writing output to textarea in another class - swing

Question

hi i am new to java and am stuck here, been quite a while now that i can move forward; i have created a GUI interface for a chat system(although very rough because i have used the java help file and alot i have never done before). but i have another code which is standing on its own, no GUI at all, all out put are on command prompt. now i want to append all the output to the GUI that i have created. please help take a look at the codes below and suggest ways and stepps to help figure it out... please this is not an assignment from college, i am a graduate and working so i do this when i have time, because i believe knowing java is a great knowledge. thank you for your time.
this is the chat GUI Class that i created
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class MainView extends JFrame {
protected JLabel msgLabel, bannerLabel;
protected JButton sendBtn;
protected JTextArea genMsg, frndLst;
protected JTextField msgF;
protected JMenuBar menubar;
protected JMenu loginmenu, aboutmenu;
protected JMenuItem loginitem, disconnectitem, seperatoritem, quititem, aboutitem;
protected Toolkit toolkit;
MultiThreadChatClient chatClient;
public MainView() {
toolkit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
if(toolkit.getScreenSize().getWidth() > 600)
setSize(600, 575);
else
setSize((int)toolkit.getScreenSize().getWidth(),(int toolkit.getScreenSize().getHeight() - 20);
setResizable(false);
Dimension dimension = getSize();
setLayout(new FlowLayout());
setTitle("FRESHER MARKETING COMPANY");
addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent evt) { System.exit(0);}});
menubar = new JMenuBar();
loginmenu = new JMenu("Login");
loginitem = new JMenuItem("Login");
disconnectitem = new JMenuItem("Disconnect");
seperatoritem = new JMenuItem("---------------");
quititem = new JMenuItem("Quit");
loginmenu.add(loginitem);
loginmenu.add(disconnectitem);
loginmenu.add(seperatoritem);
loginmenu.add(quititem);
aboutmenu = new JMenu("Help ");
aboutitem = new JMenuItem("About ");
aboutmenu.add(aboutitem);
menubar.add(loginmenu);
menubar.add(aboutmenu);
setJMenuBar(menubar);
Container container = getContentPane();
container.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
// create an ImageIcon
ImageIcon banner =new ImageIcon("images\\defaultbanner.gif");
bannerLabel = new JLabel(banner);
container.add(bannerLabel);
// create General Message Screen
genMsg = new JTextArea(30,45);
genMsg.setEditable(false);
genMsg.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Times New Roman", 0, 12)); // NOI18N
genMsg.setLineWrap(true);
container.add( new JScrollPane( genMsg ));
// create Friend List View
frndLst = new JTextArea(30, 15);
frndLst.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Times New Roman", 0, 12)); // NOI18N
container.add( new JScrollPane( frndLst));
frndLst.setEditable(false);
frndLst.setLineWrap(true);
msgLabel = new JLabel ("Message:");
container.add(msgLabel);
// create Message Field
msgF = new JTextField(38);
msgF.setEnabled( true );
msgF.setText("");
msgF.requestFocus();
msgF.addActionListener(
new ActionListener()
{
// send message to client
public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent event )
{
// sendData( event.getActionCommand() );
}
} // end anonymous inner class
); // end call to addActionListener
container.add(msgF);
// create Send Button
sendBtn = new JButton ("Send");
container.add(sendBtn);
setVisible( true );
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
MainView application = new MainView();
application.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
}
and this is the Chat multithread system that i want to append.
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
public class MultiThreadChatServer{
// Declaration section:
// declare a server socket and a client socket for the server
// declare an input and an output stream
static Socket clientSocket = null;
static ServerSocket serverSocket = null;
// This chat server can accept up to 10 clients' connections
static clientThread t[] = new clientThread[10];
public static void main(String args[]) {
// The default port
int port_number=2222;
if (args.length < 1)
{
System.out.println("Usage: java MultiThreadChatServer \n"+
"Now using port number="+port_number);
} else {
port_number=Integer.valueOf(args[0]).intValue();
}
// Initialization section:
// Try to open a server socket on port port_number (default 2222)
// Note that we can't choose a port less than 1023 if we are not
// privileged users (root)
try {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port_number);
}
catch (IOException e)
{System.out.println(e);}
// Create a socket object from the ServerSocket to listen and accept
// connections.
// Open input and output streams for this socket will be created in
// client's thread since every client is served by the server in
// an individual thread
while(true){
try {
clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
for(int i=0; i<=9; i++){
if(t[i]==null)
{
(t[i] = new clientThread(clientSocket,t)).start();
break;
}
}
}
catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);}
}
}
}
// This client thread opens the input and the output streams for a particular client,
// ask the client's name, informs all the clients currently connected to the
//server about the fact that a new client has joined the chat room,
// and as long as it receive data, echos that data back to all other clients.
// When the client leaves the chat room this thread informs also all the
// clients about that and terminates.
class clientThread extends Thread{
DataInputStream is = null;
PrintStream os = null;
Socket clientSocket = null;
clientThread t[];
public clientThread(Socket clientSocket, clientThread[] t){
this.clientSocket=clientSocket;
this.t=t;
}
public void run()
{
String line;
String name;
try{
is = new DataInputStream(clientSocket.getInputStream());
os = new PrintStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
os.println("Enter your name.");
name = is.readLine();
os.println("Hello "+name+" to our chat room.\nTo leave enter /quit in a new line");
for(int i=0; i<=9; i++)
if (t[i]!=null && t[i]!=this)
t[i].os.println("*** A new user "+name+" entered the chat room !!! ***" );
while (true) {
line = is.readLine();
if(line.startsWith("/quit")) break;
for(int i=0; i<=9; i++)
if (t[i]!=null) t[i].os.println("<"+name+"> "+line);
}
for(int i=0; i<=9; i++)
if (t[i]!=null && t[i]!=this)
t[i].os.println("*** The user "+name+" is leaving the chat room !!! ***" );
os.println("*** Bye "+name+" ***");
// Clean up:
// Set to null the current thread variable such that other client could
// be accepted by the server
for(int i=0; i<=9; i++)
if (t[i]==this) t[i]=null;
// close the output stream
// close the input stream
// close the socket
is.close();
os.close();
clientSocket.close();
}
catch(IOException e){};
}
}
any suggestions would do really. be it steps to achieve this, links to make things easier, a code snippet... thank you..
i would like an example on how to append the ouputs from MultiThreadChatServer class to the textarea in MainView class

Answer 1

EDIT: re-read the code and noticed that the gui code actually holds an instance of the chat client. Have you considered making the chat client observable for chat client events and then setting the gui as a listener for those events?