Below code segment shows how to use a JDialog to refer to a parent frame.
MyApp.java
public class MyApp { JDialog dialog; JFrame parentFrame; public static void main(String[] args) { MyApp app = new MyApp(); app.gui(); } public void gui() { //The parentFrame parentFrame = new JFrame(); parentFrame = setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); //The dialog dialog = new JDialog(parentFrame, "My New Application v 1.0"): dialog.addWindowListener(new CloseWindowListener()); dialog.setSize(300, 300); dialog.setResizable(false); dialog.setVisible(true); } //The close window event handler public class CloseWindowListener implements WindowListener { public void windowClosing(WindowEvent ev) { dialog.dispose(); //First, dispose the dialog parentFrame.dispose(); //Then, dispose the frame } } }