Cant Get Text To Show In JTextArea

Question

Hi guys,
I'm trying to create a very simplistic GUI where the output of an IRC server is shown in a JTextArea. However for the life of me I can not get any text at all to show in the text area. Here's the class that creates the user interface:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.*;
public class SwingTest extends javax.swing.JFrame implements ActionListener {
     JButton connect = new JButton("Connect");
     JTextArea chat = new JTextArea();
    public SwingTest() {
         //set the title of the frame
         super("Chat Window");
         //set the size of the frame
         setSize(800, 600);
         //set what happens when the close button is clicked
         setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
         // create the scroll pane to add the text area to
         chat.setLineWrap(true);
         JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(chat, ScrollPaneConstants.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS, ScrollPaneConstants.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
         //create the container panel
         JPanel jp = new JPanel();
         //create the layout manager and assign it to the container panel
         BoxLayout horizontal = new BoxLayout(jp, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
         jp.setLayout(horizontal);
         //add the text area and button to the container panel
         jp.add(scroll);
         jp.add(connect);
         //add the container panel to the frame
         add(jp);
         //make the frame and its contents visible
         setVisible(true);
         //add an event listener to the connect button
         connect.addActionListener(this);
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
         int temp = 1;
         SockThread mySock = new SockThread();
             try {
                  Thread.sleep(20000);
              while(temp == 1) {
               while(mySock.pinger != false) {
                    chat.append(mySock.getStatus()+ "\n");
                    mySock.pinger = false;
                    break;
             } catch  (InterruptedException ie) {
                  chat.setText("Error " + ie.getMessage());
    public static void main(String[] arguments)  {
         //create an instance of the SwingTest class and let it do its thing
         SwingTest st = new SwingTest();
}

Answer 1

Thanks hiwa, i did what you suggested and created a worker thread, but still I'm getting nothing in that JTextArea. I'm new to working with worker threads though, so if anyone wouldn't taking a look at my code just to see if I'm doing something wrong i would greatly appreciate it.
Here is my worker class:
import javax.swing.*;
public class ChatWorker extends SwingWorker {
     String messages;
     String output;
     JTextArea chat;
     public ChatWorker() {
          super();
     protected String doInBackground() {
          int temp = 1;
          SockThread st = new SockThread();
          try {
               Thread.sleep(20000);
               //Perpetual loop needed to keep checking for server messages
               while(temp == 1) {
               while(st.pinger != false) {
                    messages = st.getStatus();
                    st.pinger = false;
                    break;
          } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
          return messages;
}And here is the update gui class to make use of the worker thread:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.beans.*;
public class SwingTest extends javax.swing.JFrame implements ActionListener, PropertyChangeListener {
     JButton connect = new JButton("Connect");
     JTextArea chat = new JTextArea();
     ChatWorker cw;
    public SwingTest() {
         //set the title of the frame
         super("Chat Window");
         //set the size of the frame
         setSize(800, 600);
         //set what happens when the close button is clicked
         setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
         // create the scroll pane to add the text area to
         chat.setLineWrap(true);
         JScrollPane scroll = new JScrollPane(chat, ScrollPaneConstants.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS, ScrollPaneConstants.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_NEVER);
         //create the container panel
         JPanel jp = new JPanel();
         //create the layout manager and assign it to the container panel
         BoxLayout horizontal = new BoxLayout(jp, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS);
         jp.setLayout(horizontal);
         //add the text area and button to the container panel
         jp.add(scroll);
         jp.add(connect);
         //add the container panel to the frame
         add(jp);
         //make the frame and its contents visible
         setVisible(true);
         //add an event listener to the connect button
         connect.addActionListener(this);
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
         try {
         cw = new ChatWorker();
         cw.addPropertyChangeListener(this);
         cw.execute();
         } catch (Exception exc) {
    public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent event) {
         try {
              String tempText = (String)cw.get();
              chat.append(tempText + "\n");
         }catch (Exception exc) {
    public static void main(String[] arguments)  {
         //create an instance of the SwingTest class and let it do its thing
         SwingTest st = new SwingTest();
}