JButtons and maybe JTextArea not working

[Totally Stumped]

I've hit a brick wall. I have an GUI inventory program that has three buttons and one textarea. I can get the GUI to appear and the input is correct. But my buttons won't work. When I click the Next button, I should see the next inventory item. Previous doesn't work and neither does Exit. And I a have a sinking feeling that there's something wrong with the logic to modify the textarea, but until the buttons function I can't be sure. Can anyone point out where I were wrong?

setLayout( new FlowLayout() );
 
        JLabel instructions1 = new JLabel( "Press Next or Previous to navigate Inventory");
        add( instructions1 );
 
        JLabel instructions2 = new JLabel( "Press Exit to End" );
        add( instructions2 );
 
        JTextArea textarea = new JTextArea( inventory[0].toString() );
        add( textarea );
 
        JButton previous = new JButton( "PREVIOUS" );
        add( previous );
 
        JButton next = new JButton( "NEXT" );
        add( next );
 
        JButton exit = new JButton( "EXIT" );
        add( exit );
 
        ButtonHandler handler = new ButtonHandler();
        previous.addActionListener( handler );
        next.addActionListener( handler );
        exit.addActionListener( handler );
    }        
 
        private class ButtonHandler implements ActionListener
        {
            final CD inventory[] = new CD[ counter ];
 
            public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent actionEvent )
            {
                if ( actionEvent.getSource() == previous )
                {
                    if ( counter > 0 )
                        textarea = new JTextArea( inventory[count--].toString() );
                    else
                        textarea = new JTextArea ( inventory[inventory.length].toString() );
                }
 
                if ( actionEvent.getSource() == next )
                {
                    if ( counter < inventory.length )
                        textarea = new JTextArea( inventory[ count++ ].toString() );
                    else
                        textarea = new JTextArea( inventory[0].toString() );
                }
 
                if ( actionEvent.getSource() == exit )
                    System.exit( 0 );
            }
        }
 

The program compiles but doesn't run properly

[rotaryfreak]

i've never used the ButtonHandler class before so i'm not quite sure how it's supposed to work, but i have gotten events fired off after clicking a button. here's how i did it:

for each button:

JButton searchButton = new JButton("Search");
searchButton.addActionListener(this);
 

that's pretty much all you need for the button and now for the action listener:

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
    Object source = evt.getSource();
        if (source == searchButton){
            //do some action
        }
        else if (source == someOtherButton) {
            //do something else
        }
        else if (...) {
            //do something else
        }
               ...
 
    }
}
 

it's basically the same as your code except i add an action listener straight to the button instead of going through the button handler class.

here's another way to accomplish your task:
http://www.java2s.com/Code/JavaAPI/j...isteneract.htm

hope this helps

[Totally Stumped]

Sadly, I only marginally got this program to work. Even after the buttons were fixed, it still was a mess. So I'm trying a simpler program right now and will attempt the inventory program again later. Thanks rotaryfreak for trying to help. :)