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Why does SwingUtilities.invokeLater() cause JButton to freeze?

Consider this basic Swing program, consisting out of two buttons:
public class main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame jf = new JFrame("hi!");
JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout());
JButton longAction = new JButton("long action");
longAction.addActionListener(event -> doLongAction());
JButton testSystemOut = new JButton("test System.out");
testSystemOut.addActionListener(event -> System.out.println("this is a test"));
mainPanel.add(longAction);
mainPanel.add(testSystemOut);
jf.add(mainPanel);
jf.pack();
jf.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
jf.setVisible(true);
}
public static void doLongAction() {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> {
try {
Thread.sleep(3000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println("Interrupted!");
}
System.out.println("Finished long action");
});
}
}
I want my second button testSystemOut to be usable while the first one is working on its long action (here, I put a 3 second sleep in it). I can do that by manually putting doLongAction() in a Thread and call start(). But I've read I should use SwingUtilities instead, which works exactly like EventQueue here. However, if I do so, my Button freezes for the duration of its action.
Why?

By using SwingUtilities.invokeLater, you are calling the enclosed code, including the Thread.sleep(...) call, on the Swing event thread, which is something you should never do since it puts the entire event thread, the thread responsible for drawing your GUI's and responding to user input, to sleep -- i.e., it freezes your application. Solution: use a Swing Timer instead or do your sleeping in a background thread. If you are calling long-running code and using a Thread.sleep(...) to simulate it, then use a SwingWorker to do your background work for you. Please read Concurrency in Swing for the details on this. Note that there is no reason for the SwingUtilities.invokeLater where you have it since the ActionListener code will be called on the EDT (the Swing event thread) regardless. I would however use SwingUtilities.invokeLater where you create your GUI.
e.g.,
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
JFrame jf = new JFrame("hi!");
JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout());
JButton testSystemOut = new JButton("test System.out");
testSystemOut.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("this is a test");
}
});
mainPanel.add(new JButton(new LongAction("Long Action")));
mainPanel.add(new JButton(new TimerAction("Timer Action")));
mainPanel.add(testSystemOut);
jf.add(mainPanel);
jf.pack();
jf.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
jf.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
#SuppressWarnings("serial")
public static class LongAction extends AbstractAction {
private LongWorker longWorker = null;
public LongAction(String name) {
super(name);
int mnemonic = (int) name.charAt(0);
putValue(MNEMONIC_KEY, mnemonic);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
setEnabled(false);
longWorker = new LongWorker(); // create a new SwingWorker
// add listener to respond to completion of the worker's work
longWorker.addPropertyChangeListener(new LongWorkerListener(this));
// run the worker
longWorker.execute();
}
}
public static class LongWorker extends SwingWorker<Void, Void> {
private static final long SLEEP_TIME = 3 * 1000;
#Override
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
Thread.sleep(SLEEP_TIME);
System.out.println("Finished with long action!");
return null;
}
}
public static class LongWorkerListener implements PropertyChangeListener {
private LongAction longAction;
public LongWorkerListener(LongAction longAction) {
this.longAction = longAction;
}
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
if (evt.getNewValue() == SwingWorker.StateValue.DONE) {
// if the worker is done, re-enable the Action and thus the JButton
longAction.setEnabled(true);
LongWorker worker = (LongWorker) evt.getSource();
try {
// call get to trap any exceptions that might have happened during worker's run
worker.get();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
#SuppressWarnings("serial")
public static class TimerAction extends AbstractAction {
private static final int TIMER_DELAY = 3 * 1000;
public TimerAction(String name) {
super(name);
int mnemonic = (int) name.charAt(0);
putValue(MNEMONIC_KEY, mnemonic);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
setEnabled(false);
new Timer(TIMER_DELAY, new TimerListener(this)).start();
}
}
public static class TimerListener implements ActionListener {
private TimerAction timerAction;
public TimerListener(TimerAction timerAction) {
this.timerAction = timerAction;
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
timerAction.setEnabled(true);
System.out.println("Finished Timer Action!");
((Timer) e.getSource()).stop();
}
}
}

Don't use SwingUtilities.invokeLater(...) when you want to execute some long-running code. Do that in a separate normal thread.
Swing is not multi-threaded, it's event-driven. Because of that there are methods like SwingUtilities.invokeLater(...). You have to use those methods if you want to alter Swing-Components from a different thread (since Swing is not thread-safe), for example if you want to change a Button's text.
Everything thats GUI-Related runs in that Swing-Thread, e.g. Cursor-Blinks, Messages from the OS, User Commands, etc.
Since its a single thread, every long running Code in this thread it will block your GUI.
If you just do some long-running code that isn't GUI-related, it shouldn't run in the Swing-Event-Thread, but in its own separated thread.
See
https://weblogs.java.net/blog/kgh/archive/2004/10/multithreaded_t.html
for why Swing is not Multi-Threaded.

how to force java swing gui to update on this snippet

What I want from the following minimum working example is to change its radio button's text twice in a small time interval after clicking on it. i.e., when I click on the button, I want to immediately change its text to "1" and after 3 seconds to change its text again to "2".
public class Example extends javax.swing.JFrame {
public Example() {
jRadioButton1 = new javax.swing.JRadioButton();
setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
jRadioButton1.addItemListener(new java.awt.event.ItemListener() {
public void itemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent evt) {
jRadioButton1ItemStateChanged(evt);
}
});
javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
layout.setHorizontalGroup(
layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
.addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup().addGap(137, 137, 137)
.addComponent(jRadioButton1).addContainerGap(242, Short.MAX_VALUE))
);
layout.setVerticalGroup(
layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
.addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup().addGap(126, 126, 126)
.addComponent(jRadioButton1).addContainerGap(153, Short.MAX_VALUE))
);
pack();
}
private void jRadioButton1ItemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent evt) {
jRadioButton1.setText("1");
//repaint();
try { Thread.sleep(3000); }
catch (InterruptedException e) {}
jRadioButton1.setText("2");
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new Example().setVisible(true);
}
});
}
private javax.swing.JRadioButton jRadioButton1;
}
The above obviously doesn't work.
I know that I should use repaint() or SwingUtilities.invokeLater() or maybe a new thread in some way, but I didn't manage yet to achieve the desired result with any combination of the them.
What should I do?
Thanks in advance.

Sleeping in the event dispatch thread blocks it and prevents drawing from happening as you have found out. It also makes the rest of the UI unresponsive for the time, so it's in the list of things you should never do.
The standard way to run delayed, or repeated action in swing applications is using a swing Timer. It runs the action properly in the event dispatch thread, so that you also don't need to pay special attention to thread safety. Using a Timer your button action becomes:
private void jRadioButton1ItemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent evt) {
jRadioButton1.setText("1");
Timer timer = new Timer(3000, new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
jRadioButton1.setText("2");
}
});
timer.setRepeats(false);
timer.start();
}

First of all, change this
private javax.swing.JRadioButton jRadioButton1;
to
public javax.swing.JRadioButton jRadioButton1;
Then. You may write this class
public class Updater extends Thread {
private Example e ;
public Updater(Example e) {
this.e = e;
}
public void run(){
try {
Thread.sleep(3000);
e.jRadioButton1.setText("2");
} catch (InterruptedException ex){
}
}
}
Now here in this method.
private void jRadioButton1ItemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent evt) {
jRadioButton1.setText("1");
new Updater(this).start();
}

JProgressBar is invisible but progress is updating correctly

I execute the task in this class and the Dialog pops up as a white box. The print statement IS printing out the progress values I'm expecting, but nothing shows up on the Dialog until after the operation is complete. I can see the progress bar flash visible for a millisecond before the dialog is closed at the end. Absolutely no clue what's going on :\
public class ProgressDialog extends JDialog {
private JProgressBar pb;
private SwingWorker<Boolean, Void> task;
public SwingWorker<Boolean, Void> getTask(){
return task;
}
public ProgressDialog(final String call){
setTitle("Working...");
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
setBounds(300,300,300,100);
pb = new JProgressBar(0, 100);
pb.setValue(0);
pb.setVisible(true);
pb.setStringPainted(true);
add(pb, BorderLayout.CENTER);
setVisible(true);
task = new SwingWorker<Boolean, Void>(){
public Boolean doInBackground(){
switch(call){
case "Category": pb.setValue(Category.getProgress());
while(pb.getValue()<99){
try{
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e){
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
pb.setValue(Category.getProgress());
System.out.println(pb.getValue());
repaint();
revalidate();
}
break;
}
return true;
}
public void done(){
dispose();
}
};
}
}
EDIT: tried this change. no dice. Why am I not even getting a progress bar at 0%? It only appears once it is at 100%
public class ProgressDialog extends JDialog {
private JProgressBar pb;
private SwingWorker<Boolean, Integer> task;
public SwingWorker<Boolean, Integer> getTask(){
return task;
}
public ProgressDialog(final String call){
setTitle("Working...");
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
setBounds(300,300,300,100);
pb = new JProgressBar(0, 100);
pb.setValue(0);
pb.setStringPainted(true);
add(pb, BorderLayout.CENTER);
setVisible(true);
task = new SwingWorker<Boolean, Integer>(){
public Boolean doInBackground(){
switch(call){
case "Category": setProgress(Category.getProgress());
while(pb.getValue()<99){
try{
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e){
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
setProgress(Category.getProgress());
}
break;
}
return true;
}
public void done(){
//dispose();
}
};
task.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
if ("progress".equals(evt.getPropertyName())) {
System.out.println((Integer)evt.getNewValue());
pb.setValue((Integer)evt.getNewValue());
pb.revalidate();
pb.repaint();
}
}
});
}
}

You're trying to set the progress bar's state from within the SwingWorker's doInBackground method, from a background thread -- which makes no sense. The whole reason for using a SwingWorker is to allow you to do a background process in a Swing GUI, so you don't make Swing calls from a background thread, and so that you don't tie up the Swing thread with a long-running bit of code.
You should not make Swing calls from this background process. Instead use the publish/process methods as the tutorials will show you. Or perhaps better, set the SwingWorker's progress field, and use a PropertyChangeListener on the SwingWorker to allow the progress bar to react to it.
Regardless, the bottom line:
Use the SwingWorker to do background work.
Do not make Swing calls from within the SwingWorker's doInBackground method.
Use publish to push data from the background method into the Swing thread realm.
Use the process method to handle this data being pushed.
SwingWorker has a progress property that is also handy to use for allowing Swing code to respond to changes in background states.
If you go this route, use a PropertyChangeListener.
You almost never want to use setBounds(...) or null layout. Trust me as someone who has written hundreds of Swing programs, this one will bite you in the end.
It looks as if your Category is using a static method for getting its progress. Again, this is something you almost never want to do. A progress field suggests state, and this should be part of the instance fields of an object, never static.

Here's an SSCCE to demonstrate how you should be updating your JProgressBar. Copy/paste this and run it.
Notice how we update the progress bar by calling publish(i) which sends the integer to the process() method. The SwingWorker sends results to the process() method in chunks, but we are only using an Integer to update the JProgressBar so all we care about it the LAST chunk. In this SSCCE, we go from 1-1000. If you examine the console, you'll see that a lot of numbers between 1-1000 are being skipped because we are updating too fast for the SwingWorker to catch up (but that's ok. That's why it delivers results in chunks).
NOTE: the process() method was originally designed for programmers to return real-time results from their long-running processes and update the GUI. So, if you were doing a database fetch, you could update a JTable with the results you return. I hate doing things that way, though. So 99% of the time I just use an "indeterminate" JProgressBar and wait till the done() method to publish my results. Occaisionally, however, I'll use a "determinate" JProgressBar and update like we do in this SSCCE. Never have I used process() to return and publish actual data. :) But, that's what it was originally designed to do.
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JProgressBar;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.SwingWorker;
/**
*
* #author Ryan
*/
public class Test {
public static void main(String args[]) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
go();
}
});
}
public static void go() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JProgressBar jpb = new JProgressBar();
jpb.setIndeterminate(false);
int max = 1000;
jpb.setMaximum(max);
frame.add(jpb);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
new Task(jpb, max).execute();
}
static class Task extends SwingWorker<Void, Integer> {
JProgressBar jpb;
int max;
public Task(JProgressBar jpb, int max) {
this.jpb = jpb;
this.max = max;
}
#Override
protected void process(List<Integer> chunks) {
jpb.setValue(chunks.get(chunks.size()-1)); // The last value in this array is all we care about.
System.out.println(chunks.get(chunks.size()-1));
}
#Override
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
for(int i = 0; i < max; i++) {
Thread.sleep(10); // Sleep for 1/10th of a second
publish(i);
}
return null;
}
#Override
protected void done() {
try {
get();
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(jpb.getParent(), "Success", "Success", JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
} catch (ExecutionException | InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
EDIT: I created a diagram that should be a helpful reference when handling SwingWorker so you know where to place your code.

jLabel's setText is not working even with SwingWorker

I'm making a JLabel display a timer,so it is being updated every second and I'm updating it with the help of a thread I'm using SwingWorker to update the JLabel but it is not working.
Here is my code...
long pos=-1;
private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
try
{
pos=...value of timer....
jLabel1.setText("in function");
jLabel3.setText("in function");
timer=new Thread(new adsa());
timer.start();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("EXCEPTION CAUGHT");
}
}
/**
*
*/
public void run()
{
try
{
System.out.println(pos);
while(pos!=0 && clip.isRunning())
{
label1.setText(String.valueOf(pos));
System.out.println(pos);
pos--;
timer.sleep(1000);
SwingWorker worker = new SwingWorker() {
#Override
public Object doInBackground(){
try
{
jLabel3.setText(String.valueOf(pos));
jLabel3.setText("ghfdxhc");
label1.setText("hvgjh");
System.out.println("zxc");
return null;
}
catch(Exception e)
{
return null;
}
}
};
worker.execute();
}
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Error in run");
}
}
All the println statements are working,even the one's inside SwingWorker but jLabel is not being updated, "in function" is displayed on both labels and it is not changing.
Kindly suggest an alternative method if possible...

For this kind of work you should use a Swing Timer. SwingWorker is ussually for heavy task and to don't block the gui(Event Dispatch Thread) cause run in differents thread.
Im not sure if updating your gui in doInBackground() will be reflected as you know , it's run in another thread. To ensure you can
1) Wrap your call in SwingUtilities.invokeLater(..)
2) Using publish(..) and update here.
But i recommend to use for this task Swing Timer

Maybe you can use a Timer to do this, but you need to run setText or any swing function in Event dispatch thread.
If you want to use SwingWorker you need to call swing function in EDT.
You can try something like this :
private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
pos=...value of timer....
jLabel1.setText("in function");
jLabel3.setText("in function");
Ctimer timer = new CTimer(pos, jLabel1, jLabel2, jLabel3);
timer.execute();
}
class CTimer extends SwingWorker<Void, Long> {
private long pos;
private JLabel jLabel1, jLabel2, jLabel3;
public CTimer(long pos, JLabel jLabel1, JLabel jLabel2, JLabel jLabel3) {
this.pos = pos;
this.jLabel1 = jLabel1;
this.jLabel2 = jLabel2;
this.jLabel3 = jLabel3;
}
#Override
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
while (pos != 0 && clip.isRunning()) {
publish(pos);
pos--;
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
}
#Override
protected void process(List<Long> times) {
for (Long time : times) {
jLabel1.setText("xyz");
jLabel2.setText("ababa");
jLabel3.setText("" + time);
}
}
}

strange bug - how to pause a java program?

I'm trying to:
display a text in a jLabel,
wait for two seconds,
then write a new text in the jLabel
this should be simple, but I get a strange bug:
the first text is never written, the application just waits for 2 seconds and then displays the final text. here is the example code:
private void testButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
displayLabel.setText("Clicked!");
// first method with System timer
/*
long t0= System.currentTimeMillis();
long t1= System.currentTimeMillis();
do{
t1 = System.currentTimeMillis();
}
while ((t1 - t0) < (2000));
*/
// second method with thread.sleep()
try {
Thread.currentThread().sleep(2000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
displayLabel.setText("STOP");
}
with this code, the text "Clicked!" is never displayed. I just get a 2 seconds - pause and then the "STOP" text.
I tried to use System timer with a loop, or Thread.sleep(), but both methods give the same result.

Just to provide more background on Andrew Thompson's comment: the EDT is responsible for handling gui updates. If you block it using Thread.sleep(...) those updates are blocked as well. That's why you don't see the first text - the EDT just can't do the update on the label.

Here's a runnable example which does what you're after. As Andrew Thompson's comment stated, a SwingWorker is a good way to approach this problem.
The basic principal is to never block the Event Dispatch Thread. That's the thread responsible for repainting the GUI and responding to user interaction, so if you do something computationally expensive on the EDT, your GUI will stop responding.
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.SwingWorker;
public class ButtonTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// create a frame and a button
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
final JButton button = new JButton("Button");
frame.add(button);
// add an action listener to the button
button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
// change the button text right away
button.setText( "Clicked" );
// create a SwingWorker which simply waits 2000 milliseconds
// simulating a computation being performed
SwingWorker<String, Object> worker = new SwingWorker<String, Object>() {
#Override
public String doInBackground() {
// it's safe to call Thread.sleep( ) here
// doInBackground is executed on a separate worker
// thread
try {
Thread.sleep(2000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
return "Done";
}
#Override
protected void done() {
// done() is executed back on the Swing thread
// so it's safe to updated the state of the button
try {
button.setText(get());
} catch (Exception e) { }
}
};
// run the worker
worker.execute();
}
});
frame.setSize( 300, 300 );
frame.setVisible( true );
}
}

You are messing with the event dispatcher thread.
That will cause un-expected UI behavior as you are seeing. If you plan to do these type of animations, make sure to read up on what #Andrew Thompson suggested and also, see if you can read this - Filthy rich clients
Better to use a Swing Timer as shown in curde-example below:(yes, it is crude, I did not worry about stopping the timer etc):
public class DelayTest extends JPanel{
JLabel messageLabel = new JLabel();
JButton actionButton = new JButton("Click Me");
String[] messages = {"Clicked", "Stop!"};
int i=0;
public DelayTest(){
super();
add(messageLabel);
add(actionButton);
actionButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
Timer timer = new Timer(1000, new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
if(i<=1)
messageLabel.setText(messages[i++]);
}
});
timer.start();
}
});
}
}
Edit
Why not stop the Timer:
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
if (i <= 1) {
messageLabel.setText(messages[i++]);
} else {
((Timer)evt.getSource()).stop();
}
}
});