JButton disable issue

Question

I have a small swing app, which have couple of buttons. One of the button involves a five minute processing. During this time, I have disabled the button and removed the action Listener. Even though the button remains faded during the process, If the user clicks on the button ( while remaining faded) , the proces starts all over again, after the end of the current process.
button.removeActionListerner(listener)
button.setEnabled(false)
paint(getGraphics())
processData()
button.setEnabled(true)
button.addActionListener(listener)
paint(getGraphics())
Any ideas ? Thanks

Answer 1

Thought this would be a good time to learn and try to use a background thread in Swing. Never done this before, but the code works. If no one else finds fault with it (not unlikely given my novice status), you might want to try to use something like this in your program.
Please anyone, let me know if this is messed up or if it is ok. Thanks!
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
class SwingBckGround extends JFrame implements ActionListener
    private JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
    private JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
    private JButton noThreadButton = new JButton("No Background Thread");
    private JButton yesThreadButton = new JButton("With Background Thread");
    private JPanel redPanel = new JPanel();
    private JLabel redPanelLabel = new JLabel("Press Buttons to turn panel red");
    private Color redPanelBkGrndColor;
    public SwingBckGround()
        super("Brief Swing App");
        createWidgets();
        getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        pack();
        setVisible(true);
    private void createWidgets()
        // create buttonPanel
        int edgeSize = 10;
        FlowLayout fLayO = new FlowLayout();
        fLayO.setHgap(2* edgeSize);
        buttonPanel.setLayout(fLayO);
        buttonPanel.add(noThreadButton);
        buttonPanel.add(yesThreadButton);
        buttonPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(edgeSize, edgeSize, edgeSize, edgeSize));
        noThreadButton.addActionListener(this);
        yesThreadButton.addActionListener(this);
        // create redPanel
        redPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(40, 80));
        redPanel.add(redPanelLabel);
        // create mainPanel
        mainPanel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        mainPanel.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        mainPanel.add(redPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    // any method that will take some time to finish
    private void busyWork()
        int loopSize = 1000;
        for (int i = 0; i < loopSize; i++)
            for (int j = 0; j < loopSize; j++)
                for (int k = 0; k < loopSize; k++)
                    int foo = i + j + k;
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
        JButton myBtn = (JButton)e.getSource();
        if (myBtn.equals(noThreadButton))
            yesThreadButton.setEnabled(false);
            redPanelBkGrndColor = redPanel.getBackground();
            redPanel.setBackground(Color.red);
            busyWork();
            yesThreadButton.setEnabled(true);
            redPanel.setBackground(redPanelBkGrndColor);
        else if (myBtn.equals(yesThreadButton))  // the if not needed but here for clarity
            noThreadButton.setEnabled(false);  // disable the other button
            redPanelBkGrndColor = redPanel.getBackground();  // store original panel color
            redPanel.setBackground(Color.red); // set redpanel to red
            // create our background thread.  Needs Java 6 to work
            SwingWorker<Void, Void> mySW = new SwingWorker<Void, Void>()
                @Override  // do our busy work here in the background
                protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception
                    busyWork();
                    return null;
                @Override
                public void done()
                    // when done reset button to enabled, and 
                    // change redPanel color back to original color
                    // I'm not sure if tricky GUI calls here would require a
                    // call through the Swing event thread with
                    // SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()....?
                    noThreadButton.setEnabled(true);
                    redPanel.setBackground(redPanelBkGrndColor);
            mySW.execute();  // lets call our SwingWorker object here
    private static void createAndShowGUI()
        SwingBckGround swngBckGrnd = new SwingBckGround();
    public static void main(String[] args)
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
        { public void run() { createAndShowGUI();}});
}