Problems accessing variables and methods, not sure if this is even possible

Question

Hi
Ive been having problems with a noughts and crosses game. Perhaps i structured it wrong, but i would welcome some advice on how to overcome this problem. I thought i had pretty much completed the game.
What i have so far is a class called Main and it has a gridlayout. i have 9 JPanels called "Choice" on this main frame, Choice contains a button which is either noughts or crosses depending on whose turn it is. Once pressed the button on the JPanel Choice dissappears and is replaced with a image.
Now although this works fine, the problem im having is making all the other Buttons on the Choice Jpanels on the Frame Main to turn to the opposite to what they are. The getters and setters are all there, but i just cant seem to figure out how to send information from the buttons upwards to the frame and then backwards to each of the individual buttons.
It would be easier if i just put it all into one class, but i didnt want it to be messy, is there anyway to send information in this manor?
I tried to add all my code but it said it exceeded the message length. But let me know if you would like it, perhaps i can send it in bits....The only two classes missing are Noughts.java and Cross.java, they are just classes that create images from urls. Hope that helps
package NoughtsAndCrossesButtons;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class Cross extends JPanel{
    private static Image image;
    public Cross(){
        try{
            image = javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(new java.net.URL("http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Knotwork-cross-multicolored.svg/600px-Knotwork-cross-multicolored.svg.png"));
        }catch(Exception e){
    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
    super.paintComponent(g);
    if (image != null)
      g.drawImage(image, 0,0,this.getWidth(),this.getHeight(),this);
package NoughtsAndCrossesButtons;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Choice extends JPanel implements ActionListener{
    private JButton choiceButton = new JButton("Noughts");
    private Cross cross = new Cross();
    private Noughts nought = new Noughts();
    private int x = 5;
    private int y = 10;
    private int bounds = 100;
    private String state = "n";
    public Choice(){
     this.add(choiceButton);
     choiceButton.setBounds(x,y,bounds,bounds);
     choiceButton.addActionListener(this);
     this.setLayout(null);
     //this.setSize(200,200);
     //choices.addActionListener(this);
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
        //Object source = e.getSource();
       if(choiceButton.getText().equals("Noughts")){
           this.remove(choiceButton);
           this.add(nought);
           nought.setBounds(x,y,bounds,bounds);
           this.revalidate();
           this.repaint();
       if(choiceButton.getText().equals("Crosses")){
           this.remove(choiceButton);
           this.add(cross);
           cross.setBounds(x,y,bounds,bounds);
           this.revalidate();
           this.repaint();
    public void setState(String s){
        state = s;
        checkState();
    public String getState(){
        return state;
    public void checkState(){
        if(getState().equals("n")){
            choiceButton.setText("Noughts");
        if(getState().equals("c")){
            choiceButton.setText("Crosses");
}Thank you
SSkenth

Answer 1

Thank you for you replys, both of which were helpful. I found out a way of getting what i as looking for by creating a counter.. called clicked
Each time the button is pressed it adds 1 to its int value of click. (since it can only be clicked once) I then know whos turn it is, by using a modulus of the clicked value... so if its divisible by 2 its a nought otherwise its a cross or vice verse. heres the code for reference
This code is in the JPanel for choice
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
      // Object source = e.getSource();
       if(choiceButton.getText().equals("Noughts")){
           clicked +=1;
           this.remove(choiceButton);
           this.add(nought);
           nought.setBounds(x,y,bounds,bounds);
           state = "c";
           this.revalidate();
           this.repaint();
          // System.out.println(source);
       if(choiceButton.getText().equals("Crosses")){
           clicked +=1;
           this.remove(choiceButton);
           this.add(cross);
           cross.setBounds(x,y,bounds,bounds);
           state = "n";
           this.revalidate();
           this.repaint();
    } This is in the Main class, so im constantly checking for changes
public void run(){
        while(true){
            int clicks = whosTurn()+1;
            try{
                if(clicks%2==0){
                    setStateNought();
                }else{
                    setStateCross();
                this.sleep(100);
             }catch(InterruptedException e){
                System.err.print("error in main thread");
     public int whosTurn(){
        return choice.clicked()+choice2.clicked()
                +choice3.clicked()+choice4.clicked()+choice5.clicked()
                    +choice6.clicked()+choice7.clicked()+choice8.clicked()+choice9.clicked();
     public void setStateNought(){
         choice.setState("n");
         choice2.setState("n");
         choice3.setState("n");
         choice4.setState("n");
         choice5.setState("n");
         choice6.setState("n");
         choice7.setState("n");
         choice8.setState("n");
         choice9.setState("n");
     public void setStateCross(){
         choice.setState("c");
         choice2.setState("c");
         choice3.setState("c");
         choice4.setState("c");
         choice5.setState("c");
         choice6.setState("c");
         choice7.setState("c");
         choice8.setState("c");
         choice9.setState("c");
     }As im sure you guessed im fairly new at this, well, i seem to do ok with coding its just the GUI i struggle with. Please feel free to criticise(positive that it)
Thank you again
SSKenth