ForumPost instance

Question

In the Example Class, whenever I go to complete the required parameters for the instance of ForumPost, for the first parameter, I can't use post.getAuthor(), nor can I use user.getFirstName() or getLastName(). I'm lost at this point as to what to use to fulfill the first parameter of the ForumPost post object. 
Also, it won't let me hit the "Get Help" button while I'm in the code, so I have to close out and get back in in order to use this feature which erases all my progress. So it looks like I haven't done anything when in fact I'm almost done (Step 4).
```ForumPost.java
public class ForumPost {
  private User mAuthor;
  private String mTitle;
  private String mDescription;
  public User getAuthor() {
    return mAuthor;
  }
  public String getTitle() {
    return mTitle;
  }
  // TODO: We need to expose the description
}
```
```User.java
public class User {
  public User(String firstName, String lastName) {
    // TODO:  Set the private fields here
  }
}
```
```Forum.java
public class Forum {
  private String mTopic;
  public String getTopic() {
      return mTopic;
  }
  public void addPost(ForumPost post) {
      /* When all is ready uncomment this...
      System.out.printf("New post from %s %s about %s.
",
                         post.getAuthor().getFirstName(),
                         post.getAuthor().getLastName(),
                         post.getTitle());
      */
  }
}
```
```Example.java
public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Starting forum example...");
    if (args.length < 2) {
       System.out.println("first and last name are required. eg:  java Example Craig Dennis");
    }
    // Forum forum = new Forum("Java");
    // Take the first two elements passed args
    // User author = new User();
    // Add the author, title and description
    // ForumPost post = new ForumPost();
    // forum.addPost(post);
  }
}
```

Gaspar Santiago · Answer

Ok I'll give this a try. I used author but like this - author.getAuthor()
I'll try it without the method call... thanks!

Benjamin Barslev Nielsen · Answer

Here is the constructor for ForumPost:
java
public ForumPost(User author, String title, String description){
    mAuthor = author;
    mTitle = title;
    mDescription = description;
  }

Note that in line 10 in Example.java we should instantiate a user object, by using the args array:
java
User author = new User(args[0], args[1]);

We can see in the constructor for ForumPost, that it takes a user, so lets instantiate ForumPost with author and two arbitrary strings for the title and description:
java
// Add the author, title and description
ForumPost post = new ForumPost(author, "someTitle", "someDescription");

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Gaspar Santiago

Gaspar Santiago

ForumPost instance

2 Answers

Benjamin Barslev Nielsen

Benjamin Barslev Nielsen

Gaspar Santiago

Gaspar Santiago