Question about Object-Orientated design for GUI'S

Question

Hi everyone,
I am designing a simple GUI, which basically enables a user to input and retreive data.
So I have a prototype GUI lets call it "myFrame". It extends JFrame, and I place my components onto myFrame, JButtons, JTextfields etc. I have the GUI set up the way I want it, so I move onto implementing the actionListeners.
The problem is that one of the components I have placed on myFrame has its own mouseListener. Its a type of Icon (i created in a seperate class)which extends JComponent, and I thought it would be sensible to give it control of its own mouseListener, so it cuts down on the code within the myFrame class.
But I now realise that I can't alter the other components on myFrame from within the mouseListener in the icon class. I know the icon class doesn't have access to any of myFrames methods or instance fields, so how do I correctly implement this. Surely the answer isn't to bung all the code together into one class?
visually what I have so far looks like this
SERVER <---Requests---> myFrame --------> IconList ---------> Icon
the IconList class looks up a server to update its array of Icons[]. But when one individual Icon is clicked on myFrame, i want its mouseListener to load some of its values onto myFrame's GUI components.
I hope I'm making myself clear, im sorry if this seems like a muddled incoherent question, but any advice would be great. I only need to be shown the correct way to design, and then i carry on coding happily. If this kind of design is way off, please let me know!!
Thanks

Answer 1

You can absolutely do work on the frame from the mouse listener--It just needs an instance. i.e.
public class MyMouseListener implements MouseListener {
  private MyFrame frame;
  public MyMouseListener(MyFrame frame) {
    this.frame = frame;
}Does that make sense?
That said, what you'll see more often is a Model-View-Control approach, wherein the Control (the mouse listener in your case) effects the Model and the Model notifies the View to update its display, rather than the Control updating the view directly. That's the extreme overview version, lots of good hits on google if you're interested beyond that