I need help in creating a Lights Game in Java

Question

I have to write a GUI program to play a lights game. This game should display 6 lights, include a menu bar.

This is how far I have gotten so far:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class LightsGame extends JFrame{

LightsPanel lightPnl = new LightsPanel();

JButton switchButton[] = new JButton[6];

private LightsGame(){

    JFrame frame = new JFrame("Lights Game");

    JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
    JPanel labelPanel = new JPanel();
    this.getContentPane().add(labelPanel);
    JLabel label = new JLabel("Switch on all the Lights");
    labelPanel.add(label);  

    //LightsPanel lightPnl = new LightsPanel();

    //Code for buttons:
    for (int k = 0; k <= 5; k++){
        switchButton[k] = new JButton("Light " + k );
        buttonPanel.add(switchButton[k]);
    }

    frame.add(labelPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH); 

    frame.add(lightPnl, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    //lightPnl.add(light1, BorderLayout.CENTER);

    frame.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);       

    frame.setVisible(true); //Displays the frame
    frame.pack(); //Makes the frame as big as it needs to be.


}//LightsGame()

private class ButtonHandler implements ActionListener {

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){

     if( e.getSource() == switchButton[0])  // toggle lights controlled by button 0

        //Switch the light on or off
        lightPnl.toggleLight();
    }//actionPerformed

}//ButtonHandler

private class MenuHandler implements ActionListener {

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        //Stop the Program
        System.exit(0);
    }//ActionPerformed

}//MenuHandler

public static void main(String[] args){

    //JLabel label = new JLabel("Hello");  // ?
    LightsGame game = new LightsGame();


}//main

 }//LightsGame

and I am using this LightsPanel class (that needs work too):

 import javax.swing.*;
 import java.awt.*;

 public class LightsPanel extends JPanel{

//Background color
private final Color backClr = Color.LIGHT_GRAY,
//Outline color
outlineClr = Color.BLACK,
//Color of the light when it is on
onClr = Color.YELLOW,
//Color of the light when it is off
offClr = Color.GRAY;

private boolean switchedOn;    //  ?
    boolean[] array = new boolean[6];   

public LightsPanel(){
    super(); 
    setPreferredSize(new Dimension(800, 200));
    boolean[] switchedOn = new boolean[6];  //  ?
    //switchedOn = false;       

}//LightsPanel()

public void paintComponent(Graphics gc){
    super.paintComponent(gc);

    Graphics2D l = (Graphics2D)gc;

    //Draw the background
    setBackground(backClr);

    //Draw the light
    if (switchedOn)
        l.setColor(onClr);
    else
        l.setColor(offClr);
        l.fillOval(75, 75, 50, 50);

    //Draw the outline of the light 
    l.setColor(outlineClr);
    l.drawOval(75, 75, 50, 50);

}//paintComponent   

public void toggleLight() {

//Change the state of the light
if(switchedOn)
    switchedOn = false;
else
    switchedOn = true; 

//Redraw the panel
repaint();

}//toggleLight

public void allLightsOn() {

}//allLightsOn
 }//LightsPanel

Right now I am stuck trying to make a loop to display 6 lights and have them work with 6 buttons. I cannot get the buttons to show up either. I need to add buttons to the buttonPanel but I'm not sure how to do that.

My buttons should toggle and correspond to certain lights..

Button 0 : lights 0, 2
Button 1 : lights 1, 3
Button 2 : lights 0, 1, 2, 3, 5
Button 3 : lights 0, 1, 2, 4, 5
Button 4 : lights 2, 4
Button 5 : lights 3, 5

If anyone is willing or has time to help me with this it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Answer 1

Basically, you're not adding any buttons to anything...

You have this great loop, which seems to make sense to build your logic here...

for (int k = 0; k <= 5; k++){
    switchButton[k] = new JButton("Light" + k );
}

For example...

for (int k = 0; k < switchButton.length; k++){
    switchButton[k] = new JButton("Light" + k );
    buttonPane.add(switchButton[k]);
}

Now the next time you need to attach some kind of handler to the button so you can change the light state accordingly...

For this, you will need to take a look at How to use buttons and How to write an action listener .

Personally, I would make the LightsPanel responsible for a single light and simply create as many instance of this panel as you need. Then you could simply create a switch method which turns the light on or off as required...