JOptionPane in Synchronised Method

Question

Hi,
I'm having a bit of trouble using JOptionPane in a synchronised method. The GUI maintains a list of allowed and blocked sites.
Many threads access these lists to check if an access to a site should be allowed or not. If the new access does not match an entry in either list then a JOptionPane is displayed to ask the user for the action to take.
The lists need to be synchronised so the GUI class looks like this:
public class Console extends JFrame{
     private JTextArea allowedHosts;     
     private JTextArea blockedHosts;
     public Console()
     {...creates and displays GUI...     }
     public synchronized boolean isRequestAllowed(Request request)
     { ...//code to check if the request is in allowed or blocked list
          else
//Pop up a JDialog to ask the user for the next action to take
          return promptForAction(request);     
     private boolean promptForAction(Request request)
          ...//creates options for JOptionPane          
          try
               SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait( new Runnable() {
     public void run()
     actionCode[0] = JOptionPane.showOptionDialog(frame, message, "Access Attempt",
                         JOptionPane.DEFAULT_OPTION,
                         JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE,
                         null, options, options[0]);
          catch (InterruptedException ignore){}
          catch (InvocationTargetException ignore) {}     
...//checks actionCode[0] to specify next action
The need for synchronisation is that I don't want one thread checking the allowed or blocked lists while the user is being prompted for input about a previous request.
The JOptionPane works fine for first request and will return. A second request is then attempted and the JOptionPane displays but will not respond to any inputs or clicks on buttons.
My experience of Java is very limited and I might be making alot of mistakes but I have read the tutorials on the java website and any other related sites.
Any help would be much appreciated,
Mark

Answer 1

moc02 wrote:
The class doesn't really need to extend JFrame. Just the way I done it. I'll change it round and see if that sorts it.Even if it doesn't, it's almost always better to avoid inheritance unless it is necessary. In other words, I agree with Darryl: don't extend JFrame.
On the other point, I'm not really sure what you are talking about, showing my lack of knowledge there. I don't know what you mean by separating model from view so if you could explain a little more I'd really appreciate it. The model is the data and the non-GUI code necessary to manipulate the data. The view is the graphical representation of it.
I have to wonder if you may be trying to bite more than you can chew here.