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Multithreading in JavaFX data binding int to Task value

I am fairly new to multi-threading and have run into a bit of difficulty getting tasks to work within my application.
I have a file browser that allows users to select file(s) to be imported and while this import is occurring I am trying to update a progress bar at the bottom of the screen. However, I am trying to avoid making the bar "indeterminate" for the import process but instead fill with the actual import progress.
In order to accomplish this, I have created 2 tasks, 1 to get a total count of the files to be imported from the selected items in the file browser tree and a 2nd to actually import the songs and update the progress bar based on a simple equation using the total count from first task.
However, I'm unsure of how to get the int value from the first task into the the second task.
This also brings up a few additional questions, first about just getting things to work and secondly about the performance aspect of my design.
Controller Class
#FXML
private void handleImportButtonAction(ActionEvent event) {
new Thread(getSelectedFilesLeafCountTask).start();
new Thread(importSongsTask).start();
}
Get Leaf Count Task
#Component
public class GetSelectedFilesLeafCountTask extends Task<Integer> {
#Autowired
private FileBrowserController fileBrowserController;
#Autowired
private FooterController footerController;
private Integer leafCount = 0;
#Override
protected Integer call() throws Exception {
Platform.runLater(new Runnable(){
footerController.getTaskProgressIndicator().setProgress(ProgressBar.INDETERMINITE);
footerController.getTaskLabel().setText("Indexing Files");
});
getSelectedItemsLeafCount(fileBrowserController.getFileBrowser().
getSelectionModel().getSelectedItems());
return leafCount;
}
// Recursively counts the leaves within a single or group of Files
private void getSelectedItemsLeafCount(List<TreeItem<File>> files) {
for(TreeItem<File> f : files) {
if(f.isLeaf()) {
leafCount++;
}else {
getSelectedItemsLeafCount(f.getChildren());
}
}
}
}
Import Songs Task
#Component
public class ImportSongsTask implements Runnable {
#Autowired
FileBrowserController fileBrowserController;
#Autowired
FooterController footerController;
#Autowired
ConsoleTabController consoleTabController;
#Autowired
DataModel datamodel;
private double totalFileCount; // This is the value needed from task1
private double completionCount;
private int importCount; // Total Number of Files that have been imported at the end of the task
private int failCount;
#Override
public void run() {
importCount = 0;
failCount = 0;
totalFileCount = fileBrowserController.getSelectedLeafCount();
Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
footerController.getTaskLabel().setText(footerController.IMPORTING_FILES_MSG);
footerController.getTaskProgressIndicator().setProgress(0.0);
footerController.getTaskProgressIndicator().setVisible(true);
}
});
List<Song> importSongsList = new ArrayList<>();
importSongsList = importFilesForImportButton(fileBrowserController.getFileBrowser().getSelectionModel().getSelectedItems(), importSongsList);
datamodel.getWindowDisplaySongs().addAll(importSongsList);
Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// Reset button and progress bar values
completionCount = 0;
}
});
}
private List<Song> importFilesForImportButton(List<TreeItem<File>> files, List<Song> importList){
for(TreeItem<File> f : files) {
try {
if(f.isLeaf() && !datamodel.songWindowContainsFile(f.getValue())) {
// Perform Processing
Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
footerController.getTaskProgressIndicator().setProgress((completionCount / totalFileCount)); // Need the value from task 1 here
}
});
completionCount++;
importCount++;
}else{
importFilesForImportButton(f.getChildren(), importList);
}
}catch(Exception e) {
}
}
return importList;
}
}
Additional Questions
Is there any better performing solution to allow me to have a progress bar to update based on the total file count that wouldn't require me to go through all of the files 2 times (once to get the total count for the progress bar, and then a second to actually import them)?
Is there a way for me to start the task to count the leaf items from within the import task but make sure that the import task doesn't continue until the counting task is 100% complete? because I should only need to start that task from within other background tasks but I am not sure how to make sure that it completes first.

Setting up a progress bar in Java

I have a program currently and have tried to implement a progress bar with my code. Bellow is an example of the code currently. The main GUI is in its own class and instantiates other classes to then execute code within those classes' methods. An example is as follows:
class MainClass {
public javax.swing.JProgressBar progressBar;
private void combineActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
Combine combiner = new Combine();
combiner.Merge(folder);
}
}
It takes a folder listing and then goes to the Combine class which has the following code:
public class Combine extends SwingWorker<Integer,Integer>{
public void Merge(Folder []){ (for int i=0;i<folder.length;i++){
merge(folder[i]);
}
public void Merge(folder[]){
output stream;
}
}
How do I implement the swing worker properly in this example to make a progress update to the MainClass progress bar as each iteration of i occurs?

To begin, your worker is missing some methods it should implement, such as doInBackground() and done(). You also need a constructor to pass Folder[].
public class Combine extends SwingWorker<Integer,Integer>{
Folder[] folders;
public Combine (Folder[] folders)
{ this.folders = folders; }
private void Merge(Folder [])
{ (for int i=0;i<folder.length;i++)
{
merge(folder[i]);
//Send the message of progress here, it will be executed
//from doInBackground()
setProgress(....);
}
}
private void Merge(folder){
output stream;
}
protected Integer doInBackground()
{
merge(folders);
return null;
}
protected void done()
{ .... }
}
Then you would call this worker with
Combine combiner = new Combine(folders);
combiner.execute();
To track progress, this example is from SwingWorker API:
combiner.addPropertyChangeListener(
new PropertyChangeListener() {
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
if ("progress".equals(evt.getPropertyName())) {
progressBar.setValue((Integer)evt.getNewValue());
}
}
});

Use the setProgress method as you are doing your processing to send the update. You could simply count how many files there are and call setProgress with (numberProcessed*100)/totalNumber. Note that the multiplication is done first to prevent rounding issues.
This will cause the PropertyChangeListeners to be notified of the changes, this will happen on the EDT so it will be safe to update your JProgressBar from it.

Java Timer stops for no reason

I'm new to Java so sorry if the problem is trivial. My code is probably a mess. I created a online radio player for Raspberry Pi in Java and I have to do a POST request every 10 seconds to check what is the current song playing and if the song has changed, I have to do some things (like scrobble old song, update display with new song data, store play session to my server etc.). I created a class for this:
public class Scrobbler implements Runnable, Commands, Observer {
private TimeCounter counter;
private Timer timer;
private Radio radio;
private List<Observer> observers;
private final Object MUTEX= new Object();
private int currentPlaySession;
// And all other variables which I deleted before posting
// Constructor
public Scrobbler(TimeCounter _counter, Radio _radio)
{
currentTrack = null;
counter = _counter;
radio = _radio;
timer = null;
observers = new ArrayList<>();
currentPlaySession = 0;
}
private void GetInfo()
{
// POST request to get current song playing
// If song has changed, notify observers
}
public void Scrobble()
{
// POST request - Scrobble song to my website and last.fm
}
public void StartPlaySession()
{
// Again POST request to my website
}
public void EndPlaySession()
{
// Again POST request to my website
}
#Override
public void start() {
new Thread(this).start();
}
public void stop()
{
timer.cancel();
timer.purge();
timer = null;
}
#Override
public void register(Observer obj) {
if(obj == null) throw new NullPointerException("Null Observer");
synchronized (MUTEX) {
if(!observers.contains(obj)) observers.add(obj);
}
}
#Override
public void unregister(Observer obj) {
synchronized (MUTEX) {
observers.remove(obj);
}
}
#Override
public void notifyObservers(String command) {
for (Observer obj : observers) {
obj.update(command);
}
}
#Override
public void run() {
timer = new Timer();
timer.schedule(new TimeOut(), 0, 10000);
GetInfo();
StartPlaySession();
}
public class TimeOut extends TimerTask
{
#Override
public void run() {
EndPlaySession();
GetInfo();
}
}
#Override
public void update(String command) {
if ("RADIO_STARTED".equals(command))
{
this.start();
}
if ("RADIO_STOPPED".equals(command))
{
this.stop();
if (this.currentTrack != null && this.counter.getTrackTime() >= 60)
this.Scrobble();
EndPlaySession();
}
}
private void handleException(String message)
{
try {
String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("/home/pi/OnlineRadio/error_log.txt", true)));
out.println("(" + timeStamp + ") [SCROBBLER] - " + message + "\n\n\r");
out.close();
} catch (IOException e) {}
this.stop();
this.start();
}
}
I create a new instance of Scrobbler in my main method and register it as an observable to player. Once I start the radio, player will notify its observers (including instance of Scrobbler class) by calling update() method and forward "RADIO_STARTED" or "RADIO_STOPPED" (after starting or stopping the radio). As you can see in code, on RADIO_STARTED, a start() method is called where new Thread is started. Starting a new thread is probably unnecessary here since it only starts the timer but it shouldn't be a problem neither. After starting the timer, every 10 seconds method run() in class TimeOut will be called which then calls necessary methods.
This code works but sometimes it just stops for no reason. All other parts of application continue to work (music is still playing, application reacts on buttons etc.), just it doesn't update the song and there's no communication with my website at all so not even one of these methods is called, just like the timer stopped. When I stop and start the radio again or change the station, it works again (as you can see in code, the timer will be stoped every time the radio stops and the timer will start everytime the radio starts), but it will break again after some time.
Since I have a lot of try-catch blocks in those methods with POST requests, at first I thought that there must be an exception occuring and killing the timer thread so I created the handleException() method which logs exception message to a file and restarts this timer (you can see in code), and then I handle exceptions like this, for example:
try {
writer.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
this.handleException(e.getMessage());
}
But when the problem occured again, log file was empty, which means that not even one exception occured. I also tried to log all the data everytime the song changes and everything is fine, it just stops after a while for no reason. And I can't find a regularity in occuring, sometimes it occurs after a few minutes and sometimes if works for hours before it breaks.
This app runs on Raspberry Pi model B, and I don't know if this means something, but it's in JAR and it starts with the Pi (via cron #reboot) since I don't have any monitor nor keyboard/mouse on this Pi, so the app must start with it and run in background all the time. And I use SSH to transfer the JAR to Pi and to read log files.
Somewhere I read that it's not uncommon for the Java timer to stop without any reason. But how to solve this?

JProgressBar will not update until process is completed

Tons of JProgressBar questions on here I know, but through all the answers and I can't seem to diagnose my issue. I am processing a file with some address verification software. I click the Process button and I need my JProgressBar to update with each file processed.
Here is the button:
private JButton getJButton0() {
...
jButton0.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
jButton0ActionActionPerformed(event);
t.start();
}
...
Per everybody's recommendation, I used the setValue() method within a thread
Thread t = new Thread(){
public void run() {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
jProgressBar0.setValue(BulkProcessor.getPercentComplete());
}
});
try {
Thread.sleep(100);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
...
BulkProcessor.getPercentComplete() is a method I'm calling from another class which represents the percentage complete. I have tested this method and it updates correctly. The issue is that the progress bar will not update until the files are finished processing, and then it will jump to 100%. I apologize if this is a repeat question, but I have done some serious digging on this site with no luck. Any help much appreciated.
Edit:
Per recommended duplicate, I tried this:
public void update(){
new SwingWorker<Void,Void>() {
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
jProgressBar0.setValue(BulkProcessor.getPercentComplete());
return null;
};
}.execute();
}
And then tried calling this update() method under the actionPerformed() (switched t.start() with update()). I am still having the same issue.
Edit
Based on user1676075's recommendation, however same issue:
public static void update(){
new SwingWorker<Void,Integer>() {
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
do
{
percentComplete = BulkProcessor.getPercentComplete();
publish(percentComplete);
Thread.sleep(100);
} while(percentComplete < 100);
return null;
}
#Override
protected
void process(List<Integer> progress)
{
jProgressBar0.setValue(progress.get(0));
}
}.execute();
}
Edit
Here is the code from my BulkProcessor class
private String getOutputLine( String searchString, String inputLine )
throws QasException
{
..(code for processing lines)..
countRecord++;
percentComplete = (int) Math.round((countRecord/totalRecord)*100);
totalRecord is updated in the main class of my BulkProcessor class
public static void main( String input, String output ){
count.clear();
try{
String inputFile = input;
String outputFile = output;
LineNumberReader lnr = new LineNumberReader(new FileReader(new File(input)));
lnr.skip(Long.MAX_VALUE);
totalRecord = lnr.getLineNumber() + 1; //line count in file
BulkProcessor bulk = new BulkProcessor(inputFile, outputFile, ConfigManager.DFLT_NAME);
bulk.process();
}catch(Exception e ){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

Looks like you're mixing usages. See the SwingWorker documentation, example at the top: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/swing/SwingWorker.html.
Ideally you'd update your BulkProcessor in the doInBackground method of the SwingWorker, and that would call setProgress, and the jProgressBar would be listening for those progress updates as in the example.
If that won't work for you, which it seems like it won't just based on the above, start a SwingWorker from the button press event. Implement the SwingWorker methods kinda like this (pseudocode):
new SwingWorker<Void,Integer>()
{
doInBackground()
{
do
{
percentComplete = BulkProcessor.getPercentComplete();
publish(percentCompete);
Thread.sleep(100);
} while (percentComplete < 100);
}
#Override
process(List<Integer> progress)
{
jProgressBar0.setValue(progress.get(0));
}
}.execute();
You'll need to add error-handling and checks for complete and failure cases, but that should get you started and to where you want to be. doInBackground runs in a background thread so won't block anything, and process() runs on the swing worker thread so will post the updates.

The mistake you probably went on is calling the t.start(); after thejButton0ActionPerformed(event); which makes that after the action is performed the thread will start. Therefore the value of the progress bar is not updated as intended.
You need to start the thread in jButton0ActionPerformed(event); and then update the value in it.

Just a hunch, but...
percentComplete = (int) Math.round((countRecord/totalRecord)*100);
Are you sure this is not integer arithmetic? I don't know the type of totalRecord, so I can't say for sure.
I'd guess everything works fine, and just the progress is 0 all the time, until complete where it magically is 100. This is because an int divided by an int will not have fraction values (ie. 99/100 == 0, 100/100 == 1). This fits perfectly with the symptoms you are experiencing.
Try replacing the line above with:
percentComplete = (int) Math.round((countRecord/(double) totalRecord)*100);
to see it I'm right. :-)

Have you tried to use the PropertyChangeListener-interface?
The calculations will be done by the Swingworker-thread and the main-gui will implement this interface. Some example-code
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
this.myButton.setEnabled(false);
MyWorkerThread thread = new MyWorkerThread(); //Data-processing
thread.addPropertyChangeListener(this.mainguiframe); //Separation of concern
thread.execute();
}
Using the "setProgress"-method of the swing-worker-thread the main-gui-thread will be notified if something has happend.
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent property) {
Integer currentValue = new Integer(0);
currentValue = (Integer) property.getNewValue();
this.progressBar.setValue(currentValue.intValue());
}
Swing is not thread-safe. This is not the best solution but perhaps it can help you. Please comment if there is somethin horrible wrong.

JProgressBar not triggering propertyChange on setProgress

I've read many different articles about JProgressBar...including the dodgy code found over at Java; here.
Most indicate you need a SwingWorker to get things happening properly, which makes perfect sense, I understand that much. I am finding that when I call setProgress(value) to update the progressbar, it's not triggering the propertyChange event most of the time. I've checked the value I'm passing to setProgess and it definitely changes every time, so I'm not sure if it's just firing the event too quickly? Please see relevant code below, any help/explanation would be greatly appreciated.
class ProgBar extends SwingWorker
{
public ProgBar()
{
addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener()
{
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt)
{
if ("progress".equals(evt.getPropertyName()))
{
int value = (Integer)evt.getNewValue();
System.out.println("propertyChange called with: " + value);
loginProg.setValue(value);
}
}
});
loginProg.setStringPainted(true);
loginProg.setValue(0);
setProgress(0);
}
#Override
public Void doInBackground() throws InterruptedException
{
...
int count = 0;
for (Folder f : folders)
{
... // process 'f'
setProgress((int)Math.min(((double)count/folders.length)*100.0, 100.0));
}
...
return null;
}
#Override
public void done()
{
System.out.println("Done called.");
setProgress(100);
loginProg.setValue(100);
}
}
JProgressBar called with this;
private void jButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt)
{
// Create new thread to run progess bar.
// Otherwise won't be able to update progress bar.
ProgBar pb = new ProgBar();
pb.execute();
}
}
EDIT:
Yeah, so I should have read the Javadocs better;
Because PropertyChangeListeners are notified asynchronously on the Event Dispatch Thread multiple invocations to the setProgress method might occur before any PropertyChangeListeners are invoked. For performance purposes all these invocations are coalesced into one invocation with the last invocation argument only.
For example, the following invokations:
setProgress(1);
setProgress(2);
setProgress(3);
might result in a single PropertyChangeListener notification with the value 3.
I.E. my assumption that setProgress was firing too quickly was correct. A ProgressMonitor might be a better solution.

This isn't an answer but a demonstration sscce, to show you just what I meant:
import java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestProgBar {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
ProgBar progBar = new ProgBar();
// **** this is key and where your code may be deficient ***
JProgressBar prog = progBar.getProg();
progBar.execute();
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, prog);
}
});
}
}
class ProgBar extends SwingWorker<Void, Void> {
private JProgressBar loginProg = new JProgressBar();
public ProgBar() {
addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
if ("progress".equals(evt.getPropertyName())) {
int value = (Integer) evt.getNewValue();
System.out.println("propertyChange called with: " + value);
loginProg.setValue(value);
}
}
});
loginProg.setStringPainted(true);
loginProg.setValue(0);
setProgress(0);
}
public JProgressBar getProg() {
return loginProg;
}
#Override
public Void doInBackground() throws InterruptedException {
int count = 0;
int max = 5;
Random random = new Random();
// simulate uploading files
while (count < 100) {
count += random.nextInt(max);
if (count > 100) {
count = 100;
}
setProgress(count);
Thread.sleep(400);
}
// for (Folder f : folders) {
// setProgress((int) Math.min(((double) count / folders.length) * 100.0,
// 100.0));
// }
return null;
}
#Override
public void done() {
System.out.println("Done called.");
setProgress(100);
loginProg.setValue(100);
}
}
Again, this code works fine, suggesting that the code you've loaded does not show the error. You need to do further work isolating the error and getting it into code so we can test it.

Yeah, so I should have read the Javadocs better;
Because PropertyChangeListeners are notified asynchronously on the Event Dispatch Thread multiple invocations to the setProgress method might occur before any PropertyChangeListeners are invoked. For performance purposes all these invocations are coalesced into one invocation with the last invocation argument only.
For example, the following invokations:
setProgress(1);
setProgress(2);
setProgress(3);
might result in a single PropertyChangeListener notification with the value 3.
I.E. my assumption that setProgress was firing too quickly was correct. A ProgressMonitor might be a better solution. I've confirmed this with the SSCCE and my program, both are simply firing setProgress too quickly and as a result, only the last value passed to setProgress is being passed through to the PropertyChange event.

If you want listeners to be called immediately, you can try the following (which worked for me):
setProgress(1);
firePropertyChange("progress", 0, 1);