Thread: Multiple instances of a class

Thanks, got it to work! =)

I've also gotten logging to work to some degree (storage of log in/out data), as well as all the data saved and loaded in .text files whenever the program is closed/loaded, each existing member has its own text file created, and all non-used text files are removed.

My current issue however is in the Mainframe.java, where I display all of the members and their buttons. They are all displayed and positioned correctly, and update accordingly whenever someone is added/removed, the issue is that when I have enough users they go off "screen" (more like off panel) and the scroll bars refuse to show up.

Up until recently the memberPanel (which contains the member buttons and labels that are displayed as users) didn't have any layout (set to null), it made it easy to position everything the way I wanted it to. However, if it doesn't have any layout the scrollbars don't seem to recognize that they are supposed to show up:

        memberPanel = new JPanel();
        memberPanel.setLayout(null);
        memberPanel.setLocation(0,0);
        //memberPanel.setSize(TextFieldWidth -20,TextFieldHeight);
 
        memberPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.red));
        //memberPanel.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
 
 
        memberScrollPanel = new JScrollPane(memberPanel);
        memberScrollPanel.setSize(TextFieldWidth,TextFieldHeight);
        memberScrollPanel.setLocation(0,0);
        memberScrollPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.blue));
        memberScrollPanel.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
 
        JPanel memberPanel2 = new JPanel(null);
        memberPanel2.setLayout(null);
        memberPanel2.setLocation(50,80);
        memberPanel2.setSize(TextFieldWidth,TextFieldHeight);
        memberPanel2.add(memberScrollPanel);
        memberPanel2.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));

With this I force a scrollbar to show, but it doesn't recognize that the frame expands even when it goes off the frame, so it's currently not usable for anything.

My friend asked me to try using GridLayout instead, and with that the scrollbar does work, but gridlayout also unfortunately resizes everything to be the same size, so with just a couple of users the height is really awkwardly high, which then shrinks down as more users are added to the intended height, but the width remains incorrect, especially for the button and index number.

Is there any way to get the scrollbar to work with null layout, or any way to fix gridlayout to work the way I want it to, or any other layout that would work? =/

I've progressed quite a bit with the program and it should be getting close to finished, thanks to all of the help you've given me!

Right now I'm trying to add a way to print out all of the dates between a specified start and end date to a printer. As of currently, whenever a user logs in or out, a new date is created and stored along with the user account:
(Within membersActionListener.java)

mainFrame.date = new Date();
member.logOutDates(mainFrame.date);

(Whithin Member.java)

    Date [] logindates = new Date[900];
    Date [] logoutdates = new Date[900];
 
 
 
 
    public void logInDates(Date incomingDate)
    {
        logindates[numberoflogins] = incomingDate;
        numberoflogins++;
    }
 
    public void logOutDates(Date incomingDate)
    {
        logoutdates[numberoflogouts] = incomingDate;
        numberoflogouts++;
    }

The creation and storage of the dates works well, it's even saved to and loaded from a .txt file for each individual user without problem. The issue is that I'm not quite sure as how to convert what the user types in into a date variable that can be compared to the stored dates.

The date = new Date(); format currently gets this kind of result:
"Wed Dec 04 12:22:20 CET 2013"

I feel that would be really awkward to type in when specifying the start and end dates. Something like "2013 Dec 04 12:22:20" would be a lot easier, perhaps even without the seconds. But I'm not sure of how to get it to work.

This is what my current code looks like when you press the "printerButton", before pressing it the user has written in the start and end dates in two JTextFields:

	printerButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){ public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
		{
			try 
			{
			    String startDateText = startDate.getText();
			    String endDateText = endDate.getText();
 
			    DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd"); //Currently not being used, not sure how to use it. =/
			    SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy MMM dd", Locale.ENGLISH);
 
			    //SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);
			    Date date;
 
			    date = formatter.parse(startDateText); //Currently what gives out the error "java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "2013 08 15""
 
			    Calendar cal;
 
 
 
				int i = 0;
				for(Members member : mainFrame.membersList)
				{
					if(member.logindates[i].compareTo(date) == 0)
					{
						JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "0"); //Just trying to get the hang of comparing dates
					}
 
					if(member.logindates[i].compareTo(date) < 0)
					{
						JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "< 0");
					}
 
					if(member.logindates[i].compareTo(date) > 0)
					{
						JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "> 0");
					}
 
					i++;
				}
 
				} catch (ParseException e1) {
					e1.printStackTrace();
			}
 
		}});

Would it be possible to change the way the dates are stored to "yyyy MMM dd HH:mm:ss"? That would probably solve the issue.

If not, how would I go about making it as user friendly as possible to enter the start and end dates?