastLocation.y > maxY)) {
                lastLocation.setLocation(0, 0);
            frame.setLocation(lastLocation);
        } else {
            lastLocation = frame.getLocation();
        System.out.println("Frame location: " + lastLocation);
        frame.setVisible(true);
        frame.addWindowListener
       (new WindowAdapter() {
         public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e)
          System.out.println("pane.getText()=" + frame.Container.getContentPane.getText());
          System.exit(0);
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Framework framework = new Framework();
class MyFrame extends JFrame {
    protected Dimension defaultSize = new Dimension(200, 200);
    protected Framework framework = null;
    private Color color = Color.yellow;
    private Container c;
    public MyFrame(Framework controller) {
        super("New Frame");
        framework = controller;
        setDefaultCloseOperation(DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
        setSize(defaultSize);
        //Create a text area.
        JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(
                "This is an editable JTextArea " +
                "that has been initialized with the setText method. " +
                "A text area is a \"plain\" text component, " +
                "which means that although it can display text " +
                "in any font, all of the text is in the same font."
        textArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.ITALIC, 16));
        textArea.setLineWrap(true);
        textArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        textArea.setBackground ( Color.yellow );
        JScrollPane areaScrollPane = new JScrollPane(textArea);
        //Create the status area.
        JPanel statusPane = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 1));
        ImageIcon icoOpen = null;
        URL url = null;
        try
            icoOpen = new ImageIcon("post_it0a.gif"); //("doc04d.gif");
        catch(Exception ex)
            ex.printStackTrace();
            System.exit(1);
        setIconImage(icoOpen.getImage());
        c = getContentPane();
        c.setBackground ( Color.yellow );
        c.add ( areaScrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER )  ;
        c.add ( statusPane, BorderLayout.SOUTH );
        c.repaint ();
}

Answer 1

Hi,
you get the error-message because pane is not declared in your program anywhere. The JTextArea holds the text - it is declared in the constructor of class MyFrame. The variable textarea holds the reference to this JTextArea - the JTextArea is put in a JScrollPane and the JScrollPane added to the ContentPane of the Frame. After that all is done - at the end of the constructor of class MyFrame - the variable textarea is no longer accessible, because it is declared in the constructor itself and is local to the constructor - which means, it "lives" as long as the constructor is executed.
One way to let the variable textarea live longer is to declare it outside the constructor - for example in the body of the class where the Container c is declared.Add simply "JTextArea textarea;" there. In the constructor you only use then
textarea = new JTextArea(....) instead of JTextArea textarea = new JTextArea(...)
Now the textarea-variable will "live" as long as the instance of the MyFrame-class will be there. If you would be able to access the instance of the MyFrame-class from the windowClosing-method, you would be able to access the textarea too - but you can't in the moment.
This instance of the MyFrame-class ist constructed in the makeNewWindow-method - here is the same problem as above with the textarea-variable. The variable frame holds the reference to the newly created frame but it is declared inside the method and will not be accessible, when the method has come to an end. So you should declare it outside in the body of class Framework - for example in the place where maxY is declare. Add simply "JFrame frame;" behind the declaration of maxY.
In the makeNewWindow-method you use
frame = new MyFrame(this) instead of final JFrame frame = new MyFrame(this)
Now we are near the solution - the JTextArea is now accessible by frame.textarea - to get the text in the windowClosing-method you now can use frame.textarea.getText().
There are some other syntax-errors in your text too - your compiler will show them.
Hope this will help you - I have tried, to explain why it should be done this way - I don't want to post only a few lines of code - sorry, when it is now much to read.
greetings Marsian