We Keep Coding

clicking a button shows a new Jpanel

Hey I'm working on a java project, I'll try yo generalize my problem so...
I have a jpanelX that contains jbuttons1 to 5. All these jbuttons connect to the same actionlistener and the same action performed method. I also save the source of the button clicked into a global string variable.
I have another JpanelY. JpanelY contains arrays of strings.
I want to connect the two with this behavior:
user clicks button1 on JpanelX
JpanelY is shown instead of JpanelX. aka the user is taken to JpanelY
the string array in JpanelY will contain different values based on the clicked Jbutton. So if a user clicks Jbutton1, the array will be assigned values {"Value1 ","value 1b","value1c"}
i tried a lot of things and got different errors. please help me, thank you so much

It's a bad idea to save anything in a global string variable. Much better is to call a method in the panel you wish to display that assigns the correct values to your string array.
A user can be 'taken to' a panel in lots of different ways. You could hide the current panel and show the new one (setVisible(true/false)), you could use a layout manager that allows different panels to be displayed in the same space, you could change the contents of the containing panel. You'll need to give more details of what you want.
Depending on what you need, you might end up with code like:
button1.addActionListener(ae-> showValues("val1", "val2");
button2.addActionListener(ae-> showValues("val3", "val4", "val5");
private void showValues(String... values) {
setVisible(false);
arrayPanel.setArray(values);
arrayPanel.setVisible(true);
}

Java swing requestFocusInWindow()

I know there are many questions on how to focus on a certain text field and so on, but it seems that the issue I am facing is a bit different. So, I have a JTextField which has functionality to autocomplete the text if something that is currently in it has been typed before by the user. I also have a set of buttons that perform insertion of some predefined portion of text into the text field when pressed. The problem is that every time any new text appears in the text field, the autocomplete can trigger and append the text that was used by the user previously. In order to it more friendly, I decided to select the part appended by the autocomplete. All the code is executed in the ED thread. Consider the case when the text field was not in focus :
Both code samples are in the actionPerformed method of the button.
// does not work
if (textField.requestFocusInWindow()) {
textField.getDocument().insertString(...);
}
The insertString() is overriden and has all the logic to select appended string by the autocomplete. So, the only thing I need is that the text field is selected before the string is inserted.
I tried :
// does work
textField.requestFocusInWindow();
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> {
textField.getDocument().insertString(...);
});
The official doc says :
The call to the requestFocusInWindow method initiates the focus transfer, but it does not immediately move the focus ...
This sort of makes sense, since to acquire the focus, a call must be made to the window manager of the clients operating system (that's how I understand that, correct me if I am wrong).
Is the second example working mainly because both events (getting focus and inserting the string) are added to the event queue and the insertion appears after the focus request (actually at the end of the queue) or am I missing something? Is it a valid solution? Can it be done better?
Note: simply adding a listener to the text field ( to react when it is in focus) is not a solution, since the logic I described here is only a part of the whole functionality used.

How do you append both pre-established text and user responses into a text area in Java?

I will do my best to explain-- I am trying to make a choose-your-own-adventure type game while using a TextField and a TextArea, where what is written in the TextField is appended into the TextArea (this I know how to do via ActionListener).
However, I need to have the TextArea start with a pre-written 'intro', which asks the user at the end if they want to continue or not. Therefore, I need it to be able to scan the user's response ('yes' or 'no') and choose the appropriate selection of pre-written text to follow.
I don't want to overwrite what is already in the TextArea, I want to add to it. I suppose what I'm confused about it how I'm supposed to lay out the entire file so that it functions properly, because the different choices for the adventure span different methods. Having
"String text = textField.getText();" only within the actionPerformed method means I can't use 'text' elsewhere, but moving that line up with my other variables tells me it can't reference the field before it's defined.
I am fairly new to Java and am working on this as a project for a non-programming school course. I've been through many iterations thus far and this is what seems to be my final attempt, as I've remade it repeatedly and don't have much time left. :(

Your questions/comments and my attempts to answer:
I am trying to make a choose-your-own-adventure type game while using a TextField and a TextArea, where what is written in the TextField is appended into the TextArea (this I know how to do via ActionListener).
As per my comment, be sure to create a Swing GUI which would use a JTextField and a JTextArea. You would then add your java.awt.event.ActionListener to the JTextArea, and the ActionListener would respond whenever the user pressed <ENTER> within the JTextField.
However, I need to have the TextArea start with a pre-written 'intro', which asks the user at the end if they want to continue or not. Therefore, I need it to be able to scan the user's response ('yes' or 'no') and choose the appropriate selection of pre-written text to follow.
This can be done easily, but sounds as if you may be trying to shoe-horn a linear console type program into a GUI. If so, consider reconsidering your program design since what works best for one often doesn't work well for another. If you do re-write, then you should consider redoing most including your program flow, but excepting perhaps the "model" portion of your previous program, the "business logic" that underlies everything.
I don't want to overwrite what is already in the TextArea, I want to add to it. I suppose what I'm confused about it how I'm supposed to lay out the entire file so that it functions properly, because the different choices for the adventure span different methods. Having "String text = textField.getText();" only within the actionPerformed method means I can't use 'text' elsewhere, but moving that line up with my other variables tells me it can't reference the field before it's defined.
Again as per comments a JTextArea has an append(String text) method that will add new text to existing text that is already displayed in your JText Area. So on that note, your ActionListener's actionPerformed method could be very simple and look something like:
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
String text = textField.getText();
textArea.append(text):
}
Although you may need to add line feeds, "\n" either before and/or after the text you are going to append.

Retrieve Values from multiple JFrame to a single JFrame

I have 5 JFrames in my application and I want the values from all 5 JFrames to be sent to a single JFrame. And it is a process where I have to go one frame to another and the value entered previously should not be lost and must be visible at the end of the process.
Easy example is,
I key in my name in the first frame,
then I key in my Address in the second frame,
then my mobile number in the third frame
and so on till the last frame where I want my keyed in details in the previous forms to be in the final frame to display my data in JTextfields. Is this possible? Because if it is a single form, I know how to do it. But when it is multiple forms in this situation I am lost. Please help.

This has nothing to do with Swing or JFrames and all to do with the general issue of getting information from one object into another. Yes it's possible -- give the classes that you wish to extract information from "getter" methods, and then call them when you want the information. If you want to gather this information in an event-dependent fashion, then you will need to have one class listening for state changes brought on by events in the other classes. A PropertyChangeListener can work well for this.
Or if you use modal JDialog windows instead of JFrames, you will always be notified when the dialog has returned and is no longer visible, since the calling code's program flow resumes from right after where it told the dialog to become visible.
Next we can discuss whether having 5 separate JFrames is a good idea or not. I'm guessing you know my opinion on this, else I wouldn't have mentioned the subject.

Netbeans GUI passing textfield values to action defined in App not in View

I created a simple app in Netbeans, it contains a few textfields for user input and a button, I've associated an action with the button through the Netbeans interface but I decided to define the action in the App and not the View so as to follow some notion of MVC.
The action works fine, I can print out the console every time the button is clicked.
But in order to do what I want, I need the values included in the jTextFields!
How to do this? This is the code in TestApp.java:
#Action
public void ClickedOnButton() {
System.out.println("Clicked ok");
System.out.println("Will now attempt to read notes.ini");
ReadNotesFile();
}
And this is the code in TestView.java:
javax.swing.ActionMap actionMap = org.jdesktop.application.Application.getInstance(tpa_fixer.TPA_FixerApp.class).getContext().getActionMap(TPA_FixerView.class, this);
jButton1.setAction(actionMap.get("ClickedOnButton")); // NOI18N

What have you tried, and how doesn't it work? The standard way to get a JTextField to display text is to call setText() on it. Have you tried doing this?
Also,
Have you gone through the Swing tutorial about these concepts including using text components, JButtons, and ActionListeners?
Are you seeing any errors in these attempts? If so, post them here.
Is your "control" class, the one with the listener code, separate from your "view" or GUI class? If so, does control have a valid reference to view?
Edit
You state:
I don't want to set the text in the jTextFields, I want to get the values out of them and use it in the method that gets run when I click on the button. I can't see how to do this unless I can pass arguments somehow within the body of the action definition in the View class.
What I've done in this situation, where I need to extract information out of gui fields for manipulation in other classes:
You can give each field an associated public getText() method and then call these methods using the control's reference to the view object. For instance say view has a nameField JTextField, then I'd give it a getNameFieldText() method that returns nameField.getText();.
If you had many such fields, then it may be more efficient to use just one getText method but allow it a parameter to let you choose which field to extract text from. To make this work efficiently, I've sometimes given my GUI a HashMap and then have control pass in the String key that allows the getText method to obtain the correct JTextfield, get its text and return it. I often use the same Strings used as JLabels associated with the JTextField as my key Strings.