Develop Reference

JProgressBar update and thread scheduling

Hello stack exchangers,
I have a problem with progress bars in java Swing. I think my confusions arise from my poor understanding of threads and the Swing event queue (I don't know much about java Threads, and exactly what is happening on the AWTEventQueue, although I generally understand what multithreading is about).
The context is that a JButton is pressed to start a long calculation. Before the calculation starts, I make a progress bar in a JFrame, which I thought would be painted, but it isn't. The frame appears, but it is just grey. The button, in this example has "clickMe" written on it.
In the "clickMe" action listener, I first make and display a JFrame in a subtask which is "run" (I'm not clear on when this is scheduled TBH). Then, I call doTask() which is running in the same thread as the action listener (which I think is the AWTEventThread??). The doTask() runs, printing out numbers to the Console. Intermixed with the doTask() output are iteration counts of the progressbar (from when the action listener started makeProgressBar()).
So, from the output, it looks like both the progress bar is running and the AWTEventThread, but the value set in the JProgressBar GUI is never updated.
How can I change my code so that the GUI gets updated? I've tried understanding the JProgressBar tutorial and hunted around the web, but I think my problem is more a conceptual understanding of Java Tasks.
This is my code:
package problemclass;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JProgressBar;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class ProblemClass
{
void progressBarButtonClick()
{
JFrame buttonInAFrame = new JFrame();
JPanel buttonInAFramePanel = new JPanel();
JButton clickMe = new JButton("Click me!");
buttonInAFramePanel.add(clickMe);
clickMe.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
JFrame progBarFrame = makeProgressBar();
doTask();
progBarFrame.dispose();
}
});
buttonInAFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
buttonInAFrame.add(buttonInAFramePanel);
buttonInAFrame.pack();
buttonInAFrame.setVisible(true);
}
private void doTask()
{
for(int i = 0; i < 20000; i++)
{
if (i % 100 == 0)
{
System.out.println("TASK iteration " + i);
try
{
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
}
}
private JFrame makeProgressBar()
{
JFrame progBarFrame = new JFrame();
JPanel progBarPanel = new JPanel();
JProgressBar progressBar = new JProgressBar();
progBarPanel.add(progressBar);
progressBar.setValue(0);
progressBar.setStringPainted(true);
progressBar.setIndeterminate(true);
new Thread(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
for (int i = 0; i <= 100; i++)
{
final int j = i;
System.out.println("Progress Iteration " + j);
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
progressBar.setValue(j);
}
});
try
{
java.lang.Thread.sleep(100);
}
catch(Exception e) { }
}
}
}).start();
progBarFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
progBarFrame.add(progBarPanel);
progBarFrame.pack();
progBarFrame.setVisible(true);
return progBarFrame;
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
EventQueue.invokeLater(() ->
{
new ProblemClass().progressBarButtonClick();
});
}
}

JFrame progBarFrame = makeProgressBar();
doTask();
Not sure exactly what you are trying to do.
The above code has two loops:
In the makePrgressBar() method you start a Thread and invoke SwingUtilities.invokeLater(…), to update the progress bar, which is correct.
but then in doTack() you start another loop. This time you don't start a Thread so the code is invoked on the EDT and since you use Thread.sleep, the EDT will sleep and the GUI will not repaint itself until the entire loop is finished.
I would suggest you get rid of the doTask() method since I don't know why you need two blocks of code that loop. Or if you really need it, then you also need to use a Thread and invokeLater(…).

Just like you, I recently did some work on progress bars and threading and went nuts until I realized that it is just so simple.In a nutshell this is the code I have when my button is clicked:
// Create 2 threads. One handles your GUI. Other does the task
Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// code goes here.
//In here I choose to hide the button, display the progress bar
}
});
t1.start();
Thread t2 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// code goes here.
//In here I get the task done, then hide the progress bar
}
});
t2.start();
Works like a charm every time. Hope it helps!

infinite loop in swing

I am working on this application in swing .It is actually a voice controlled thingy...I give voice commands and some action is performed.But the thing is that once it is deployed, it is on an infinite while loop, it continuously searches for voice( which it should..imagine the jarvis of iron man movie) .. but this while loop freezes up my gui.I can not update it.can not hide panels , can not play sound.
swing worker and swing utilities shouldn;t help me because they check for the code after certain period of time while i need real time voice recognition..
So what can be done ? Can i make my gui interact with another java program? Like the java prog will do the voice recognition and pass on the reply to the gui?
Here is the code sketch
class{
main(){
new class()
}
class(){
frames + content pane initialized
mousePresssed()
{
///the while loop starts here and looks for voice commands..any gui update code doesnt work here..while it detects the voice fine..continuously.
}
}

Basically, you need to have your infinite loop run in another Thread than the EDT. And whenever you want to update your GUI, do it on the EDT, using a SwingUtilities.invokeLater call. The delay for calling the update of the GUI in invokeLater will be barely noticeable. SwingUtilities.invokeLater is not based on a polling mechanism. The only thing it does is transform a Runnable into an event which is then posted on the EDT. The EDT will then execute your Runnable as soon as possible, so most of the time, instantly.
Now for the pattern on how to communicate between your Thread and your GUI, you can simply use the "Observer" pattern. Your voice recognition thread is somehow a model and your UI simply listens for changes on that model. Whenever the model changes, the UI updates itself.
I made a dummy example of such thing. For the "Observer" pattern, I used the PropertyChangeSupport for it.
For the model, I created a dummy thread which generates random "command" every once in a while and the UI updates itself accordingly:
import java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeSupport;
import java.util.Random;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class TestThreadingAndGUI implements PropertyChangeListener {
private JFrame frame;
private JLabel label;
private DummyRunnable runnable;
public static class DummyRunnable implements Runnable {
private PropertyChangeSupport pcs = new PropertyChangeSupport(this);
private String command;
public void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener) {
pcs.addPropertyChangeListener(listener);
}
#Override
public void run() {
Random random = new Random();
while (true) {
try {
Thread.sleep(((random.nextInt(3)) + 1) * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < 15; i++) {
sb.append((char) ('a' + random.nextInt(26)));
}
setCommand(sb.toString());
}
}
public String getCommand() {
return command;
}
private void setCommand(String command) {
String old = this.command;
this.command = command;
pcs.firePropertyChange("command", old, command);
}
}
protected void initUI(DummyRunnable runnable) {
frame = new JFrame();
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
label = new JLabel();
label.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);
frame.add(label);
frame.setSize(600, 600);
frame.setVisible(true);
this.runnable = runnable;
runnable.addPropertyChangeListener(this);
}
private void executeCommand() {
label.setText(runnable.getCommand());
}
#Override
public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
if (evt.getPropertyName().equals("command")) {
// Received new command (outside EDT)
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// Updating GUI inside EDT
executeCommand();
}
});
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
final DummyRunnable runnable = new DummyRunnable();
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
TestThreadingAndGUI testThreadingAndGUI = new TestThreadingAndGUI();
testThreadingAndGUI.initUI(runnable);
}
});
new Thread(runnable).start();
}
}

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

Java Swing cancelling an Infinite loop

I've hit the infinite loop problem in Swing. Done some research and come across SwingWorker threads but not really sure how to implement them. I've knocked together a simple program that shows the problem. One button starts the infinite loop and I want the other button to stop it but of course due to the Swing single thread problem the other button has frozen. Code below and help appreciated:-
public class Model
{
private int counter;
private boolean go = true;
public void go()
{
counter = 0;
while(go)
{
counter++;
System.out.println(counter);
}
}
public int getCounter()
{
return counter;
}
public void setGo(boolean value)
{
this.go = value;
}
}
public class View extends JFrame
{
private JPanel topPanel, bottomPanel;
private JTextArea messageArea;
private JButton startButton, cancelButton;
private JLabel messageLabel;
private JScrollPane scrollPane;
public View()
{
setSize(250, 220);
setTitle("View");
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
topPanel = new JPanel();
bottomPanel = new JPanel();
messageArea = new JTextArea(8, 20);
messageArea.setEditable(false);
scrollPane = new JScrollPane(messageArea);
messageLabel = new JLabel("Message Area");
topPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
topPanel.add(messageLabel, "North");
topPanel.add(scrollPane, "South");
startButton = new JButton("START");
cancelButton = new JButton("CANCEL");
bottomPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 2));
bottomPanel.add(startButton);
bottomPanel.add(cancelButton);
Container cp = getContentPane();
cp.add(topPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
cp.add(bottomPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
}
public JButton getStartButton()
{
return startButton;
}
public JButton getCancelButton()
{
return cancelButton;
}
public void setMessageArea(String message)
{
messageArea.append(message + "\n");
}
}
public class Controller implements ActionListener
{
private Model theModel;
private View theView;
public Controller(Model model, View view)
{
this.theModel = model;
this.theView = view;
view.getStartButton().addActionListener(this);
view.getCancelButton().addActionListener(this);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)
{
Object buttonClicked = ae.getSource();
if(buttonClicked.equals(theView.getStartButton()))
{
theModel.go();
}
else if(buttonClicked.equals(theView.getCancelButton()))
{
theModel.setGo(false);
}
}
}
public class Main
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Model model = new Model();
View view = new View();
Controller controller = new Controller(model, view);
view.setVisible(true);
}
}

You can do it easily without implementing any timer, you just need to add two lines to your actionPerformed method:
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)
{
Object buttonClicked = ae.getSource();
if(buttonClicked.equals(theView.getStartButton()))
{
theModel.setGo(true); //make it continue if it's just stopped
Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() { public void run() {theModel.go();}}); //This separate thread will start the new go...
t.start(); //...when you start the thread! go!
}
else if(buttonClicked.equals(theView.getCancelButton()))
{
theModel.setGo(false);
}
}
As your Model.go() is running in a separate thread, the Event Dispatch Thread is free to do its stuff, like drawing the button released again, instead of hanging with the button down.
There's a catch! however, because the thread running Model.go() will run wildly!, it's virtually called as many times per second as your system can.
If you plan to implement some animation or the like, then you will need to:
use a Timer,
or
add some sleep time to the new thread.
Example if you go with threads:
public void go()
{
counter = 0;
while(go)
{
counter++;
System.out.println(counter);
try {
Thread.sleep(1500); //Sleep for 1.5 seconds
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
As you can see I added Thread.sleep(1500) being 1500 the time in milliseconds (1.5 seconds). Thread.sleep can be interrupted for some reasons, so you must catch the InterruptedException.
It's not necessary to go deeper on handling correctly the InterruptedException in this particular case, but if you feel curious about it you can read this nice article.

You are blocking the Event Dispatch Thread (EDT). The thread is responsible to process painting and other UI related requests. Once EDT is blocked the UI will become frozen since it cannot process any events. For more details see The Event Dispatch Thread tutorial.
Consider using timers (How to Use Swing Timers), SwingWorker or an auxiliary background thread. Background thread can communicate with EDT using SwingUtilities.invokeLater(). This mechanism is already implemented in SwingWorker, so it may be easier to go with it. It depends on functionality that is required.

Use a javax.swing.Timer to do the go() work once, (with some optional delay), using start() and stop() in the event handling.

I decided to use a SwingWorker thread and below is the updated Controller class. It does what I need it to do but my question is, is it the correct way and is it clean code? Also, I've tried getting the output of the model.go() method into the view's textarea as per the commented out lines but not been succesful, anyone know how?
public class Controller implements ActionListener
{
private Model theModel;
private View theView;
private SwingWorker<Void, Void> worker;
public Controller(Model model, View view)
{
this.theModel = model;
this.theView = view;
view.getStartButton().addActionListener(this);
view.getCancelButton().addActionListener(this);
}
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)
{
Object buttonClicked = ae.getSource();
if(buttonClicked.equals(theView.getStartButton()))
{
theModel.setGo(true);
worker = new SwingWorker<Void, Void>()
{
#Override
protected Void doInBackground()
{
// theView.setMessageArea(theModel.getCounterToString());
return theModel.go();
}
#Override
protected void done()
{
// theView.setMessageArea(theModel.getCounterToString());
}
};
worker.execute();
}
else if(buttonClicked.equals(theView.getCancelButton()))
{
theModel.setGo(false);
}
}
}
public class Model
{
public Void go()
{
counter = 0;
while(go)
{
counter++;
System.out.println(counter);
}
return null;
}

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