Getting a JFrame to display from a JSP, remaining JSP code waits for frame

Question

Hello,
I'm new to Java and just started using JSPs. My objective is to call a display window (from a JSP) that shows the user a list of project selections. Once the user has made their selections and clicked a Submit button, the display class captures the selected projects to the request object as an attribute and then closes the window. The next command in the jsp then forwards the request attribute to a controller. I'm having trouble getting the display window to show-the JSP seems to hang and then timeout. Is there code I'm missing to get the JSP to stop processing while it waits for the choices to be made in the JFrame?
Below is the JSP code and the class I'm calling. I'm seeing all my debug System.out statements but no JFrame pops up. In the JFrame class, the line f.addWindowListener(... does the capture of user selections to the request attribute.
Any help will be greatly appreciated!!
JSP:
<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8" import="com.plumtree.remote.portlet.*,edu.app.projects.*" %>
<%
    request.setAttribute("action", "prefDisplay");
    request.setAttribute("orderby", "title");
    ServletContext jc = getServletContext();
    DualListBox dual = new DualListBox(request,(String)jc.getAttribute("db.driver"), (String)jc.getAttribute("db.connectionstring"),"title");
     JFrame f = dual.getFrame();
     f.setVisible(true);//expect code to stop here and display frame, waiting for the user to finish.
        //Debug code that tests if frame is visible at this point -came true though did not see Jframe displayed
     if(f.isShowing()){
     System.out.println("Jframe visible");}
       //Send to ProjectsController
      request.getRequestDispatcher("pc").forward(request, response);%>               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JFrame Class (below)
-Sets up Frame and corresponding Dialog box
-Populates Dialog box with options from a database call (for user selection)
-Should wait for user input - Window close or Submit! to capture selection and dispose of Jframe
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.GridBagConstraints;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import java.awt.Insets;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.SortedSet;
import java.util.TreeSet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.swing.AbstractListModel;
import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JDialog;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.ListCellRenderer;
import javax.swing.ListModel;
public class DualListBox extends JPanel {
  private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
  private static final Insets EMPTY_INSETS = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0);
  private static final String ADD_BUTTON_LABEL = "Add >>";
  private static final String REMOVE_BUTTON_LABEL = "<< Remove";
  private static final String DONE_BUTTON_LABEL = "Submit!";
  private static final String DEFAULT_SOURCE_CHOICE_LABEL = "Available Projects";
  private static final String DEFAULT_DEST_CHOICE_LABEL = "Your Selections";
  private String orderby, mydriver, connectionString;
  private JLabel sourceLabel;
  private JList sourceList;
  private SortedListModel sourceListModel;
  private JList destList;
  private String chosenprojects;
  private SortedListModel destListModel;
  private JLabel destLabel;
  private JButton addButton;
  private JButton removeButton;
  private JButton doneButton;
  private DatabaseHelper dh;
  protected HttpServletRequest request;
  protected JFrame f;
  protected JDialog jd;
  public DualListBox(HttpServletRequest req, String driver, String connection, String ordering) {
     System.out.println("In DualList Setup");
    request =req;
     orderby =ordering;
     connectionString = connection;
     mydriver = driver;
     f = new JFrame("Projects List Selector");     
     jd =new JDialog(f,true);
     jd.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
     System.out.println("B4 initscreen");
    initScreen();
    System.out.println("After initscreen");
    String[] DBprojects = this.dbCall();
    System.out.println("After DB Call");
    this.addSourceElements( DBprojects );   
    System.out.println("Filled screen");
    jd.getContentPane().add(this, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    //f.getContentPane().add(jd, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    jd.setSize(800, 600);
    System.out.println("OK2");
    jd.setVisible(true);
    System.out.println("OK3");
    Runnable runner = new FrameShower(jd);
    EventQueue.invokeLater(runner);
  public String getSourceChoicesTitle() {
    return sourceLabel.getText();
  public String chosenprojects() {
         return chosenprojects;
  public JFrame getFrame() {
         return f;
  public void setSourceChoicesTitle(String newValue) {
    sourceLabel.setText(newValue);
  public String getDestinationChoicesTitle() {
    return destLabel.getText();
  public void setDestinationChoicesTitle(String newValue) {
    destLabel.setText(newValue);
  public void clearSourceListModel() {
    sourceListModel.clear();
  public void clearDestinationListModel() {
    destListModel.clear();
  public void addSourceElements(ListModel newValue) {
    fillListModel(sourceListModel, newValue);
  public void setSourceElements(ListModel newValue) {
    clearSourceListModel();
    addSourceElements(newValue);
  public void addDestinationElements(ListModel newValue) {
    fillListModel(destListModel, newValue);
  private String[] dbCall(){
         if(dh==null)
              dh = new DatabaseHelper(mydriver, connectionString);
          PreparedStatement ps = null;
          ResultSet rs = null;
          ArrayList<String>children = new ArrayList<String>();
          ArrayList<String[]>tree =new ArrayList<String[]>();
          if(orderby==null || orderby.equals("")){
               orderby ="region";
          String query = "select title,id from projects";// order by " + orderby;
          System.out.println(query);
          try {
               Connection conn =dh.getConnection();
               ps = conn.prepareStatement(query);
               rs = ps.executeQuery();
               while (rs.next()) {
                    children.add(new String(rs.getString(1)));
                    System.out.println(rs.getString(1));
                    tree.add(new String[]{rs.getString(1),rs.getString(2)});
               request.setAttribute("ResultTree",tree);
               return (String[])children.toArray(new String[children.size()]);
          } catch (SQLException e) {
               throw new RuntimeException(e);
          } finally {
               try {
                    if (null != rs) rs.close();
               } catch (SQLException e) {
               try {
                    if (null != ps) ps.close();
               } catch (SQLException e) {
  private void fillListModel(SortedListModel model, ListModel newValues) {
    int size = newValues.getSize();
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
      model.add(newValues.getElementAt(i));
  public void addSourceElements(Object newValue[]) {
    fillListModel(sourceListModel, newValue);
  public void setSourceElements(Object newValue[]) {
    clearSourceListModel();
    addSourceElements(newValue);
  public void addDestinationElements(Object newValue[]) {
    fillListModel(destListModel, newValue);
  private void fillListModel(SortedListModel model, Object newValues[]) {
    model.addAll(newValues);
  public Iterator sourceIterator() {
    return sourceListModel.iterator();
  public Iterator destinationIterator() {
    return destListModel.iterator();
  public void setSourceCellRenderer(ListCellRenderer newValue) {
    sourceList.setCellRenderer(newValue);
  public ListCellRenderer getSourceCellRenderer() {
    return sourceList.getCellRenderer();
  public void setDestinationCellRenderer(ListCellRenderer newValue) {
    destList.setCellRenderer(newValue);
  public ListCellRenderer getDestinationCellRenderer() {
    return destList.getCellRenderer();
  public void setVisibleRowCount(int newValue) {
    sourceList.setVisibleRowCount(newValue);
    destList.setVisibleRowCount(newValue);
  public int getVisibleRowCount() {
    return sourceList.getVisibleRowCount();
  public void setSelectionBackground(Color newValue) {
    sourceList.setSelectionBackground(newValue);
    destList.setSelectionBackground(newValue);
  public Color getSelectionBackground() {
    return sourceList.getSelectionBackground();
  public void setSelectionForeground(Color newValue) {
    sourceList.setSelectionForeground(newValue);
    destList.setSelectionForeground(newValue);
  public Color getSelectionForeground() {
    return sourceList.getSelectionForeground();
  public String getProjects(){
       return chosenprojects;
  private void clearSourceSelected() {
    Object selected[] = sourceList.getSelectedValues();
    for (int i = selected.length - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
      sourceListModel.removeElement(selected);
sourceList.getSelectionModel().clearSelection();
private void clearDestinationSelected() {
Object selected[] = destList.getSelectedValues();
for (int i = selected.length - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
destListModel.removeElement(selected[i]);
destList.getSelectionModel().clearSelection();
private void initScreen() {
setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder());
setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
sourceLabel = new JLabel(DEFAULT_SOURCE_CHOICE_LABEL);
sourceListModel = new SortedListModel();
sourceList = new JList(sourceListModel);
add(sourceLabel, new GridBagConstraints(0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0,
GridBagConstraints.CENTER, GridBagConstraints.NONE,
EMPTY_INSETS, 0, 0));
add(new JScrollPane(sourceList), new GridBagConstraints(0, 1, 1, 5, .5,
1, GridBagConstraints.CENTER, GridBagConstraints.BOTH,
EMPTY_INSETS, 0, 0));
addButton = new JButton(ADD_BUTTON_LABEL);
add(addButton, new GridBagConstraints(1, 2, 1, 2, 0, .25,
GridBagConstraints.CENTER, GridBagConstraints.NONE,
EMPTY_INSETS, 0, 0));
addButton.addActionListener(new AddListener());
removeButton = new JButton(REMOVE_BUTTON_LABEL);
add(removeButton, new GridBagConstraints(1, 4, 1, 2, 0, .25,
GridBagConstraints.CENTER, GridBagConstraints.NONE, new Insets(
0, 5, 0, 5), 0, 0));
removeButton.addActionListener(new RemoveListener());
doneButton = new JButton(DONE_BUTTON_LABEL);
add(doneButton, new GridBagConstraints(1, 6, 1, 2, 0, .25,
GridBagConstraints.CENTER, GridBagConstraints.NONE, new Insets(
0, 10, 0, 10), 0, 0));
doneButton.addActionListener(new DoneListener());
f.addWindowListener(new java.awt.event.WindowAdapter() {
     public void windowClosing(WindowEvent winEvt) {
          //could set to null here to force use of Done button only
     chosenprojects = destList.getSelectedValues().toString();
          request.setAttribute("ProjectIDs", destList.getSelectedValues().toString());
          System.exit(0);
destLabel = new JLabel(DEFAULT_DEST_CHOICE_LABEL);
destListModel = new SortedListModel();
destList = new JList(destListModel);
add(destLabel, new GridBagConstraints(2, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0,
GridBagConstraints.CENTER, GridBagConstraints.NONE,
EMPTY_INSETS, 0, 0));
add(new JScrollPane(destList), new GridBagConstraints(2, 1, 1, 5, .5,
1.0, GridBagConstraints.CENTER, GridBagConstraints.BOTH,
EMPTY_INSETS, 0, 0));
private class AddListener implements ActionListener {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Object selected[] = sourceList.getSelectedValues();
addDestinationElements(selected);
clearSourceSelected();
private class RemoveListener implements ActionListener {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
Object selected[] = destList.getSelectedValues();
addSourceElements(selected);
clearDestinationSelected();
private class DoneListener implements ActionListener {
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
     chosenprojects = destList.getSelectedValues().toString();
     request.setAttribute("ProjectIDs", destList.getSelectedValues().toString());
     System.exit(0);      
class FrameShower implements Runnable {
     final JDialog frame;
     public FrameShower(JDialog frame) {
          this.frame = frame;
     public void run() {
          System.out.println("B4 make visible");
          frame.setVisible(true);          
     System.out.println("Made screen visible");
class SortedListModel extends AbstractListModel {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 8777627817685130496L;
SortedSet model;
public SortedListModel() {
model = new TreeSet();
public int getSize() {
return model.size();
public Object getElementAt(int index) {
return model.toArray()[index];
public void add(Object element) {
if (model.add(element)) {
fireContentsChanged(this, 0, getSize());
public void addAll(Object elements[]) {
Collection c = Arrays.asList(elements);
model.addAll(c);
fireContentsChanged(this, 0, getSize());
public void clear() {
model.clear();
fireContentsChanged(this, 0, getSize());
public boolean contains(Object element) {
return model.contains(element);
public Object firstElement() {
return model.first();
public Iterator iterator() {
return model.iterator();
public Object lastElement() {
return model.last();
public boolean removeElement(Object element) {
boolean removed = model.remove(element);
if (removed) {
fireContentsChanged(this, 0, getSize());
return removed;
}{code}
Edited by: redm14A on Oct 10, 2007 11:34 AM
Edited by: redm14A on Oct 10, 2007 11:37 AM
Edited by: redm14A on Oct 10, 2007 11:40 AM
Edited by: redm14A on Oct 10, 2007 11:45 AM
Edited by: redm14A on Oct 10, 2007 11:47 AM

Answer 1

redm14A wrote:
Hmm, I was trying to avoid writing an applet. Seems my only other option then is to write a JSP that returns a javascript menu populated by options from a database call. Then I'd have the user click submit to send the options to another JSP that simply sets the request attribute and forwards to the controller. Will this be a sound alternative?
Edited by: redm14A on Oct 10, 2007 12:29 PMSounds good to me.