Problem on referencing "this" keyword on addActionListener

Question

Hi!
I'm Ryan, ahm I've been studying on Swing Applications, ahm on this program I'm trying to handle the JMenuItem event when the user clicks a menu item, here's my code below:
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class MenuTest implements ActionListener{
private static void createAndShowGUI(){
//Delarations
JFrame frame = new JFrame("MP3Stego");
frame.setSize(300,300);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JMenuBar menuBar;
menuBar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu menu;
menu = new JMenu("File");
menu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
menu.getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleDescription("Open/Edit a File");
menuBar.add(menu);
JMenuItem menuFileOpen = new JMenuItem("Open");
menuFileOpen.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_O);
menuFileOpen.addActionListener(this);
menu.add(menuFileOpen);
frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
//frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"File Open");
public static void main (String[] args){
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowGUI();
Sir, the problem is when I try to use menuFileOpen.addActionListener(this); it says that
MenuTest.java:24: non-static variable this cannot be referenced from a static co
menuFileOpen.addActionListener(this);
I see that I'm using non-static "this" on static createAndShowGUI, ahm is there a way for me to reference this keyword on a static method? or should I create a non-static method to put the action listener?
Thank you so much Sir
Ryan

Answer 1

First, when you post code, use the button to put [code][/code] tags around your code.
Second, a static method does not have a this to reference. You should make createAndShowGUI non-static, and create an instance of your class in your static main method. You can then call createAndShowGUI. You do not need to use a Runnable. The event thread will invoke your actionPerformed method.
I'm not sure where you got the ideas you use to create this program, but the Swing tutorial gives some pretty clear examples of how to write Swing applications.
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/learn/index.html
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