Develop Reference

JFrame doesn't appear with red background

I have strange problem when running my Java program.
It's designed to:
run external app specified in bat file and display fullscreen wallpaper
"hide" wallpaper for some time when buttons combination pressed
warn user that 5sec left so he can save work
when timeout occures display again fullscreen wallpaper and do some other stuff from bats
quit program when button combination pressed
warinng user is realized as displaying fullscreen red box for 200ms
I'm using visible function to do this.
It shows standard fullscreen frame discaring color settings. but only when I comment frame.setUndecorated(true). when uncommented I see only icon in taskbar.
On the other hand when I launch (Using BlueJ) only function visible
the red frame is displayed for specified amount of time. Simply standalone function works perfectly (in my oppinion) even if frame.setUndecorated(true) is used .
what can be wrong that I can't launch that red frame in fullscreen?
olympicApp class:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyListener;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.image.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JComponent;
public class olympicApp extends JComponent {
alertApp alert;
BufferedImage img;
public olympicApp()
{
try
{
img = ImageIO.read(new File("wallpaper.jpg"));
}
catch (IOException e)
{
}
}
public void paint(Graphics g)
{
g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, null);
}
public Dimension getPreferredSize()
{
if (img == null)
{
return new Dimension(200,200);
}
else
{
return new Dimension(img.getWidth(null), img.getHeight(null));
}
}
public static void visible()
{
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.getContentPane().setBackground(Color.red);
frame.setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
frame.dispose();
//frame.setUndecorated(true);
frame.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
try
{
frame.setVisible(true);
Thread.sleep(500);
frame.setVisible(false);
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
}
frame.setAlwaysOnTop(false);
frame.setVisible(false);
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
//alertApp reminder = new alertApp();
try
{
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("start-lv.bat");
Thread.sleep(500);
}
catch (IOException | InterruptedException e)
{
}
JFrame f = new JFrame("olympic");
f.setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
f.setUndecorated(true);
f.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
f.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter()
{
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e)
{
System.exit(0);
}
});
f.add(new olympicApp());
f.pack();
f.setVisible(true);
f.addKeyListener(new KeyListener()
{
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent kevt)
{
if(kevt.getKeyChar()=='l')
{
if(kevt.isAltDown())
{
f.setAlwaysOnTop(false);
f.setVisible(false);
try
{
Thread.sleep(5*1000);
visible();
Thread.sleep(5*1000);
//Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("saving.bat");
Thread.sleep(500);
f.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
f.setVisible(true);
Process process2 = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("kopia.bat");
}
catch(IOException | InterruptedException e)
{
}
}
}
if(kevt.getKeyChar()=='q')
{
if(kevt.isAltDown())
{
System.exit(0);
}
}
}
public void keyTyped(KeyEvent kevt)
{
}
public void keyReleased(KeyEvent kevt)
{
}
});
}
}

I would imagine that you're going to have to do something in here...
public class alertApp {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Sample loop to flash every 2 seconds
}
}
This is called when your program starts and where you should put the code to get the program running
I would also strogly recommend that you take a look at Code Conventions for the Java TM Programming Language, it will make it easier for people to read your code and for you to read others
As well as Concurrency in Swing and How to use Swing Timers which will help you solve other potential issues
I put neccessary code in visible funciton. I can see the frame but color information is discarted. Thanks for Concurrency and Timers, but I think the problem isn't connected to thread.sleep()
Then you didn't read the links...
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent kevt) {
if (kevt.getKeyChar() == 'l') {
if (kevt.isAltDown()) {
f.setAlwaysOnTop(false);
f.setVisible(false);
try {
Thread.sleep(5 * 1000);
visible();
Thread.sleep(5 * 1000);
//Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("saving.bat");
Thread.sleep(500);
f.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
f.setVisible(true);
Process process2 = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("kopia.bat");
} catch (IOException | InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
keyPressed is executed within the context of the Event Dispatching Thread, so when you call Thread.sleep, it prevents the EDT from processing the Event Queue, preventing it from painting or responding to other events

how do I make my program check the stock market value every hour[java]

I am making a program to check the stock market for a symbol and I got that far, and added a basic gui to it. I am stumped on how to make it check every hour and create a green up arrow if it increased and red down arrow if it decreased.
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
import org.jsoup.Jsoup;
import org.jsoup.nodes.Document;
import org.jsoup.select.Elements;
public class QuoteTracker {
JFrame frame;
JPanel mainPanel;
JLabel enterLabel;
JLabel resultLabel;
JTextField text;
JTextField result;
JButton query;
JButton redArrow;
JButton greenArrow;
String url;
public static void main(String[] args) {
new QuoteTracker().buildGui();
}
public class checkingQuote implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
try {
checkQuote(url);
//if increase in value green button
System.out.println("Sleeping");
Thread.sleep(1000 * 60 * 60);
System.out.println("Waking");
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
ie.printStackTrace();
break;
}
}
}
}
public void checkQuote(String symbol) {
try {
String url = "http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=" + symbol + "&ql=0";
this.url = url;
Document doc = Jsoup.connect(url).get();
Elements css = doc.select("p > span:first-child > span");
result.setText(css.text());
} catch (IOException e) {
}
}
public void buildGui() {
frame = new JFrame("QuoteTracker");
mainPanel = new JPanel();
enterLabel = new JLabel("enter symbol ");
resultLabel = new JLabel("result ");
text = new JTextField(4);
result = new JTextField(8);
query = new JButton("query");
query.addActionListener(new queryListener());
mainPanel.add(enterLabel);
mainPanel.add(text);
mainPanel.add(query);
mainPanel.add(resultLabel);
mainPanel.add(result);
frame.getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
frame.setSize(300, 400);
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.pack();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
class queryListener implements ActionListener {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ev) {
checkQuote(text.getText());
}
}
}
Do I even need a thread? I've never made one before and tried to add things that made sense. I am thinking I either need a thread or to use java's Timer?

Use SwingWorker to execute long running task in the background while updating the UI based on some results from that long running task. That means, it is actually about two different threads communicating to each other - Worker Threads and Event Dispatch Thread (EDT)
But before that, I want to point some few notes about your code.
Invoke the initialization of your UI in the EDT. That is, instead of just straightly calling new QuoteTracker().buildGui(), call it inside the run method of a Runnable passed to SwingUtilities.invokeLater (like this)
Classes should start in capital letter as per the Java standard.
To apply SwingWorker in you existing code, you can do the following :
First, you must place your checkQuote method in some other class (ideally a service class) then modify your checkQuote method to return the String that is set to the textfield result. Something like this
public Class QuoteService{
public String checkQuote(String symbol) {
try {
String url = "http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=" + symbol + "&ql=0";
this.url = url;
Document doc = Jsoup.connect(url).get();
Elements css = doc.select("p > span:first-child > span");
return css.text();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return "";
}
}
You can then make your QuoteTracker class to focus mainly in the UI part of your application. Just create the service object as instance level field so that you can freely call checkQuote method within your the class.
Invoke SwingWorker when the button is clicked.
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ev) {
new SwingWorker<Void, String>() {
#Override // this method is done in the Worker Thread
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
while(true){
String res = checkQuote(text.getText());
publish(res); //will call the process method
Thread.sleep(1000 * 60 * 60); //1 hour
}
}
#Override // this method is done in the EDT
protected void process(List<String> resultList){
String res = resultList.get(0);
if(!"".equals(res)){
result.setText(res);
}
}
#Override // this method is done in the EDT. Executed after executing the doInBackground() method
protected void done() {
//... clean up
}
}.execute();
}
Note that done() will be executed after the execution of doInBackground() is finished, which means, in the code I posted, it will never be executed since the while loop used to periodically call checkQuote is infinite. Just modify it so that you can interrupt that loop according to your need
Further Read : Concurrency in Swing

You can use thread and normal while loop in main thread as well, but at the very first , you need to start you thread and that thread must refer your object.
Add following line in public void buildGui() {
Thread t1 = new Thread(new checkingQuote());
t1.start();
This will start you thread, for testing purpose i have modified checkingQuote class
public class checkingQuote implements Runnable {
int count = 0;
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("Inside Runner");
while (true) {
try {
count++;
checkQuote(url);
//if increase in value green button
result.setText(""+count);
System.out.println("Sleeping");
Thread.sleep(1000);
System.out.println("Waking");
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
ie.printStackTrace();
break;
}
}
}
}
I am seeing number change in the text box.... same way you can alter the logic to get and show the quotes.. but you must keep the value for previous quote to compare with the latest code to show green and red notification...

In gui application it is better to use Timer, also you may use ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor. But in the second case notice, that your scheduled tasks may run in non-GUI thread. As you can't invoke ATW/Swing directly from another thread, you should wrap any call to Swing into SwingUtilities.invokeLater() method.
Also notice, that when you do something durable inside GUI thread, the whole GUI becomes unrepsonsive. So, to achieve a better responsiveness, you would query in a separate thread, and expose results to Swing through invokeLater after quotes have checked. So your checkQuote method may be rewritten this way:
public void checkQuote(String symbol) {
try {
final String url = "http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=" + symbol + "&ql=0";
Document doc = Jsoup.connect(url).get();
Elements css = doc.select("p > span:first-child > span");
final String text = css.text();
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override public void run() {
this.url = url;
result.setText(text);
}
}
} catch (IOException e) {
// Don't swallow exceptions
logger.error("Something gone wrong", e);
}
}
public void checkQuote() {
final String symbol = text.getText();
new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override public void run() {
checkQuote(symbol);
}
}).start();
}
and call it from Timer and from button click listener.

Run and pause a GUI background thread by clicking a button

I need to run a background thread in my Java GUI that only runs when I click a button and pauses when I click that button again. I am not exactly sure how to set this up, but I have placed a thread in my constructor and the while loop within is set to go through when I set a specific boolean to TRUE. One button switches from setting this boolean TRUE or FALSE.
Everything else I have in this GUI works fine. When I tried debugging the thread, it actually works as I step through the thread but nothing when I try running the GUI completely. The GUI is rather large so I'm gonna put up a portion of the constructor and the action listener of the button. The rest of the code is unnecessary since it works just fine. I need to know what I am doing wrong here:
public BasketballGUI() {
// certain labels and buttons
Thread runningSim = new Thread() {
public void run() {
while(simRun) {
// do stuff here
}
}
};
runningSim.start();
}
// other GUI stuff
// actionListener that should run the thread.
class SimButtonListener implements ActionListener {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
if(!simRun) {
simRun = true;
sim.setText("Pause Simulator");
}
else if(simRun) {
simRun = false;
sim.setText("Run Simulator");
}
// other stuff in this actionListener
}
}

Establish a Swing based Timer with an ActionListener that will be called repeatedly.
In the actionPerformed(ActionEvent) method call repaint().
Start the timer (Timer.start()) when the user clicks Start
Stop the timer (Timer.stop()) when the user clicks Stop
If you cannot get it working from that description, I suggest you post an SSCCE of your best attempt.
I thought I had one 'lying around'.. Try this working SSCCE which uses images created in this SSCCE.

I could see this background thread useful for a Java GUI when handling button events to affect something like a text area or progress bar.
For the sake of argument, I will build you a tiny GUI that affects a Text Area. I hope this helps you.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestClass extends JPanel {
super("TestClass - Title");
private AtomicBoolean paused;
private JTextArea jta;
private JButton btn;
private Thread thread;
public TestClass() {
paused = new AtomicBoolean(false);
jta = new JTextArea(100, 100);
btn = new JButton();
initialize();
}
public void initialize() {
jta.setLineWrap(true);
jta.setWrapStyleWord(true);
add(new JScrollPane(jta));
btn.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
btn.setText("Pause");
btn.addActionListener(new ButtonListener());
add(btn);
Runnable runnable = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
while(true) {
for(int i = 0; i < Integer.MAX_VALUE; i++) {
if(paused.get()) {
synchronized(thread) {
try {
thread.wait();
} catch(InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
}
jta.append(Integer.toString(i) + ", ");
try {
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
};
thread = new Thread(runnable);
thread.start();
}
#Override
public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
return new Dimension(100, 30);
}
class ButtonListener implements ActionListener {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
if(!paused.get()) {
btn.setText("Start");
paused.set(true);
} else {
btn.setText("Pause");
paused.set(false);
synchronized(thread) {
thread.notify();
}
}
}
}
}
Main class to call everything.
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class MainClass {
public static void main(final String[] arg) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.add(new TestClass());
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
}
});
}
}
I did not test this code to see if it works exactly, Its main goal is to break you through your coders block and use my components to fix your issue. Hope this helped. Need anything else Email me at DesignatedSoftware#gmail.com

Disable JButton, while background job, to avoid multiple clicks

I need to stop user making multiple clicks on a JButton while the first click still execute.
I was able to came with a solution for this issue but I do not completelly understand why it's working.
Bellow I posted the code (trimmed to a minimum) that works and the one that does not work.
In first example (good) if you run it and click the button multiple times only one action is considered as for the second example (bad) if you click the mouse multiple times you get action executed at least twice.
The second (bad) example simply does not use invokeLater() method.
Where the difference in behaviour cames from?
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestButtonTask {
public static void main(String[] args) {
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
final JButton task = new JButton("Test");
task.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
long t = System.currentTimeMillis();
System.out.println("Action received");
task.setText("Working...");
task.setEnabled(false);
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
sleep(2 * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(TestButtonTask.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
task.setEnabled(true);
task.setText("Test");
}
});
}
});
}
});
frame.add(task);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
} //end main
} //end class
And now the "wrong" code
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestButtonTask {
public static void main(String[] args) {
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
final JButton task = new JButton("Test");
task.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
long t = System.currentTimeMillis();
System.out.println("Action received");
task.setText("Working...");
task.setEnabled(false);
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
sleep(2 * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(TestButtonTask.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
//SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
//public void run() {
task.setEnabled(true);
task.setText("Test");
//}
//});
}
});
}
});
frame.add(task);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
} //end main
} //end class
After info provided by #kleopatra and #Boris Pavlović here is the code I created that seems to work pretty decent.
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.swing.*;
public class TestButtonTask {
public static void main(String[] args) {
final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
final JButton task = new JButton("Test");
task.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
task.setText("Working...");
task.setEnabled(false);
SwingWorker worker = new SwingWorker<Void, Void>() {
#Override
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
try {
Thread.sleep(3 * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(TestButtonTask.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
return null;
}
};
worker.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
System.out.println("Event " + evt + " name" + evt.getPropertyName() + " value " + evt.getNewValue());
if ("DONE".equals(evt.getNewValue().toString())) {
task.setEnabled(true);
task.setText("Test");
}
}
});
worker.execute();
}
});
frame.add(task);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
} //end main
} //end class

you have two choises
1) JButton#setMultiClickThreshhold
2) you have to split this idea to the two separated actions inside actionListener or Action
1st. step, JButton#setEnabeld(false);
2nd. step, then call rest of code wrapped to the javax.swing.Action (from and dealyed by javax.swing.Timer), SwingWorker or Runnable#Thread

Okay, here's a code snippet using an Action
it disable's itself on performed
it spawns a task, at the end of which is enables itself again. Note: for simplicity here the task is simulated by a Timer, real-world would spawn a SwingWorker to do the background work, listening to its property changes and enable itself on receiving a done
set as the button's action
The code:
Action taskAction = new AbstractAction("Test") {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("Action received ");
setEnabled(false);
putValue(NAME, "Working...");
startTask();
}
// simulate starting a task - here we simply use a Timer
// real-world code would spawn a SwingWorker
private void startTask() {
ActionListener l = new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
putValue(NAME, "Test");
setEnabled(true);
}
};
Timer timer = new Timer(2000, l);
timer.setRepeats(false);
timer.start();
}};
JButton task = new JButton(taskAction);

There are two more ways.
You can define a flag. Set it when action start and reset back after the end. Check the flags in the actionPerformed. If inProgress==true just do nothing.
Another way is to remove the listener and assign it back after the action ends.

The right way is using a SwingWorker. When user click the button before submmiting a job to the SwingWorker the state of the button should be changed to disabled JButton#setEnabled(false). After the SwingWorker finished the job state of the button should be reset to enabled. Here's Oracle's tutorial on SwingWorker

After years of dealing with the frustration of this problem, I've implemented a solution that I think is the best.
First, why nothing else works:
JButton::setMutliclickThreshold() is not really an optimal solution, because (as you said) there is no way to know how long to set the threshold. This is only good to guard against double-click happy end-users because you have to set an arbitrary threshold.
JButton::setEnabled() is an obviously fragile solution that will only make life much more difficult.
So, I've created the SingletonSwingWorker. Now, Singletons are called anti-patterns, but if implemented properly, they can be a very powerful. Here is the code:
public abstract class SingletonSwingWorker extends SwingWorker {
abstract void initAndGo();
private static HashMap<Class, SingletonSwingWorker> workers;
public static void runWorker(SingletonSwingWorker newInstance) {
if(workers == null) {
workers = new HashMap<>();
}
if(!workers.containsKey(newInstance.getClass()) || workers.get(newInstance.getClass()).isDone()) {
workers.put(newInstance.getClass(), newInstance);
newInstance.initAndGo();
}
}
}
This will enable you to create classes which extend SingletonSwingWorker and guarantee only one instance of that class will be executable at one time. Here is an example implementation:
public static void main(String[] args) {
final JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JButton button = new JButton("Click");
button.setMultiClickThreshhold(5);
button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
DisplayText_Task.runWorker(new DisplayText_Task(frame));
}
});
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.add(button);
frame.add(panel);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
}
static class DisplayText_Task extends SingletonSwingWorker {
JFrame dialogOwner;
public DisplayText_Task(JFrame dialogOwner) {
this.dialogOwner = dialogOwner;
}
JDialog loadingDialog;
#Override
void initAndGo() {
loadingDialog = new JDialog(dialogOwner);
JProgressBar jpb = new JProgressBar();
jpb.setIndeterminate(true);
loadingDialog.add(jpb);
loadingDialog.pack();
loadingDialog.setVisible(true);
execute(); // This must be put in the initAndGo() method or no-workie
}
#Override
protected Object doInBackground() throws Exception {
for(int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
System.out.println(i);
Thread.sleep(200);
}
return null;
}
#Override
protected void done() {
if(!isCancelled()) {
try {
get();
} catch (ExecutionException | InterruptedException e) {
loadingDialog.dispose();
e.printStackTrace();
return;
}
loadingDialog.dispose();
} else
loadingDialog.dispose();
}
}
In my SwingWorker implementations, I like to load a JProgressBar, so I always do that before running doInBackground(). With this implementation, I load the JProgressBar inside the initAndGo() method and I also call execute(), which must be placed in the initAndGo() method or the class will not work.
Anyways, I think this is a good solution and it shouldn't be that hard to refactor code to refit your applications with it.
Very interested in feedback on this solution.

Note that when you are modifying anything in GUI your code must run on Event Dispatch thread using invokeLater or invokeAndWait if you are in another thread. So second example is incorrect as you are trying to modify enabled state from another thread and it can cause unpredictable bugs.

Java Swing Concurrency display JTextArea

I need to execute/display a series of events from a Arraylist to a JTextArea, however, each Event gets execute with different time. Following is a quick example of my goal:
public void start(ActionEvent e)
{
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
jTextArea.append("Test" + "\n");
try
{
Thread.sleep(3000);
} catch (InterruptedException e1)
{
e1.printStackTrace();
}
jTextArea.append("Test1" + "\n");
}
});
}
So right now, "Test" and "Test1" display on JTextArea after whole execution is completed.
How do I make "Test" display first, then 3 secs later, display "Test1"
Thank u all in advance

invokeLater schedules the runnable to run on the Event Dispatch Thread. You shouldn't sleep within it or you will starve the dispatch thread. Try using a separate worker thread instead:
Thread worker = new Thread(new Runnable(){
public void run(){
jTextArea.append("Test" + "\n");
try {
Thread.sleep(3000);
} catch (InterruptedException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
jTextArea.append("Test1" + "\n");
}
});
worker.start();

If your tasks are time/cpu intensive, then yes, definitely use a background thread to do this such as a SwingWorker object or a Runnable run in a Thread. If however what you need to do is to stagger the display of something and all you are looking for is the Swing equivalent of Thread.sleep(3000), then your best option is to use a Swing Timer. There is an excellent tutorial on how to use these which you can find here: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/misc/timer.html
For example:
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Fu extends JPanel {
private static final int TIMER_DELAY = 600;
protected static final int MAX_COUNT = 20;
private JTextArea jTextArea = new JTextArea(10, 10);
private JButton startBtn = new JButton("Start");
private Timer timer;
public Fu() {
startBtn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
startAction(e);
}
});
add(new JScrollPane(jTextArea, JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS,
JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED));
add(startBtn);
}
private void startAction(ActionEvent e) {
if (timer != null && timer.isRunning()) {
// prevent multiple instances of timer from running at same time
return;
}
timer = new Timer(TIMER_DELAY, new ActionListener() {
private int count = 0;
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if (count < MAX_COUNT) {
count++;
jTextArea.append("Test " + count + "\n");
} else {
jTextArea.append("Done! \n");
timer.stop();
timer = null;
}
}
});
timer.setInitialDelay(0);
timer.start();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Foo");
frame.getContentPane().add(new Fu());
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
});
}
}

As pointed out, this is a bad idea, as you will block the event thread.
However, understanding the reason for this is important as well. As you seem to know, all code that affects the state of Swing components needs to happen in the event handling thread (which is the reason why invokeLater and friends should always be used).
What is a bit less better known is that paining code also executes in the event handling thread. When your call to Thread.sleep is executing, it's not only blocking the event thread, it's also blocking any painting of components. This is why the full update appears to happen in one go -- the JTextArea is updated but it can't be repainted until your run method returns.
Lots of info available here: http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/threads/threads1.html