Pass parent frame to Dialog, from panel within CardLayout

Question

Hi!
I have a main class that uses card layout (EntryPoint.java), and where I instantiate all my panels from. All my panels(cards) are seperate classes.
I have a login class(card) that I call from my main class (LoginClass.java). When it displays and the user wants to change his/her password - I created a custom dialog to pop up and handle the request. This custom dialog is another class on it's own.
My problem is I cant seem to pass the frame to my dialog. I created a frame only in my main class, seeing the login panel is only a card displayed in my Main class.
I have followed the example at http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/components/dialog.html
Can anyone please assist me? I would greatly appreciate it. ;o)
Here is some code if it helps:
EntryPoint.java -----------------------------
public class EntryPoint extends JFrame {
    //instantiate the main frame
    public JFrame frame = new JFrame();
    //create a panel to add all of the components to
    private JPanel cards = new JPanel();   
    LoginClass lc = new LoginClass();
    public EntryPoint() {
        cards.add("login", lc);
        //add the panel to the frame
        frame.getContentPane().add(cards, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        frame.getContentPane().add(buttons, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
        //Display the window.
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
}LoginClass.java ----------------------------------
public class LoginClass extends JPanel  {
    private JButton loginB = new JButton("login"');
    CustomDialog customDialog;
    public boolean loginProceed = false;
    public LoginClass() {
        //this is where it shows in the example i have to pass parameters
//        customDialog = new CustomDialog(frame, "geisel", this);
//        customDialog.pack();
        this.setLayout(new GridLayout());
        this.add(loginBut);
        //set action listener to button ..................
    public boolean loginBut_actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
       //if password needs to be changed, invoke the dialog with this text
//                        customDialog.setLocationRelativeTo(frame);
//                        customDialog.setVisible(true);
//                        String s = customDialog.getValidatedText();
//                        if (s != null) {
//                            //The text is valid.
//                            setLabel("Congratulations!  "
//                                     + "You entered \""
//                                     + s
//                                     + "\".");
}My actual dialog is pretty much the same as
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/components/example-1dot4/CustomDialog.java
Thanx for your help and time ;o)

Answer 1

Change the constructor for LoginClass and give it an argument:
public LoginClass(JFrame frame) {
    customDialog = new CustomDialog(frame, "geisel", this); // this line looks weird but without the code I cannot say for sure that it is wrong.
    customDialog.pack();
    this.setLayout(new GridLayout());
    this.add(loginBut);
}By the way.. if you are instantiating a JFrame in the main class, why does the main class also extend JFrame? Pick one pattern or the other and stick with it... I recommend that you NOT extend. So your JFrame oriented class should have a member JFrame and the JPanel oriented class should have a JPanel. This is not the way most people do it, but it is better design, even if only marginally so.
Drake