Java Swing Threading with Updatable JProgressBar
- by Anthony Sparks
First off I've been working with Java's Concurency package quite a bit lately but I have found an issue that I am stuck on. I want to have and Application and the Application can have a SplashScreen with a status bar and the loading of other data. So I decided to use SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait( call the splash component here ). The SplashScreen then appears with a JProgressBar and runs a group of threads. But I can't seem to get a good handle on things. I've looked over SwingWorker and tried using it for this purpose but the thread just returns. Here is a bit of sudo-code. and the points I'm trying to achieve.
Have an Application that has a SplashScreen that pauses while loading info
Be able to run multiple threads under the SplashScreen
Have the progress bar of the SplashScreen Update-able yet not exit until all threads are done.
Launching splash screen
try {
SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait( SplashScreen );
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
} catch (InvocationTargetException e) { }
Splash screen construction
SplashScreen extends JFrame implements Runnable{
public void run() {
//run threads
//while updating status bar
}
}
I have tried many things including SwingWorkers, Threads using CountDownLatch's, and others. The CountDownLatch's actually worked in the manner I wanted to do the processing but I was unable to update the GUI. When using the SwingWorkers either the invokeAndWait was basically nullified (which is their purpose) or it wouldn't update the GUI still even when using a PropertyChangedListener. If someone else has a couple ideas it would be great to hear them. Thanks in advance.
