How can I outsource the method of a menu to a separate class?

Yesterday I started Coding a program in Java Swing. Before I coded only small console programs in java.

I put the main menu of the program in a different class than the main method. Now I wanted to add a button for an options menu and also put the code it executes into a class of its own, so that in the main menu class I only have to call the options menu method.

And here I get stuck. If I write the code for the options menu directly in the class of the main menu everything works. But as soon as I outsource the method of the options menu to a separate class, I cannot call the outsourced method.

Perhaps you can help me.

Here is the code that shall be performed when hitting the options button:

public class CPP_Frame extends JFrame {

        JButton SettingsButton = new JButton("Options");
        SettingsButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                CPP_Frame OptionsMenu = new CPP_Frame();
                OptionsMenu.OptionsMenuLoader();
            }
        });
    }

And that´s the code inside the Options Menu-class that shall be called by the 'OptionsMenuLoader':

public class Options_Menu extends JFrame {

    protected void OptionsMenuLoader() {
        CPP_Frame OptionsMenu = new CPP_Frame();
        OptionsMenu.setSize(new Dimension(400, 500));
        OptionsMenu.setVisible(true);
        OptionsMenu.setTitle("Options");
        OptionsMenu.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }
}

Where do I mistaken or is the way I try to write the code even possible.
I hope I´ve explained my problem detailed enough.
Thanks in Advance.

I can see a couple potential issues here, and I'm not overly knowledgeable about swing so correct me if I am wrong, I'm just looking at this from a programming point of view

Firstly OptionsMenuLoader() is declared as a protected method. This means if can only be called by methods in the same class as it, or classes that are derived from it.

Therefor to call OptionsMenuLoader it must either be in the same class as the actionPerformed override, or CPP_Frame would have to inherit Options_Menu, which from your structure I imagine would be wrong.

If this is possible with-in the format of a swing one solution would be to make 'OptionsMenuLoader()' public

    public void OptionsMenuLoader(){
        ...
    }

Secondly i'm not sure why this does not produce an error, you call OptionsMenuLoader() on OptionsMenu, while this looks right you declared the OptionsMenu as a CPP_Frame rather than as an Options_Menu type. This shouldn't work because CPP_Frame has no such method OptionsMenuLoader().

I think what you are aiming to do is create a CPP frame that contains an Options Menu. Which is created when the button in a different CPP Frame is clicked.

In this case you would have to create an Options_Menu on action, not a CPP Frame. You can then call the OptionsMenu.OptionsMenuLoader() method on this new menu.

public class CPP_Frame extends JFrame {

        JButton SettingsButton = new JButton("Options");
        SettingsButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

                Options_Menu OptionsMenu = new Options_Menu();
                OptionsMenu.OptionsMenuLoader();
            }
        });
    }

public class Options_Menu extends JFrame {

    public void OptionsMenuLoader() {
        CPP_Frame OptionsMenu = new CPP_Frame();
        OptionsMenu.setSize(new Dimension(400, 500));
        OptionsMenu.setVisible(true);
        OptionsMenu.setTitle("Options");
        OptionsMenu.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }
}