How to call a static method of a class from another class?

Question

Hello,
I have two classes in a package. The first one
package my package;
public class class1
protected static ImageIcon createIcon(String path)
The second one
package my package;
public class class2
private ImageIcon image1;
image1 = class1.createIcon("/mypath");
This does not work since class2 cannot load the appropriate image. Where do I have to define the ImageIcon variables in class one or two and do they have to be static variables?
Thanks in advance
Christos

Answer 1

If the two classes are in the same package, that will work, in fact. A trivial example:
package foo;
public class Foo1 {
     protected static String getString() {
          return "World";
// Note: Member of the same package
package foo;
public class Foo2 {
     public static void main(String[] argv) {
          System.out.println("Hello "+ foo.Foo1.getString());
}However, if they are in different packages that won't work - the protected keyword guarantees that only classes derived from the class with the protected method can access it: Therefore this will not work:
package foo;
public class Foo1 {
     protected static String getString() {
          return "World";
package foo.bar;
public class Foo2{
     public static void main(String[] argv) {
          System.out.println("Hello "+ foo.Foo1.getString());
}But this will:
package foo;
public class Foo1 {
     protected static String getString() {
          return "World";
package foo.bar;
public class Foo2 extends foo.Foo1 {
     public static void main(String[] argv) {
          System.out.println("Hello "+ foo.Foo1.getString());
}I think you should read up a bit more about packages and inheritance, because you're going to have a lot of trouble without a good understanding of both. Try simple examples first, like the above, and if you hit problems try to produce a simple test case to help you understand the problem rather than trying to debug your whole application.
Dave.