How to create a sophisticated modal interface returning a value?

Question

Hi,
I am trying to create an interface in Java with sophisticated features to allow a user to select a date value. It has to be modal, that is, when the user clicks on a button, the frame opens, the user selects a value and the value must be retrieved by the calling frame.
JDialog is not OK, because it does not allow to design a sophisticated interface. The customization possibilities of JDialog are not enough for my needs. I need to design a full screen with several tables, combox boxes, etc...
How should I proceed? What type of object should I use / inherit of? What mechanism should I use to retrieve the value selected by the user? I can see (in http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/components/dialog.html) that JOptionPane allows to retrieve a value from a modal box. That is exactly what I need, but for a much more sophisticated interface.
Any ideas? Thanks !

Answer 1

I had a serious look at the source of JDialog once,
with a view to doing my own modal stuff. Too much
like hard work.It's really not that hard, as long as you realize that calling setVisible(true) on a modal dialog suspends the current event pump and starts a new one. Once the dialog is set invisible or disposed, the original pump resumes.
So, assuming that you've created a class to manage the dialog, you'd implement a show() method like the following (hasn't been compiled, may contain syntax errors):
// note: this class is responsible for building and displaying
//       a dialog; it doesn't need to inherit from JDialog, and
//       becomes a lot cleaner if you don't inherit
public class MyDialogManager
    private JDialog _myDialog;
    private JTextField _field;
    public MyDialogManager(JFrame owner, String title)
        _myDialog = new JDialog(owner, true, title);
        // build out the dialog here, including text field
    public String showMyDialog()
        _myDialog.setVisible(true);
        // this thread is suspended until the dialog is closed
        return _field.getText();
}