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Keeping Timer in JPanel alive while program is running

I have a GUI created in a class called MainFrame. One of the JPanels of the GUI displays the current time and date, by second. When the user decides to use the GUI to analyze data, it invokes a class that processes data. When the data process is happening, the timer pauses, then resumes when the dataprocess is over. How can I have the timer continuously run even if the program is running? The timer is its own thread, but I do not understand where to start a thread for a JPanel.
Here are some code cut-outs
App.java (app to start the entire GUI)
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (InstantiationException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
new MainFrame();
}
});
}
}
MainFrame (class that handles the JPanels and dataprocess impl)
public class MainFrame extends JFrame {
private DataProcess dataProcess = null;
...
...
private StatusPanel statusPanel;
...
...
public MainFrame() {
...
setJMenuBar(createFrameMenu());
initializeVariables();
constructLayout();
createFileChooser();
constructAppWindow();
}
private void initializeVariables() {
this.dataProcess = new DataProcess();
...
this.statusPanel = new StatusPanel();
...
}
private void constructLayout() {
JPanel layoutPanel = new JPanel();
layoutPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(0, 3));
layoutPanel.add(dataControlsPanel());
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
add(layoutPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
add(statusPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
}
StatusPanel (panel that shows timer etc)
public class StatusPanel extends JPanel {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private JLabel statusLabel;
private JLabel timeLabel;
private Timer timer;
public StatusPanel() {
initializeVariables();
constructLayout();
startTimer();
}
private void constructLayout() {
setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER));
add(statusLabel);// , FlowLayout.CENTER
add(timeLabel);
}
public void startTimer() {
this.timer.start();
}
public void stopTimer() {
this.timer.setRunning(false);
}
private void initializeVariables() {
this.statusLabel = new JLabel();
this.timeLabel = new JLabel();
this.statusLabel.setText(StringConstants.STATUS_PANEL_TEXT);
this.timer = new Timer(timeLabel);
}
}
Timer.java (timer that is used in StatusPanel)
public class Timer extends Thread {
private boolean isRunning;
private JLabel timeLabel;
private SimpleDateFormat timeFormat;
public Timer(JLabel timeLabel) {
initializeVariables(timeLabel);
}
private void initializeVariables(JLabel timeLabel) {
this.timeLabel = timeLabel;
this.timeFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss dd-MM-yyyy");
this.isRunning = true;
}
#Override
public void run() {
while (isRunning) {
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
Date currentTime = calendar.getTime();
timeLabel.setText(timeFormat.format(currentTime));
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public void setRunning(boolean isRunning) {
this.isRunning = isRunning;
}
}
Data process is done in the dataControlsPanel by use of actionlisteners.

When the user decides to use the GUI to analyze data, it invokes a class that processes data. When the data process is happening, the timer pauses, then resumes when the dataprocess is over. How can I have the timer continuously run even if the program is running
First of all, your timer should be a javax.swing.Timer or "Swing" Timer. This is built to work specifically on the Swing event thread and so should avoid many of the Swing threading problems that your current code shows -- for example, here: timeLabel.setText(timeFormat.format(currentTime)); -- this makes a Swing call from a background thread and is dangerous code. Next
The processing code should go into a SwingWorker. When the worker executes, you can pause the Swing Timer by calling stop() on the Timer, or simply let the timer to continue to run. When the SwingWorker has completed its action -- something I usually listen for with a PropertyChangeListener added to the SwingWorker, listening for its state property to change to SwingWorker.StateValue.DONE, call get() on the worker to extract any data it holds and more importantly to capture any exceptions that might be thrown.
For example:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import javax.swing.*;
#SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class MyApp extends JPanel {
// display the date/time
private static final String DATE_FORMAT = "HH:mm:ss dd-MM-yyyy";
private static final DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(DATE_FORMAT);
// timer updates measures seconds, but updates every 0.2 sec's to be sure
private static final int TIMER_DELAY = 200;
// JLabel that shows the date/time
private JLabel timeLabel = new JLabel("", SwingConstants.CENTER);
// JButton's Action / listener. This starts long-running data processing
private Action dataProcessAction = new DataProcessAction("Process Data");
// the SwingWorker that the above Action executes:
private LongRunningSwProcess longRunningProcess;
// label to display the count coming from the process above
private JLabel countLabel = new JLabel("00");
public MyApp() {
// create a simple GUI
JPanel dataProcessingPanel = new JPanel();
dataProcessingPanel.add(new JButton(dataProcessAction)); // button that starts process
dataProcessingPanel.add(new JLabel("Count:"));
dataProcessingPanel.add(countLabel);
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
add(timeLabel, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
add(dataProcessingPanel);
showTimeLabelCurrentTime();
// create and start Swing Timer
new Timer(TIMER_DELAY, new TimerListener()).start();
}
// display count from swing worker
public void setCount(int newValue) {
countLabel.setText(String.format("%02d", newValue));
}
// clean up code after SwingWorker finishes
public void longRunningProcessDone() {
// re-enable JButton's action
dataProcessAction.setEnabled(true);
if (longRunningProcess != null) {
try {
// handle any exceptions that might get thrown from the SW
longRunningProcess.get();
} catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
// display the current time in our timeLabel JLabel
private void showTimeLabelCurrentTime() {
long currentTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
Date date = new Date(currentTime);
timeLabel.setText(dateFormat.format(date));
}
// Timer's ActionListener is simple -- display the current time in the timeLabel
private class TimerListener implements ActionListener {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
showTimeLabelCurrentTime();
}
}
// JButton's action. This starts the long-running SwingWorker
private class DataProcessAction extends AbstractAction {
public DataProcessAction(String name) {
super(name);
int mnemonic = (int) name.charAt(0);
putValue(MNEMONIC_KEY, mnemonic);
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
setEnabled(false); // first disable the button's action
countLabel.setText("00"); // reset count label
// then create SwingWorker and listen to its changes
longRunningProcess = new LongRunningSwProcess();
longRunningProcess.addPropertyChangeListener(new DataProcessListener());
// execute the swingworker
longRunningProcess.execute();
}
}
// listen for state changes in our SwingWorker
private class DataProcessListener implements PropertyChangeListener {
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
if (evt.getPropertyName().equals(LongRunningSwProcess.COUNT)) {
setCount((int)evt.getNewValue());
} else if (evt.getNewValue() == SwingWorker.StateValue.DONE) {
longRunningProcessDone();
}
}
}
private static void createAndShowGui() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("My App");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.getContentPane().add(new MyApp());
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> createAndShowGui());
}
}
// mock up of SwingWorker for long-running action
class LongRunningSwProcess extends SwingWorker<Void, Integer> {
public static final String COUNT = "count";
private static final int MIN_TIME_OUT = 5;
private static final int MAX_TIME_OUT = 10;
private int count = 0;
#Override
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
// all this mock up does is increment a count field
// every second until timeOut reached
int timeOut = MIN_TIME_OUT + (int) (Math.random() * (MAX_TIME_OUT - MIN_TIME_OUT));
for (int i = 0; i < timeOut; i++) {
setCount(i);
TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(1);
}
return null;
}
// make count a "bounded" property -- one that will notify listeners if changed
public void setCount(int count) {
int oldValue = this.count;
int newValue = count;
this.count = newValue;
firePropertyChange(COUNT, oldValue, newValue);
}
public int getCount() {
return count;
}
}

jLabel won't show

I am slightly confused, I have a jFrame of which I have made in Netbeans. This jFrame has a jLabel, of which is set to setVisible(false); from the beginning. Whenever a specific method is called, I then set the jLabel to setVisible(true); and then use a timer to set it to false again after 2 seconds. Apparently it won't work and I am unable to figure out why. I am aware of the repaint(); method, but can figure out how to make that work either.
I know the actual method for setting the visibility is called, as I have set it to print a line with the current state, which it does.
My actual code is the one below.
public JFram() {
initComponents();
setResizable(false);
jLabel2.setVisible(false);
}
static void tesMethod() {
try {
//function that does something
} finally {
new JFram().showHide(); //call function which is supposed to change the vissibility of jLabel
}
}
void showHide() {
jLabel2.setVisible(true);
System.out.println("reached show");
new java.util.Timer().schedule(
new java.util.TimerTask() {
#Override
public void run() {
jLabel2.setVisible(false);
System.out.println("reached timer");
}
},
2000
);
}
The code below here is how I tried to use the repaint(); method.
void showHide() {
jLabel2.setVisible(true);
jLabel2.repaint();
System.out.println("reached show");
new java.util.Timer().schedule(
new java.util.TimerTask() {
#Override
public void run() {
jLabel2.setVisible(false);
jLabel2.repaint();
System.out.println("reached timer");
}
},
2000
);
}

I think your problem lies mainly in you using a java.util.Timer instead of a javax.swing.Timer and probably you're blocking the Event Dispatch Thread (EDT).
You could try this code and compare it with yours, I also don't see where you're adding your JLabel to your frame.
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class ShyLabel {
private JFrame frame;
private JLabel label;
private Timer timer;
private boolean isVisible;
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new ShyLabel().createAndShowGui();
}
});
}
public void createAndShowGui() {
String labelText = "I'm a shy label that hides every 2 seconds";
isVisible = true;
frame = new JFrame(getClass().getSimpleName());
label = new JLabel(labelText);
timer = new Timer(2000, new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
label.setText(isVisible ? "" : labelText);
isVisible = !isVisible;
}
});
timer.setInitialDelay(2000);
timer.start();
frame.add(label);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
}
The below image is produced by the above code, however because of the time I recorded the GIF it looks really fast instead of taking 2 seconds as it should be...

May be it is a problem of layout.
As you set resizable to false before any layout calculation occurred, the label was ignored (as invisible) by the time of the first layout.
You could try revalidate().

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.

JLabel displaying countdown, java

I've got a "status" JLabel in one class (named Welcome) and the timer in another one (named Timer). Right now, the first one displays the word "status" and the second one should be doing the countdown. The way I would like it to be, but don't know how to - display 10, 9, 8, 7 ... 0 (and go to the next window then). My attempts so far:
// class Welcome
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
JPanel area = new JPanel();
JLabel status = new JLabel("status");
area.setBackground(Color.darkGray);
Font font2 = new Font("SansSerif", Font.BOLD, 25);
status.setFont(font2);
status.setForeground(Color.green);
area.add(status, BorderLayout.EAST); // can I put it in the bottom-right corner?
this.add(area);
and the timer:
public class Timer implements Runnable {
// public void runThread() {
// new Thread(this).start();
// }
public void setText(final String text) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
setText(text); // link to status here I guess
}
});
}
public void run() {
for (int i = 10; i > 0; i--) {
// set the label
final String text = "(" + i + ") seconds left";
setText(text);
// // sleep for 1 second
// try {
// Thread.currentThread();
// Thread.sleep(1000);
// } catch (Exception ex) {
// }
}
// go to the next window
UsedBefore window2 = new UsedBefore();
window2.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
// runThread();
}
} // end class

I agree that you should consider using a "Java" Timer as per Anh Pham, but in actuality, there are several Timer classes available, and for your purposes a Swing Timer not a java.util.Timer as suggested by Anh would suit your purposes best.
As for your problem, it's really nothing more than a simple problem of references. Give the class with the label a public method, say setCountDownLabelText(String text), and then call that method from the class that holds the timer. You'll need to have a reference of the GUI class with the timer JLabel in the other class.
For example:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.CardLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Welcome extends JPanel {
private static final String INTRO = "intro";
private static final String USED_BEFORE = "used before";
private CardLayout cardLayout = new CardLayout();
private JLabel countDownLabel = new JLabel("", SwingConstants.CENTER);
public Welcome() {
JPanel introSouthPanel = new JPanel();
introSouthPanel.add(new JLabel("Status:"));
introSouthPanel.add(countDownLabel);
JPanel introPanel = new JPanel();
introPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400, 300));
introPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
introPanel.add(new JLabel("WELCOME", SwingConstants.CENTER), BorderLayout.CENTER);
introPanel.add(introSouthPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
JPanel usedBeforePanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
usedBeforePanel.setBackground(Color.pink);
usedBeforePanel.add(new JLabel("Used Before", SwingConstants.CENTER));
setLayout(cardLayout);
add(introPanel, INTRO);
add(usedBeforePanel, USED_BEFORE);
new HurdlerTimer(this).start();
}
private static void createAndShowUI() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Welcome");
frame.getContentPane().add(new Welcome());
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowUI();
}
});
}
public void setCountDownLabelText(String text) {
countDownLabel.setText(text);
}
public void showNextPanel() {
cardLayout.next(this);
}
}
class HurdlerTimer {
private static final int TIMER_PERIOD = 1000;
protected static final int MAX_COUNT = 10;
private Welcome welcome; // holds a reference to the Welcome class
private int count;
public HurdlerTimer(Welcome welcome) {
this.welcome = welcome; // initializes the reference to the Welcome class.
String text = "(" + (MAX_COUNT - count) + ") seconds left";
welcome.setCountDownLabelText(text);
}
public void start() {
new Timer(TIMER_PERIOD, new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (count < MAX_COUNT) {
count++;
String text = "(" + (MAX_COUNT - count) + ") seconds left";
welcome.setCountDownLabelText(text); // uses the reference to Welcome
} else {
((Timer) e.getSource()).stop();
welcome.showNextPanel();
}
}
}).start();
}
}

Since you're using Swing you should use the javax.swing.Timer, not the java.util.Timer. You can set the timer to fire at 1 second (1000 ms) intervals and have your listener do the updating. Since Swing updates must take place in the event dispatch thread your listener is the perfect place for status.setText.

there's already a Timer class in java: http://www.exampledepot.com/egs/java.util/ScheduleRepeat.html

Why not put the setText method in the welcome class and just do 'status.setText(text)'?
And you might try BorderLayout.SOUTH or .PAGE END or .LINE END to get the timer in the lower right corner

JProgressBar not displaying correctly from ActionEvent

In the below code the JProgressBar displays correctly when the doSomething() is called from within main() but not when called as a result of an ActionEvent - the interface seems to freeze. What is the problem?
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.Vector;
public class ThreadedDialog extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
private JDialog dlg;
private JButton button;
private void buildInterface(){
button = new JButton("do stuff;");
button.addActionListener(this);
this.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
this.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.CENTER, button);
dlg = new JDialog(this, "Progress Dialog", true);
JProgressBar dpb = new JProgressBar(0, 500);
dlg.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
dlg.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.CENTER, dpb);
dlg.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.NORTH, new JLabel("Progress..."));
dlg.setDefaultCloseOperation(JDialog.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
dlg.setSize(300, 75);
dlg.setLocationRelativeTo(this);
dpb.setIndeterminate(true);
}
public void doSomething(){
Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable(){
public void run() {
dlg.show();
}
});
t.start();
try {
for (int i=0; i<100; i++){
System.out.println("wtf is going on here?");
Thread.sleep(5000);
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
dlg.hide();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
ThreadedDialog me = new ThreadedDialog();
me.buildInterface();
me.pack();
me.setVisible(true);
me.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
//me.doSomething();
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
doSomething();
}
}
Thanks

Everything you do with Swing components should be done on the event dispatch thread (EDT) (i.e. the thread used by Swing to call your events). You should launch threads to perform lengthy background operations.
In your code, you do the reverse : you try showing the dialog in another thread, and perform the long operation in the EDT.
Here's the fixed code :
package fr.free.jnizet.stackoverflow;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JDialog;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JProgressBar;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class ThreadedDialog extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
private JDialog dlg;
private JButton button;
private void buildInterface(){
button = new JButton("do stuff;");
button.addActionListener(this);
this.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
this.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.CENTER, button);
dlg = new JDialog(this, "Progress Dialog", true);
JProgressBar dpb = new JProgressBar(0, 500);
dlg.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
dlg.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.CENTER, dpb);
dlg.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.NORTH, new JLabel("Progress..."));
dlg.setDefaultCloseOperation(JDialog.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
dlg.setSize(300, 75);
dlg.setLocationRelativeTo(this);
dpb.setIndeterminate(true);
}
public void doSomething(){
// create a thread for the background task
Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable(){
public void run() {
try {
for (int i=0; i<100; i++){
System.out.println("wtf is going on here?");
Thread.sleep(5000);
}
}
catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
// when the background task is finished, hide the dialog in the EDT.
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
dlg.setVisible(false);
}
});
}
});
t.start();
// show the dialog in the EDT
dlg.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// create the GUI in the EDT
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
ThreadedDialog me = new ThreadedDialog();
me.buildInterface();
me.pack();
me.setVisible(true);
me.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
});
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
doSomething();
}
}
You should read this tutorial, and learn to use SwingWorker for background tasks.

The problem here is that you are doing dlg.show() on the new thread that blocks that thread and you have Thread.sleep() on your main thread so pretty much everything is blocked. Besides JDialog.show() and hide() are deprecated and you might want to be using setVisible(true/false), but that was not causing any issue in your case. If you are trying to display a dialog with a progress bar for some time and then close it, here's the fixed code. There is a second thread now that takes care of hiding the dialog after some time leaving the main thread to do it's thing.
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class ThreadedDialog extends JFrame implements ActionListener {
private JDialog dlg;
private JButton button;
private void buildInterface() {
button = new JButton("do stuff;");
button.addActionListener(this);
this.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
this.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.CENTER, button);
dlg = new JDialog(this, "Progress Dialog", true);
JProgressBar dpb = new JProgressBar(0, 500);
dlg.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
dlg.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.CENTER, dpb);
dlg.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.NORTH, new JLabel("Progress..."));
dlg.setDefaultCloseOperation(JDialog.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
dlg.setSize(300, 75);
dlg.setLocationRelativeTo(this);
dpb.setIndeterminate(true);
}
public void doSomething() {
Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
dlg.setVisible(true);
}
});
Thread t2 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
System.out.println("wtf is going on here?");
Thread.sleep(10000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
dlg.setVisible(false);
}
});
t1.start();
t2.start();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
ThreadedDialog me = new ThreadedDialog();
me.buildInterface();
me.pack();
me.setVisible(true);
me.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
// me.doSomething();
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
doSomething();
}
}