PrintWriter not writing to file, tried adding flush() and close() Java

Question

Tried to write to a file. Did my research, made sure to flush and close. I thought that perhaps it was reading the message box blank and was writing nothing, but did a System.out.println to make sure it was reading correctly, and it is. so Not sure now.

Original Code:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.applet.*;
import java.io.*;

public class Form extends Applet implements ActionListener{
private TextField first = new TextField("First Name",12);
private TextField middle = new TextField("I",1);
private TextField last = new TextField("Last Name",15);
private TextField address = new TextField("Address",25);
private TextField city = new TextField("City",20);
private TextField state = new TextField("State",2);
private TextField zip = new TextField("Postal Code",10);
private Button submit =new Button("Submit");
private Button reset = new Button("Reset");
private Button save = new Button("Save");
private Button enlarge = new Button("Enlarge");
private TextArea message = new TextArea();


public void init()
{
    GridBagLayout gbl = new GridBagLayout();
    setLayout(gbl);
    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
    c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
    c.weightx=1.0;
    c.weighty=1.0;
    c.fill=GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
    c.insets=new Insets(5,5,5,5);
    gbl.setConstraints(first,c); add(first);
    c.fill=GridBagConstraints.NONE;
    gbl.setConstraints(middle,c); add(middle);
    c.fill=GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
    gbl.setConstraints(last,c); add(last);
    c.gridy=1;
    gbl.setConstraints(address,c); add(address);
    c.gridy=2;
    gbl.setConstraints(city,c); add(city);
    c.fill=GridBagConstraints.NONE;
    gbl.setConstraints(state,c); add(state);
    c.gridy=3;
    gbl.setConstraints(zip,c); add(zip);
    c.gridy=4;
    c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.CENTER;
    gbl.setConstraints(submit,c);add(submit);
    gbl.setConstraints(reset,c); add(reset);
    c.gridy=5;
    c.anchor = GridBagConstraints.CENTER;
    gbl.setConstraints(save, c); add(save);
    gbl.setConstraints(enlarge, c); add(enlarge);
    c.gridy=6;
    c.gridwidth=3;
    c.fill=GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
    gbl.setConstraints(message,c);add(message);
    submit.addActionListener(this);
    reset.addActionListener(this);
    enlarge.addActionListener(this);
    save.addActionListener(this);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event)
{

    String initial = middle.getText();
    String a=message.getText();
    if (initial != null)
        initial +=". ";
    Object source = event.getSource();
    if (source == submit)
    {

        message.setText(first.getText()+ ' ' +initial+last.getText());
        message.append('\n'+address.getText());
        message.append('\n'+city.getText()+", " +state.getText());
        message.append(' ' +zip.getText());
        message.append("\n\nYour message:\n"+a);
    }
    else if (source == reset)
    {
        message.setText("");
        first.setText("");
        middle.setText("");
        last.setText("");
        address.setText("");
        city.setText("");
        state.setText("");
        zip.setText("");

    }
    else if (source == enlarge)

    {
        message.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.PLAIN, 14));
        message.setForeground(Color.BLUE);
        message.setText(a);
    }
    else if (source == save)
    {
        try{


        File file=new File("savedMessage.txt");
        PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(file);
                pw.println(message.getText());
                //message.setText("Print was successful")
                pw.flush();
                pw.close();
                System.out.println(message.getText());
        }
        catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());

        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
        }

    }

}

}

Here is the code that was used to Fix the problem:

    else if (source == save)
    {
        try{
            f = new File("savedMessage.txt");
            bw = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(f,true));
            bw.write(message.getText());
            if(f.canWrite()){
            System.out.println("Success");
            }
            }

        catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());

        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    finally{

            try {
                bw.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

Answer 1

PrintWriter swallows exceptions. See the Javadoc. You need to call checkError(). Better still, use BufferedWriter, which doesn't swallow them. You're probably running up against an apple sandbox permission problem unless your applet is signed.