Develop Reference

Java wait code until JFrame keyPressed

I'm using a JFrame and I wanted to display an image and pause the code until the user presses ANY key. After that key being pressed the image would close and the code would continue running.
What I did:
Created a flag
final boolean[] flag = {true};
Added a addKeyListener to the JFrame object that would change the flag
frame.addKeyListener(new KeyListener() {
#Override
public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {
}
#Override
public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {
}
#Override
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
frame.setVisible(false);
frame.dispose();
flag[0] = false;
}
});
Wait loop until flagged
while (flag[0]){
try {
Thread.sleep(10);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
This is working, but I understand that it is a bit resourceful.
Is there any other way of making the wait loop? Is there any listener of the listener?
2nd try, using CountDownLatch:
Set the latch
final CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
CountDown
for (JFrame frame : framesList) {
frame.addKeyListener(new KeyListener() {
#Override
public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {
}
#Override
public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {
}
#Override
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
frame.setVisible(false);
frame.dispose();
latch.countDown();
}
});
Wait
latch.await();

So, you want to display an image and have the execution stop until the window is closed. This just screams modal dialog to me. A modal dialog will stop the code execution from where it is made visible, it will do it in such away so as not to block the Event Dispatching Thread and make your entire problem come to a screaming halt and hang the program. See How to use dialogs for more details...
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dialog;
import java.awt.Image;
import java.awt.Window;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.List;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.AbstractAction;
import javax.swing.ActionMap;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.InputMap;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JDialog;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.KeyStroke;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
import javax.swing.SwingWorker;
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new Test();
}
public Test() {
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
BufferedImage img = ImageIO.read(...);
ImageShower.show(null, img);
} catch (IOException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
}
public static class ImageShower extends JPanel {
private JLabel label = new JLabel();
public ImageShower() {
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
add(label);
InputMap im = getInputMap(WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW);
ActionMap am = getActionMap();
im.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_ESCAPE, 0), "close");
am.put("close", new AbstractAction() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Window window = SwingUtilities.windowForComponent(ImageShower.this);
if (window != null) {
window.dispose();
}
}
});
}
public void setImage(Image img) {
label.setIcon(new ImageIcon(img));
}
public static void show(Component owner, Image img) {
Window parent = null;
if (owner != null) {
parent = SwingUtilities.windowForComponent(owner);
}
JButton close = new JButton("Close");
close.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
JButton btn = (JButton) e.getSource();
Window window = SwingUtilities.windowForComponent(btn);
if (window != null) {
window.dispose();
}
}
});
JDialog dialog = new JDialog(parent, Dialog.ModalityType.APPLICATION_MODAL);
ImageShower shower = new ImageShower();
shower.setImage(img);
dialog.add(shower);
dialog.add(close, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
dialog.getRootPane().setDefaultButton(close);
dialog.pack();
dialog.setLocationRelativeTo(owner);
dialog.setVisible(true);
}
}
}
"But wait, may images are large and take time to load and I don't want to freeze the UI while the load"...
Okay, for that, I'd look towards using a SwingWorker, which can load the image in the background but which provides simple methods for ensuring the the image is displayed within the context of the EDT properly...
public class ImageLoadAndShow extends SwingWorker<Void, Image> {
#Override
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
BufferedImage img = ImageIO.read(...);
publish(img);
return null;
}
#Override
protected void process(List<Image> chunks) {
Image img = chunks.get(chunks.size() - 1);
ImageShower.show(null, img);
}
}
Not, if the image fails to load, you won't know about it, as the doInBackground method will pass the Exception out of the method. You'd need to use a combination of a PropertyChangeListener and the SwingWorkers get method to trap it, just remember, get is blocking, so calling it inside the context of the EDT will block until the worker completes
"But I need to carry out other operations when the dialog is closed"
There are a few ways you might be able to achieve this, depending on what it is you want to do, for this example, I've stuck with the SwingWorker, because it was easy to copy and paste the basic structure, but you could use a Runnable wrapped in a Thread
public class ImageLoadShowAndWait extends SwingWorker<Void, Void> {
#Override
protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
BufferedImage img = ImageIO.read(...);
SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
ImageShower.show(null, img);
}
});
return null;
}
}
Now, if none of that does what you want...then I'd like to know what it is you're actually doing :P, have a look at Foxtrot which provides an API which allows you to execute code asynchronisly within the EDT without blocking it (entirly), but which will stop the code execution at the point it's called until it completes
The thing is that I wanted it to close the JFrame when ANY key is pressed
KeyListener is going to give you issues, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it will blow up in your face eventually. The example I've provide binds the Escape key to dispose of the window. It also makes the "Close" button the default button, which provides Space and/or Enter keys as well and a nice visual queue to the user.
If you want to use KeyListener, that's up to you, but your core problem doesn't seem to revolve around it, but the ability to display a window and pause the code execution till it's closed

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();
}
}

Not getting the output as expected in Swing

i know multithreading a bit but not in vast and i think the problem is of multithreading. I am calling a method to set label's text by invoking a new thread and leaving it blank after a specified time. I am getting the desired output every time but not only the place which i am going to show you by my piece of code. I am expecting that message should be set and disappeared after the specified time and the window should be minimized after that time. But what actually happening is when it is going to the other thread main thread execution starts and goes for sleep for 5 sec and the message is not appearing and after 5 sec window is getting minimized without showing the message which i am setting on the label.
(Main thread)
Validation.setMessageOnLabel("Username and password has been copied", jLabel15,1.5F);
try {
Thread.sleep(5000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(PasswordManager.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
setState(ICONIFIED);
validation.java (setMessageOnLabel())
static public void setMessageOnLabel(final String msg, final JLabel label, final float time)
{
new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
label.setText(msg);
try {
Thread.sleep((long) (time*1000));
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(PasswordManager.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
label.setText("");
}
}).start();
}

Since you're calling setState() directly, I assume the first code snippet is part of a JFrame. In that case you're most probably sending the event dispatch thread to sleep for 5 seconds and thus prevent screen updates during that time.
Put the sleep into another thread or use a swing worker instead and call setState() on the EDT in the worker's callback method, since setState() is not labelled as thread-safe and calling it on a thread other than the EDT might result in unexpected behavior.
From the linked tutorial:
Some Swing component methods are labelled "thread safe" in the API specification; these can be safely invoked from any thread. All other Swing component methods must be invoked from the event dispatch thread. Programs that ignore this rule may function correctly most of the time, but are subject to unpredictable errors that are difficult to reproduce.

Don't use Thread.sleep(5000);, that block EDT.
For that purposes you can use swing Timer, examine next example:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.Timer;
public class TestFrame extends JFrame {
private JLabel lbl;
public TestFrame() {
init();
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
pack();
setLocationRelativeTo(null);
setVisible(true);
}
private void init() {
lbl = new JLabel(" ");
JButton setText = new JButton("setText");
setText.addActionListener(getActionListener());
add(lbl);
add(setText,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
}
private ActionListener getActionListener() {
return new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
lbl.setText("wait...");
Timer t = new Timer(5000, new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
lbl.setText("");
setState(JFrame.ICONIFIED);
}
});
t.setRepeats(false);
t.start();
}
};
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
new TestFrame();
}
}

When dealing with Swing components you shuld not use threads like that. Launch your own SwingWorker instead.
public class MySwingWorker extends SwingWorker<Object, Object> {
#Override
public Object doInBackground() {
//your code here
//dont forget to repaint changed component or validate parent of it,
//if your text dont shows up.
return null;
}
}
you can also execute your own runnable via SwingUtilites
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
//again your code here...
}
});

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.

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.