How to put main process to sleep??

Question

Hi experts
I have another problem in my ajav application , When I press execute button, it creates a process which run a bat file. the bat file actuallty run something and produce the output file. then main process read that output file and show the content in the result panel . Now in order to finish the process, I put the main process to sleep, other wise it cant find the file or it shows incomplete file/empty file. I use Thread.sleep(2000). But this is not appropriate , sometimes the files might be big or the bat file might need much time to finish which is common senario , In that case,I wont get appropriate output. My question is how can I put the main process to sleep until the the other process finish creating the file.
Any clue is helpful. Pls help. I am stucking at this point.
public class ButtonHandler implements ActionListener {
     GUIPanel guiPanel;
     ButtonHandler(GUIPanel gp){
          guiPanel=gp;
      public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e){                    
          JButton button = (JButton)e.getSource();
          if(button == guiPanel.excButton){
               runBatFile(); // run the batch file
               try { // put main process to sleep
                    Thread.sleep(4000);
               } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                    System.out.println("Too much Caffine! Cant Sleep..");
                    System.out.println("Error:" +ex);
               }//end of catch
               parseResult();     //show the output               
          if(button == guiPanel.closeButton){
               System.exit(0);
      }//end of fucntion
     public void runBatFile(){
          Process p=null;
          try {
                //p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("test.bat");                 
          } catch (IOException e1) {
                   System.err.println(e1);     
          }//end of catch      
     }//end of function
     public void parseResult(){
          try {
               BufferedReader in=new BufferedReader(new FileReader("test.txt"));
               String s1;
               JTextArea jta=new JTextArea();     
               jta.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 14));
                 jta.setEditable(false);
               JScrollPane jsp = new JScrollPane( jta,JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS,
                                           JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS );
               jta.append(" ");     
               int lineCount=0;
                  while((s1=in.readLine())!=null){
                    System.out.println(s1);
                    lineCount++;
                    jta.append(s1);
                    jta.append("\n");
               }//end of while
               in.close();
               jta.append("\n\nI am done with it:"+ lineCount+"\n");
               resultPanel.removeAll();                                
                     resultPanel.add(jsp);
               resultPanel.revalidate();
          } catch (IOException e1) {
                   System.err.println(e1);               
                   System.exit(1);
          }//end of catch      
     }//end of function
}//end of class 'ButtonHandler'

Answer 1

pkwooster
Thanks for ur explanation. I I added invokelater and get some exception: "Cannot call invoke and wait from evene dispatcher thread." How can I eleminate that. Pls reply.
public class ButtonHandler implements ActionListener {
     GUIPanel guiPanel;
     ButtonHandler(GUIPanel gp){
          guiPanel=gp;
      public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e){                    
          JButton button = (JButton)e.getSource();
          if(button == guiPanel.excButton){
               JTextArea jta = new JTextArea();
               jta.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 14));
                 jta.setEditable(false);
               JScrollPane jsp = new JScrollPane( jta,
               JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS,JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS );
               resultPanel.removeAll();     
               jta.append("Please wait while we retrive the Information... ");
               resultPanel.add(jsp);
               resultPanel.revalidate();
               runBatFile(); // run the batch file
                        parseResult();     //show the output               
          if(button == guiPanel.closeButton){
               System.exit(0);
      }//end of fucntion
     public void runBatFile(){
          try {
               SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
               public void run() {                
                    Process p=null;
                    try {             
                           p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("abaqus_license.bat");               
                    } catch (IOException e1) {System.err.println(e1);}//end of catch
           } catch(Exception e) {;}
          }//end of function
     public void parseResult(){
          ;//do something
     }//end of function
}//end of class 'ButtonHandler'