Thread: JPanel "ActionListener"

I'm recreating Minesweeper because why not? Anyway, I've run into a problem with how I have it coded when I wish to update my mine counter (the box traditionally on top of the screen).

Anyway, I have a JPanel that contains most of the components on the screen (all but the menu bar). I have a separate JPanel that holds the board which contains the game play, etc.

I am at a loss on how to update the mine count (the user-altered and visible mine counter). An action listener seemed to be the obvious choice for me, but there is no action listener for a JPanel.

I have tried a mouse listener, but in order for that to work, I have to depress a mine first and click on the empty places for the count to be updated. Furthermore, when I right click on a square, the mine count should lower by one and raise by one when I click it again, which a mouse listener does not work for me, to the best of my knowledge.

I am unsure on how to listen for a type of event that would suit my needs. Any help would be appreciated.

Edit: Maybe, could I make it so my JPanel that holds the board "throws" or fires an action and then I could listen for that?

It sounds to me like there may be an issue in the organization. Where data is stored vs where access to said data is needed.
The mouse listener should be able to do the things you talked about.
Post code that shows the problem, at least a sample to go on, no need to post the entire game or anything.

public class LargeMinesweeperPanel extends JPanel {
 
	private MinesweeperPanel panel;
	private JLabel mineCount;
 
	public LargeMinesweeperPanel(int numOfRows, int numOfCols, int minePercAsInt, int sizeOfButton) {
		panel = new MinesweeperPanel(numOfRows, numOfCols, minePercAsInt, sizeOfButton);
                //This is the panel I want to listen to. Specifically, I want to know when a button in this
                //panel is right clicked.
 
		mineCount = new JLabel("" + panel.getProposedMines());	
 
		mineCount.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER);
 
		this.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
		this.add(mineCount, BorderLayout.NORTH);
 
		this.add(panel);
	}
 
        public MinesweeperPanel getPanel() {
		return panel;
	}
}

This is what I add to my JFrame, along with a MenuBar.
I've realized this is badly organized for the problem stated above as well as how to get the MenuBar to interact with the board. That's where the getPanel() method comes into play.

Note: The reason I have it situated like this is because I like the look I achieved and I couldn't really find a way to achieve this without this class. I'm kind of bad with layout managers.

I also tried having the BoardPanel declared in the MinesweeperPanel and added, but I couldn't figure out how to set which panel the paintComponent() method draws to. If I could figure that out, I could get it to work.


Here's the organization:
JFrame contains a JMenuBar and a JPanel (I'll call this TopPanel)
TopPanel contains a Label and another Panel

Problem: I want to be able to listen to a button click (left and right) from Panel in TopPanel

Possible solutions to my problem:
1. Figure out how to listen to the left and right click from Panel in TopPanel
2. Get rid of TopPanel and have Panel contain the "label" from top and the array of buttons. My problem here was I did not know how draw on the panel that contains the buttons apart from the panel that contains it. I tried this earlier, but it would clear the numbers that are supposed to lie behind the buttons after they were drawn (I think). Here's the paintComponent() method I tried from before.

public class MinesweeperPanel extends JPanel implements ActionListener, MouseListener {
 
     ...
 
     public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
		super.paintComponent(g);
 
		g = boardPanel.getGraphics();
		super.paintComponent(g);
 
                //The ugly looking code here below paints the lines and numbers onto the panel.
                //It works fine, my problem would lie above here I believe.
 
		g.setColor(Color.LIGHT_GRAY);
		Tile button = board[0][0];
		for(int i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
			g.drawLine(0, (int)(i * button.getSize().getHeight()), getWidth(), (int)(i * button.getSize().getHeight()));
		}
 
		for(int i = 0; i < cols; i++) {
			g.drawLine((int)(i * button.getSize().getWidth()), 0, (int)(i * button.getSize().getWidth()), getHeight());
		}
 
		g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
		for(int r = 0; r < rows; r++) {
			for(int c = 0; c < cols; c++) {
				button = board[r][c];
				if(button.getLocalMines() != 0)
					g.drawString(button.getLocalMines() + "", 
							(int) Math.ceil(button.getX() + button.getSize().getWidth() / 2 - g.getFont().getSize() / 2 + 3),
							(int) Math.ceil(button.getY() + button.getSize().getHeight() / 2 + 3));
			}
		}
	}
 
        ...
 
}