Java can subclass inherit and override nested class?

Question

This is for a Java Swing JToolBar:

I have my own Toolbar class that extends JToolBar, which has buttons on it with ActionListeners. Code:

class ToolBar extends JToolBar {
    JButton save, reset;

    ToolBar() {
        setFloatable(false);
        setRollover(true);
        makeButtons();
    }

    makeButtons() {
        save = new JButton();
        // Icon and tooltip code
        save.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
        add(save);

        reset = new JButton();
        // Icon and tooltip code
        reset.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
        add(reset);

    protected class ButtonListener implements ActionListener {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
        }
    }

Then I've made a few other subclasses of this one because I have need for multiple toolbars for multiple frames, each having a different "save" or "reset" source/target. I'll just give one for simplicity:

class FullToolBar extends ToolBar {

    protected class ButtonListener implements ActionListener {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
            if (event.getSource() == save) FullInput.save();
            else if (event.getSource() == reset) FullInput.reset();
        }
    }
}

FullInput is the name of one of my JFrame's which the toolbar will go on. It has both a save and reset method which are static, but for some reason when I add the FullToolBar to my FullInput the buttons don't work.

Am I misunderstanding that nested classes can be inherited and overriden? Any ideas/comments or even suggestions of a completely different way to do what I'm trying to accomplish here? Basically, need a way to use the save and reset button on different frames/classes with the same toolbar.

Answer 1

No, you can't override a nested class like that. there are a couple of ways you can tackle this. one would be to put the overrideable method on the main Toolbar class, e.g.:

class ToolBar extends JToolBar {

  makeButtons() {
    save = new JButton();
    // Icon and tooltip code
    save.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
        saveButtonPressed(event);
      }
    });
  }

  protected void saveButtonPressed(ActionEvent event) {}
}

Then, a subclass can customize the action when the save button is pressed by overriding the saveButtonPressed method.