JTextArea not updating dynamically - java

I have a JTextArea inside a class that I want to update dynamically. Currently it is only displaying the text I append to it after all the processing is done. I have tried to implement the following to fix it:
public NewConsole(){
initComponents();
}
public void write(final String s){
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
textarea.append(s);
}
});
}
Console gets instantiated in a parent class as:
protected NewConsole console = new NewConsole();
and to output to it, all the children call:
console.write("Append this..");
EDIT: Here's some more information:
public abstract class Parent{
protected NewConsole console = new NewConsole();
public Parent(){}
protected abstract int doSomething();
}
public class Child extends Parent{
public Child(){
console.write("I want this to update dynamically");
doSomething();
console.write("And this..");
}
public int doSomething(){
//Quite intensive processing here
}
}

The intensive processing done in doSomething is blocking the EDT, preventing UI updates. Use a SwingWorker instead to perform this functionality.
Use execute to start the worker. Move any required calls to console.write to either doInBackground or done.

You might try calling invokeAndWait() in place of invokeLater(), but in fact there is not enough information to be sure of an answer here.
I think of invokeLater() as "put this in your queue of things to do", and invokeAndWait() as "put this in the queue of things to do, and I'll suspend while you do them". I don't know if this change will fix your problem, but it seems like something to try based on what you've told us.

Related

Android Redirection (delegates pointers)

I would like to call different code (callbacks) from within a background thread loop and use that background thread to perform the work. It would be similar to delegates in C#.
public class test {
private boolean keepRunning;
private boolean messageReady;
private MyClass myClass;
void LongBackgroundWork(){
Thread thread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
while (keepRunning) {
if (messageReady){
myClass.callback(); // call different methods here
// to be decided at runtime and run on this worker thread
}
}
}
});
thread.start();
}
}
I want to use the background thread not the UI thread. I want to set a callback from within myClass to choose what code is called. It's easy in C# how to do it Java.
I don't have much experience in Java and don't understand what mechanism to use. Should I be using a handler? Can a handler run code on a background thread?
I'd wager you want to have a pattern where an event or some occurence happens and you need to initiate a code block somewhere.
A pattern that could help you is perhaps an Observer Wiki and firing off to the event. You can also check out this SO question here if you'd like: Delegate vs Callback in Java
In your case, I think you'd want to have someone handle the responsibility of what you have to do when a message is ready. So what you're looking for is someone to perform the action, once the event is read (message ready).
Take for example Class Foo is your container of listeners, or also called an Observer that will be notified of any events. You can have a list of callbacks here to some object that is responsible for your logic to do what you need to do next.
Then you would have an Observable object or a class that would implement some logic when notified. You could then have various class objects perform the necessary logic by implementing the callback function required.
Example:
// Observer
public class Foo {
// List of objects that implement Callbacks interface
private List<Callbacks> mList;
public Foo() {
// Initialize here
}
public void addListener(Callbacks cb) {
mList.add(cb);
}
public void notifyListeners() {
for ( Callback cb : mList) {
cb.onCallback();
}
}
// Public interface to be implemented by users
public interface Callback {
void onCallback();
}
}
Then just have a class implement this object and you can pass it along if you'd like.
// Bar implements Foo.Callback interface
public class Bar implements Foo.Callback {
public class Bar() {}
#Override
public void onCallback() {
// Perform logic here
}
}
Finally in your code, you'd just create the Foo object, add a listener, and notify them when it's time to fire your event.
if i understood you properly,you cant do this on UI thread, basically when android see Thread like this it will expect that it's a long operation however you can call it by AsyncTask or Handler
you can make something like this
private class MyAsyncTask extends AsyncTask<Void,Void,Void>{
protected Void doInBackground() {
MyClass myClass=new MyClass();
myClass.LongBackgroundWork();
}
return totalSize;
}
}
this is how yo can call your thread otherwise you have to use Handler instead
Handler handler=new Handler();
handler.post(new Runnable(){
MyClass myClass=new MyClass();
myClass.LongBackgroundWork();
})

Use swing in a different thread

I'm developing a cli-based custom web crawler in Java. Since it needs to have a user-friendly graphical interface for showing the result, I should add a swing frame to that involving some trees, labels, tables and so on.
That graphical interface is one of its switches, and must be started just in case user calls it. Thus, I have to start this interface in a new thread so that the application can proceed with other tasks and update components inside of GUI frame if needs.
My GUI class is some thing like:
public class Frame extends JFrame {
......
public static JLabel urlLabel;
......
public static void run() {
urlLabel = new JLabel();
urlLabel.setText("Test Url");
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new Frame().setVisible(true);
}
});
}
.....
}
And, I fork it from my main class like this:
.....
if(cmd.gui){
Frame.run();
Frame.urlLabel.setText("New Url");
}
......
Unfortunately, the text of label doesn't change. I already tested repaint(), revalidate() and such other functions like these, but, nothing turned up.
I tested getText() in order to make sure it is possible to access urlLabel from main class, and it worked (I could retrieved text of label).
I was wondering how I can sort out this issue? (Basically, I need to start a swing frame in a different thread and control its components from the main thread)
Thanks in advance.
If you use invokeLater(), your Runnable will be started in the EventThread after the current operation in this thread is finished. If your label is not updated, it might be that your EventThread is busy doing something else - e.g. crawling the web.
You definitely need to make sure that your crawling work is done in another thread (start a new one, don't use the one that runs anyway, since this is most probably the EventThread). Then you might use invokeLater() in this other Thread to change the label in the EventThread.
Hint: You can check if you are in the EventThread by using SwingUtilities.isEventDispatchThread().
Remember that your data/models will be used by different threads and that this might cause problems when the data is changed in your worker thread while your GUI is trying to display it.
Thank you guys for helping.
Finally, I could overcome this obstacle by using SwingUtilities.invokeLater for updating the label's text.
I mention the approach here, since someone else might need it:
The main class:
public class Frame extends JFrame {
......
private static JLabel urlLabel;
......
public JLabel getU(){
return urlLabel;
}
public static void run() {
urlLabel = new JLabel();
urlLabel.setText("Test Url");
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new Frame().setVisible(true);
}
});
}
.....
}
The GUI class:
if(cmd.gui){
Frame().run();
SwingUtilities.invokeLater( new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
gui.getU().setText("New Url");
}
});
}
.....
Just a question about this manner:
Since I need to update some labels and tree nodes a couple of times during crawling, wanted to know if starting a new Runnable for each of those would be overload? If yes, how can I manage that?
---UPDATE---
According to the #xander's comment, it is possible to use lambda instead of Runnable. I think lambda doesn't have overload as much as a new object does.

How to run several methods in a thread? [closed]

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I have a problem when I want to run several methods not in the main thread. I created a class extends from Runnable and put all my tasks there. There are a lot of tasks actually. Then in the main thread I created a new instance of Thread and passed my runnable class as a parameter, but what I got is that the run method is the only code which executed in the thread, and if call any method inside the runnable class it will execute in the main thread instead of the new thread.
Example:
public class ConnectionManager implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
login();
}
public void login() {
//Login Logic
}
public void sendMessage() {
//Send Message Via TCP Connection
}
public void updateInfo() {
//Update Information
}
public void logOut() {
//LogOut Logic
}
}
Now I wanted to call any of these methods in another thread, so I did this:
public class Login implements SomeInterface {
private Thread thread;
private ConnectionManager connection;
public void main(String[] args) {
connection = new ConnectionManager();
thread= new Thread(connection);
thread.start(); // This will execute the run method and the login process works fine.
}
#Override
public void someCallback() {
connection.sendMessage();//this call is not executed and block the main thread !!
}
}
What am I supposed to do to run all my methods in another thread without making a new thread for each method?
You should split your logic
public class Logger implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
// login logic here;
}
}
public class MessegeSender implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
//Send Message Via TCP Connection
}
}
public class MessegeSender implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
//Update Information
}
}
public class MessegeSender implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
//LogOut Logic
}
}
And then in some client:
Runnable logger = new Logger(credentials);
Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor().execute(logger);
Well this is how threads work in java. One possibility is to use Actors in java. You will have to download the Akka framework here:http://akka.io/downloads/.
Actors works by messages, they act in a separate process and are even driven messages. In other words depending on the message you send to the actor it will process a corresponding method.
Check in the following link for instances: http://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/snapshot/java/untyped-actors.html
The method run equivalent in java actors is onReceive().
And to send a message to the actor, myActor.tell(...)
Hope this helps you!!!!
Well, that is the way threads work in Java. When You call connection.sendMessage() Your method just treats ConnectionManager and runs it's code. You need to execute Your method in another threads run(), or it will not run. Perhaps You need a way to comunicate with Your thread to make it execute a method in run() or just explore the possibilities that Future objects give You?
That's how does Runnable or Multithread handling work.
You should never call the run() directly and only this function and other function calls inside this function are executed in the new thread.
Basically your Runnable class should only contains one public function: the run() and you should not call it directly...
I suggest you to put other functions in their own classes. As you can see the workflow is not continuous, sendMessage() is not called directly after login() (otherwise you can do it inside run() and don't need that someCallback()).
Otherwise what should that new thread supposed to do in the time between? block and wait for sendMessage()? That's not a good design. So you should start a new thread for sendMessage().

How do I wait for a SwingWorker's doInBackground() method?

Say I have the following code:
import java.lang.InterruptedException;
import javax.swing.SwingWorker;
public class Test
{
private JDialog window;
public Test
{
// instantiate window
}
private class Task extends SwingWorker<Void, Void>
{
public Void doInBackground()
{
try { Thread.currentThread().sleep(5000); }
catch(InterruptedException e) {}
return null;
}
}
public void doTask()
{
Task task = new Task();
task.execute();
}
protected void process()
{
// update various GUI components here
}
public static void main(String args[])
{
Test t = new Test();
t.doTask();
System.out.println("done");
}
}
I need to wait until t.doTask() is done before printing out 'done', but I'm not sure exactly how. I know I should probably use join() here, but I need a thread to call it on, and I don't know how to get doInBackground()'s thread from where I need to call join(). Thanks for any help.
EDIT: Thanks for the responses. Unfortunately, get() and the like don't quite solve the problem. In my actual code, the SwingWorker also has an overridden process() function that updates a GUI window while the background thread is running. get() does stop 'done' from being printed till after doInBackground, but then the GUI doesn't update. I updated my sample code to reflect this, although now of course it won't compile.
Is there a way to get 'done' to print only once doInBackground is finished? Are the GUI update code and the 'done' statement on the same thread? Do I need to make a new thread?
Typically anything that needs to be done after a SwingWorker completes its background work is done by overriding the done() method in it. This method is called on the Swing event thread after completion, allowing you to update the GUI or print something out or whatever. If you really do need to block until it completes, you can call get().
NB. Calling get() within the done() method will return with your result immediately, so you don't have to worry about that blocking any UI work.
Calling get() will cause the SwingWorker to block.
From the Javadocs:
T get()
Waits if necessary for the computation to complete,
and then retrieves its result.
Your code will then look like:
public static void main(String args[])
{
Test t = new Test();
t.doTask();
t.get(); // Will block
System.out.println("done");
}
You can override the done() method, which is called when the doInBackground() is complete. The done() method is called on EDT. So something like:
#Override
protected void done() {
try {
super.get();
System.out.println("done");
//can call other gui update code here
} catch (Throwable t) {
//do something with the exception
}
}
Calling the get() method inside the done helps get back any exceptions that were thrown during the doInBackground, so I highly recommend it. SwingWorker uses Callable and Future internally to manage the background thread, which you might want to read up on instead of trying the join/yield approach.
In general, you must hold onto the SwingWorker until it finishes, which you can test by calling isDone() on it. Otherwise just call get() which makes it wait.

Does SwingWorker has to be a nested class?

I'm wondering if SwingWorker has to be a nested class within my main GUI. I'd rather make it an external class to keep the GUI clear from any of my programs logic.
I tried to make the SwingWorker class external, which works fine for the process, unfortunately I can't access any of my GUI fields from the SwingWorker class.
Whenever I try to access an attribute, such like a label or whatever from within SwingWorker's done() method I get a nullPointer exception.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
First of all thank you very much Jeff! Works fine so far, even though I could not follow you on the second option you presented.
One of my background tasks calculates a certain size (long value), so it would be nice to get that value from my GUI.
You suggested to work with getters and setters but unfortunately I've got no idea on how to implement them in the SwingWorker class.
I tried it like this:
public void setSize(long totalSize) {
this.totalSize = totalSize;
}
public long getTotalSize() {
return totalSize;
}
The setter is invoked at the end of the doInBackground() method. Unfortunately I can't use the get() method from my GUI.
final MySwingWorker w = new MySwingWorker();
Runnable r = new Runnable() {
public void run() {
// do something with w.get()
}
};
w.setRunnable(r);
w.execute();
The object creation of "w" does not work in my case as the constructor requires an object of Runnable.
Am I missing something?
Please go easy on me, it's the first time I work with SwingWorker. :)
Again, thank you very much for your help!
You can make the SwingWorker an external class. However, just like any other class, if it can't see the variables (e.g. the label you want to set), of course it won't be able to set it. One thing you could do is pass the worker a Runnable that it executes when it is complete.
public class MySwingWorker extends SwingWorker {
private final Runnable r;
public MySwingWorker(Runnable r) {
this.r = r;
}
public void doInBackground() {...}
public void done() { r.run(); }
}
Now from the GUI, you might do something like
Runnable updateLabel = new Runnable() {
public void run() {
label.setText("myValue");
}
};
SwingWorker w = new MySwingWorker(updateLabel);
w.execute();
This gets a bit trickier if you want to use the result of the SwingWorker, though it is possible. Rather than passing the Runnable to the swing worker's constructor, you would have a setter method and then it would be something like:
final MySwingWorker w = new MySwingWorker();
Runnable r = new Runnable() {
public void run() {
// do something with w.get()
}
};
w.setRunnable(r);
w.execute();
In either case, the Runnable is functioning similarly to a closure that is executed when the worker is finished.

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