JLabel in a JFrame delayed Rendering. How do i render first then continue?

Question

i have a snippent of code:
JDialog msg_window;
     public void create_window(JPanel contentPane, JLabel jLabel1) {
          msg_window= new JDialog();
          contentPane=(JPanel)msg_window.getContentPane();
          contentPane.setLayout(null);
          jLabel1.setBounds(48,16,133,18);
          contentPane.add(jLabel1);
          msg_window.setContentPane(contentPane);
          msg_window.setSize(222,85);
          msg_window.setLocation(300,252);
          msg_window.setTitle(jLabel1.getText());
          msg_window.setVisible(true);
that creates a JDialog box. My intentions are to display this dialog box while another part of the program is attempting to load the JTDS database driver. The driver loading seems to temporarily distract the VM. What happens is the box will render, but the JLabel will not until the driver is loaded ( at which point the box disapears).
How can i make sure the JDialog and all it's components fully rendered before proceding with then next step in the program?

Answer 1

This example just uses the extra thread to burn cpu cycles and updat a JLabel on the dialog, but shows interaction between modal dialog and an external thread.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class LoadDialog extends JDialog
    JLabel statusLbl;
    public LoadDialog(JFrame parent )
        super( parent );
        setTitle("Loadinig ");
        JPanel cp = new JPanel();
        cp.setLayout( new BorderLayout());
        cp.add( new JLabel("Please Wait") , BorderLayout.NORTH );
        statusLbl = new JLabel("Counter =     ");
        cp.add( statusLbl, BorderLayout.SOUTH );
        setContentPane( cp );
        pack();
        Runnable runner = new Runnable()
            public void run()
                for( int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++ )
                    for( int j = 1; j < 1000; j++ )
                        int x = 200 * i / j;
                    final int count = i;
                    try
                        SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait( new Runnable()
                                                          public void run()
                                                              statusLbl.setText( "Counter = "+count );
                    catch( Exception exc )
                        exc.printStackTrace();
        setModal( true );
        Thread t = new Thread( runner );
        t.start();
        setLocationRelativeTo( parent );
        setVisible( true );
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
        try
            UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
        catch( Exception e )
        final JFrame f = new JFrame("Threaded Dialog");
        JPanel cp = new JPanel();
        JButton button = new JButton( "Load");
        cp.add( button );
        button.addActionListener( new ActionListener()
                                      public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent e )
                                          new LoadDialog( f );
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.setContentPane(cp);
        f.pack();
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
}For your problem, you I would recommend you thread off the file load and use invokeLater or invokeAndWait to dismis the dialog and pass the loaded file back to the main app.
Hope this helps,
Todd