Disable JButton from another class

Question

I'm trying to disabling button while using Input Verifier at the same time. I wanted to disable button when textfields are empty. Here's how I do it.

AddEmployee.class

public class AddEmployee extends javax.swing.JInternalFrame
{
    public JButton getJButton()
    {
        return addEmployeeButton;
    }

    public void setJButton(JButton buttonObject)
    {
        buttonObject = addEmployeeButton;
    }
}

ValidateComponents.class

public class ValidateComponents extends InputVerifier
{
   public void disable(JButton name)
   {
       AddEmployee employee = new AddEmployee();
       employee.setJButton(name);
       name.setEnabled(false);
   }

@Override
public boolean verify(JComponent input) 
{
    String tf = null;
    String ta = null;
    String name = input.getName(); //GETTING THE NAME OF THE COMPONENT
    if(input instanceof JTextField)
    {
        tf = ((JTextField) input).getText();

        if(name.equals("tfLastName") || name.equals("tfFirstName") || name.equals("tfMiddleName") || name.equals("tfNickname") || name.equals("tfGuardianContactName"))
        {
            if(tf.trim().length() == 0 || tf.equals(""))
            {
                input.setBackground(Color.PINK);//Set background color to pink if false.
                input.setToolTipText("Fields cannot left blank");
                return false;//Return false if the component need to keep focus
            }
       }
   }
}

Is it valid to call the disable() method under my if condition? So it can call if textfields are empty. Any help would appreciated! Thanks :)

Update:

public class ValidateComponents extends InputVerifier
{
      private AddEmployee employee = new AddEmployee();
      JButton myButton;
      public void disable(JButton name, boolean disable)
      {
        employee.setJButton(name);
        name.setEnabled(!disable);
        myButton = name;
      }

@Override
public boolean verify(JComponent input) 
{
    String tf = null;

    String name = input.getName(); //GETTING THE NAME OF THE COMPONENT
    if(input instanceof JTextField)
    {
        tf = ((JTextField) input).getText();

        if(name.equals("tfLastName") || name.equals("tfFirstName") || name.equals("tfMiddleName") || name.equals("tfNickname") || name.equals("tfGuardianContactName"))
        {
            boolean valid = tf.trim().length() > 0;

            disable(myButton, !valid);
            if(!valid)
            {
                input.setBackground(Color.PINK);//Set background color to pink if false.
                input.setToolTipText("Fields cannot left blank");
                return false;//Return false if the component need to keep focus
            }
}
}
}

Answer 1

Your class should be modify just a bit to be more flexible

private AddEmployee employee = new AddEmployee();

public void disable(JButton name, boolean disable){
    employee.setJButton(name);
    name.setEnabled(!disable); //NOT because yours is called disable and Swing's is called enabled ;)
}

From this, you can easily change the status of a button. The question is, why do you need to add this to AddEmployee ? Use you verifier to create a boolean (valid per example) that will tell if a button should or not be enabled. If you don't, you will never reactivate the button.

if(name.equals("tfLastName") || name.equals("tfFirstName") || name.equals("tfMiddleName") || name.equals("tfNickname") || name.equals("tfGuardianContactName"))
        {
            boolean valid = tf.trim().length() > 0; //Change the sign here and no need for the following > || tf.equals("")
            disable(myButton, !valid); // YOU NEED TO HAVE THE BUTTON INSTANCE SOMEWHERE, IN THE CONSTRUCTOR OR A SETTER...
            if(!valid){
                input.setBackground(Color.PINK);//Set background color to pink if false.
                input.setToolTipText("Fields cannot left blank");
                return false;//Return false if the component need to keep focus
            } else {
                // ADD THE VALID CASE HERE
            }
       }

Just a note, you should send the instance you want to check to your verifier and store those in a Collection, then for an input , check if you have the same instance in the collection (say a List), this will be cleaner than checking the names ;)

public class ValidateComponents extends InputVerifier
{
    JButton myButton;

    public ValidateComponents(JButton button)
        this.myButton = button;
    }

    ...

}

You just need to set the button when you create your instance of ValidateComponents.