I've been trying to learn java for a few weeks now, and I'm working on a pretty simple autoclicker.
The clicker itself works, but my problem is that my GUI never shows up.
The GUI runs just fine when I run the GUI file itself, but when I'm trying to run it from my main program (different file) it never shows. The clicker works fine all the time though. I'm sure the problem is something really simple that I have simply missed, but this is now my 4th day without any clue on what might be wrong with it, so decided I'd ask here.
Beware - the code is really messy atm, because I've been trying pretty much everything possible to get it working.
This is the code in the main program trying to run the GUI.
package autoclicker;
import java.awt.AWTException;
/**
* The main program for the autoclicker.
*/
public class AutoClicker {
public static void main(String[] args) throws AWTException {
Click click = new Click(true);
click.clicker();
try {
Swingerinos sw = new Swingerinos();
sw.initialize();
}
catch (AWTException e) { e. printStackTrace(); System.exit(-1); }
}
}
And this is the whole GUI file.
package autoclicker;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
import java.awt.event.WindowListener;
public class Swingerinos extends Click implements WindowListener,ActionListener {
private int numClicks = 0;
TextField text;
private JFrame frame;
/**
* #wbp.nonvisual location=181,19
*/
private final JLabel lblAutoclicker = new JLabel("AutoClicker");
/**
* Launch the application.
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
Swingerinos window = new Swingerinos();
window.frame.setVisible(true);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
}
/**
* Create the application.
*/
public Swingerinos() throws AWTException {
initialize();
}
/**
* Initialize the contents of the frame.
*/
public void initialize() {
frame = new JFrame();
frame.setBounds(100, 100, 450, 109);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
frame.getContentPane().add(panel, BorderLayout.WEST);
JButton btnNewButton = new JButton("Toggle On / Off");
text = new TextField(20);
text.setLocation(100, 100);
btnNewButton.addActionListener( this);
btnNewButton.setToolTipText("Toggles the autoclicker on / off.");
panel.add(btnNewButton);
panel.add(text);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
toggle();
numClicks++;
text.setText(""+numClicks);
}
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
public void windowOpened(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowActivated(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowIconified(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowDeiconified(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowDeactivated(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowClosed(WindowEvent e) {}
}
I know the GUI file is really messy (there's 2x initialize(), one in the main program and one in the GUI file, and lots of other stuff, but I'm just too confused as for what to do now.
EDIT: I added the whole main program code, also this is the code for the autoclicker.
package autoclicker;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.InputEvent;
public class Click {
private boolean active;
private Robot robot;
public Click(boolean active, Robot robot) {
this.active = active;
this.robot = robot;
}
public Click() throws AWTException {
this(false, new Robot());
}
public Click(boolean active) throws AWTException {
this(active, new Robot());
}
//TODO: add click.toggle() to somewhere and control da clicker
public void toggle() {
active = !active;
}
public void clicker() {
while (active) {
robot.mousePress(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);
robot.mouseRelease(InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK);
robot.setAutoDelay(10000);
}
}
}
Expanding JB Nizet's comment(s) into an answer.
The immediate cause:
When the JVM calls your code, it is run on the main thread. It calls main(String[]), as you know. You posted two main methods, only one of which is relevant to your nothing-is-happening problem: AutoClick#main(String[]). Let's go through it:
Click click = new Click(true);
click.clicker();
This first of the above two lines obviously calls the constructor of Click, which sets the active variable to true. So far so good. The second line is much more interesting. It calls Click#clicker(). Let's look at that method:
public void clicker() {
while (active) {
// <snip>
}
}
This method is the problem. Since you haven't started any other threads, the main thread is the only one you have at that moment, the only thread on which you can execute code. When this loop is executed it only finishes when the active variable is set to false. As long as it is true, it will keep looping. This means that Click#clicker() only returns if active is set to false. But, you never do that in the loop itself, meaning you need a thread different from the thread executing the loop to change active. So, how many threads do we have? 1, the main thread. See the problem? Because the loop never ends, the main thread never reaches the statements in the main method after click.clicker().
Simple solution
You could just set a fixed number of iterations:
public void clicker() {
int i = 0;
while (i < 100) { // iterate 100 times
// <snip>
++i;
}
}
Or using a for-loop (recommended):
public void clicker() {
for (int i = 0; i < 100; ++i) {
// <snip>
}
}
This eliminates the need for the active variable and hence the need for another thread.
A somewhat more complicated solution
If you really want the active variable, you'll need to have multiple threads. This is conveniently known as "multithreading"1, a very complicated topic. Luckily, we only need a bit of it, so it is only a bit complicated.
Don't just call the method Click#clicker() like you would normally. This creates your current problem. You'll need a worker thread, which can call the method. The easiest way to create a new thread is to call the constructor of the class Thread which takes a single argument of type Runnable. Like this:
Thread worker = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
click.clicker();
}
});
This returns relatively quickly and leaves the Click#clicker() method running on another thread. Your main thread is now free to execute the other statements and even call click.toggle() after a while.
As JB Nizet pointed out, there are some other problems with your code. For example, Swingerinos shouldn't extend Click, but have an instance variable of type Click (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_over_inheritance) (as JB Nizet pointed out). Also, you shouldn't need to implement WindowListener to just call System.exit() when the window closes if you already call frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);. To get all kinds of feedback (not limited to but including this kind of issues, style and design) on working code2 I highly recommend the StackExchange website codereview.stackexchange.com
1: I by no means consider myself even remotely an expert on threading, so I won't go into it. If you want to know more about it, google it - there's lots of texts on multithreading - or ask another question - if you have a specific problem.
2: this is important: broken code is off-topic on Code Review.
Related
I'm developing a game, what stops if the window lost the focus. The problem is when the focus is gained, it doesn't start. I simplyfied that part of my game, here is the code:
import java.awt.event.FocusEvent;
import java.awt.event.FocusListener;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
public class Main extends JFrame
{
static boolean running = true;
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Main main = new Main();
main.frameSetup();
while(true)
{
if(running)
{
System.out.println("running");
}
}
}
void frameSetup()
{
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setSize(900, 600);
addFocusListener(new FocusListener()
{
public void focusGained(FocusEvent e)
{
System.out.println("focus gained");
running = true;
}
public void focusLost(FocusEvent areg0)
{
System.out.println("focus lost");
running = false;
}
});
setVisible(true);
}
}
output:
running
running
...
focus lost
focus gained
After the "focus gained" I expected to write the lot running again.
The game works, if I put something to the while(true) like a System.out.println:
while(true)
{
System.out.println("while true");
if(running)
{
System.out.println("running");
}
}
output:
running
while true
running
while true
...
focus lost
while true
while true
...
focus gained
running
while true
running
while true
...
I don't want to put that System.out.printline or whatever because it uses the processor...
So do you know something to fix this "bug"?
Try adding volatile to the definition of running. I believe the problem is that once running == false is detected, it's caching this value and never checking memory again.
at first look you need syncchronization
if only one thread is writting your boolean, you can use a volatile
(usually you do this to define a stop variable checked in the thread's main loop).
if you have multiple threads modifying the boolean, you should use synchronization
READ - MODIFY- WRITE can't be achieved with volatile
https://jorosjavajams.wordpress.com/volatile-vs-synchronized/
I am developing a game in Java for a school project. When I run my code by typing 'java game' into the command prompt, I get a null pointer exception (at game.play, line 35, "gameScreen.tick();"), however when I add a breakpoint on this line and use a debugger to investigate, the debugger shows the correct object reference and follows the program without any problems. I can't seem to work out what is wrong...
import javax.swing.*;
public class game implements Runnable {
private screen gameScreen;
public static void main(String[] args) {
// put your code here
game thisGame = new game();
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(thisGame);
thisGame.play();
}
public void run() {
JFrame w = new JFrame();
w.setDefaultCloseOperation(w.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
gameScreen = new screen();
gameScreen = gameScreen.setUp();
w.add(gameScreen);
w.pack();
w.setLocationByPlatform(true);
w.setVisible(true);
}
public void play() {
while(true) {
try { Thread.sleep(10); }
catch (InterruptedException e) { }
}
gameScreen.tick();
}
}
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.
invokeLater() is an asynchronous call and will be invoked later as the name suggests.
Your next line calls thisGame.play() which in turn calls gameScreen.tick() after 10ms which may be uninitialized at the time.
The reason that the debugger works, is that the wait is probably long enough between method calls to allow gameScreen to be initialized by the run() method
Documentation gives below example for SwingUtilities.invokeLater method.
Runnable doHelloWorld = new Runnable() {
public void run() {
System.out.println("Hello World on " + Thread.currentThread());
}
};
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(doHelloWorld);
System.out.println("This might well be displayed before the other message.");
You can see This might well be displayed before the other message. might print before Hello World on.
So in your case gameScreen = new screen(); might not be executed before gameScreen.tick();, so you are getting NPE.
Solution:
You can initialize gameScreen in the default constructor of game class.
I changed my IDE from Eclipse to IntelliJ IDEA. The new one started complaining about my code.
public class Controller {
private OknoGlowne frame;
private MenuListener menuListen = new MenuListener(this);
private TabListener tabListener = new TabListener(this);
public OknoGlowne getFrame() {
return frame;
}
public Controller(){
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
frame = new OknoGlowne();
frame.setVisible(true); //error
frame.addMenuListener(menuListen);
frame.addTabListener(tabListener);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
}
}
So I commented this line. And add new line to constructor of UI frame.
public OknoGlowne() {
jPanel.setVisible(true);
}
App start but UI doesn't show any more. IDEA create frame in different way than Eclispe. I have to switch.
Main
public class Runner {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new Controller();
}
}
This doesn't really have anything to do with your IDEs. I bet if you ran it 100 times in eclipse, or from the command line, you'd get different results depending on how busy your system is.
The reason you aren't seeing the JFrame pop up is because you're using invokeLater() instead of invokeAndWait().
The invokeLater() method immediately returns, at which point you're in a race condition: will the event thread display the EDT first, or will the main thread exit first? If the main thread exits first, then your program will exit before any windows are shown.
To prevent this, you have to use invokeAndWait() instead of invokeLater().
I came across this interesting situation while answering this question.
Try this piece of poorly designed code -
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
class abc extends JFrame implements ActionListener
{
boolean button_clicked = false;
JButton b1;
abc(){
this.setSize (400, 400);
this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
this.createUI();
}
void createUI(){
this.setLayout(null);
b1 = new JButton("Click here");
b1.setSize(110,30);
b1.setLocation(10,210);
this.add(b1);
b1.addActionListener(this);
}
public boolean isButton_clicked()
{
return button_clicked;
}
public void setButton_clicked(boolean button_clicked) {
this.button_clicked = button_clicked;
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
button_clicked = true;
}
}
Here's the main method.
class tempMain extends JFrame
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
abc temp = new abc();
temp.setVisible(true);
while(true)
{
// Thread.sleep(200);
if(temp.isButton_clicked())
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Hello");
temp.setButton_clicked(false);
}
}
}
}
When I ran this on my Windows 7 machine, nothing happened for at least about a minute (I didn't wait after that) after I clicked the button.
Now, just make one small change -
Thread.sleep(200); // uncomment this from the main.
And surprisingly, it works and a JOptionPane message is displayed. Why is the message not displayed the first time?
And surprisingly, it works and a JOptionPane message is displayed. Why is the message not displayed the first time?
button_clicked is not marked as volatile and is being updated from a different thread than the main thread. Since the call-back is made from the event handler thread, the main thread will not see the update unless button_clicked is defined as a volatile boolean. Putting a sleep may allow a memory barrier to be crossed and button_clicked to be updated in the main thread luckily.
Here's some more reading about volatile and why it is important when we are dealing with multiple threads.
Another issue is that you have an infinite loop which is spewing messages to System.out. This completely blocks after a while because the console can't display lines that fast which stops the checking for the click.
I've been searching near and far for a solution to my question but I am having difficulty even defining my search terms.
I have a method that creates a Swing GUI using invokeLater where the user completes some task. Once the task is completed, the window closes and the initial calling thread (e.g. the method) should resume execution. To be more specific, here is a summary of the method:
public class dfTestCase extends JFrame{
public dfTestCase{
... //GUI code here
}
public String run()
{
CountDownLatch c = new CountDownLatch(1);
Runnable r = new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
setVisible(true); //make GUI visible
}
};
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(r);
//now wait for the GUI to finish
try
{
testFinished.await();
} catch (InterruptedException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
return "method finished";
}
public static void main(String args[]){
dfTestCase test = new dfTestCase();
System.out.println(test.run());
}
}
Within the GUI, I have actionListeners for buttons that will close and countDown the CountDownLatch.
While the CountDownLatch works, it is not suitable for my purposes because I need to run this GUI several times and there is no way to increment the latch. I'm looking for a more elegant solution - it is my best guess that I would need to make use of threads but am unsure how to go about this.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Update
Some clarification: What is happening is that an external class is calling the dfTestCase.run() function and expects a String to be returned. Essentially, the flow is linear with the external class calling dfTestCase.run()-->the GUI being invoked-->the user makes a decision and clicks a button-->control to the initial calling thread is returned and run() is completed.
For now my dirty solution is to just put a while loop with a flag to continuously poll the status of the GUI. I hope someone else can suggest a more elegant solution eventually.
public class dfTestCase extends JFrame{
public dfTestCase{
... //GUI code here
JButton button = new JButton();
button.addActionListener{
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
flag = true;
}
}
}
public String run()
{
Runnable r = new Runnable()
{
public void run(){
setVisible(true); //make GUI visible
};
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(r);
//now wait for the GUI to finish
while (!flag){
sleep(1000);
}
return "method finished";
}
public static void main(String args[]){
dfTestCase test = new dfTestCase();
System.out.println(test.run());
}
}
Modal dialogs and SwingUtilities#invokeAndWait iso invokeLater should allow you to capture user input and only continue the calling thread when the UI is disposed
For an example of using model dialogs you can check out the ParamDialog class I wrote. In particular, check out ParamDialog.getProperties(Properties);
http://tus.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/tus/tjacobs/ui/dialogs/