Inheritance - can a subclass inherit an instance of a variable?

Question

Is it possible for a subclass to inherit an instance of a variable that is contained in a method in the superclass? I'm (still) having huge problem with a subclass (and potentially many other subclasses) that need to inherit an instance of a variable..
SUPERCLASS
ConnectionBean cb = new Connection();
public void joinChat() {
...add stuff to cb
cb.send( packet );
}then the subclasses need to inherit the same state of this variable 'cb' how can this be done?
Thanks :)

Answer 1

It reads like:
public class Connection {
    //Create new instance of ConnectionBean
    ConnectionBean cb = new ConnectionBean();   
    //Create new instance of PresenceBuilder
    PresenceBuilder pb = new PresenceBuilder();
    //Create new instance of Comms Class
    Comms cms = new Comms();
    //Create new instance of UserInfo
    UserInfo user = new UserInfo();
    public String username;
    public String server;
    public String resource;
    public Connection() {
    //Method to send initial XML stream to Jabber Server
    public void joinChat() {
        InetAddress inetaddress;
        try {
            cb.connect( inetaddress = InetAddress.getByName( user.getServer() ));
        catch( UnknownHostException unknownhostexception ) {
            Object aobj[] = {
                "Cancel", "Retry"
            int i = JOptionPane.showOptionDialog(null, "Retry Server?", server +
                ": Not Responding", -1, 2, null, aobj, aobj[1]);
            if( i == 1 ) {
                joinChat();
            System.out.println( "Cannot resolve " + server + ":" + unknownhostexception.toString ());
            return;
        catch( IOException ioexception ) {
            Object aobj1[] = {
                "Cancel", "Retry"
            int j = JOptionPane.showOptionDialog( null, "Cannot Connect to: " + server,
                "Error Message",-1, 2, null, aobj1, aobj1[1] );
            if( j == 1 ) {
                joinChat();
            System.out.println( "Cannot connect " + server);
            return;
        System.out.println( "Joined Edit Session" );
        logonUser();
    //Method to Logon user with Jabber Server
    public void logonUser() {
        InfoQueryBuilder iqb = new InfoQueryBuilder();
        InfoQuery iq;
        IQAuthBuilder iqAuthb = new IQAuthBuilder();
        iqb.setType( "set" );
        iqAuthb.setUsername( user.getUsername() );
        iqAuthb.setPassword( user.getPassword() );
        iqAuthb.setResource( user.getResource() );
        try {
            iqb.addExtension( iqAuthb.build());
        catch ( InstantiationException e ) {
            //Building failed
            System.out.println( "Fatal Error on Auth object build");
            System.out.println( e.toString ());
            System.exit(0);
        try {
            //Build the full InfoQuery packet
            iq =( InfoQuery )iqb.build();
        catch ( InstantiationException e) {
            //Building Failed
            System.out.println( "Fatal Error on IQ object build:");
            System.out.println( e.toString());
            return;
        cb.send( iq );
        //Show <show> value
        pb.setStateShow( "chat" );
        //Show presence to Jabber Server
        pb.setStatus( "available" );
        try {
            cb.send( pb.build());
            //Add PacketListeners
            cb.addPacketListener( cms );       
        catch ( InstantiationException e ) {
            System.out.println( "Fatal Error on Presence object build:" );
            System.out.println( e.toString());
            return;
    public ConnectionBean getConnectionBean() {
        return cb;
}But I still cant access the 'cb' variable in subclasses with including this in the subclass constructor:
subclassConstructor() {
   super();
   joinChat();
but this makes it work in a different way that I wanted and doesnt allow me freedom for other subclasses..