Launching Splash Screen on the click of a button

Question

Situation: I have an application running, and when the user clicks a button on the main menu, a new dialog opens.
Problem: This dialog takes awhile to load as it is retreiving information from the database etc ... hence I would like to launch a splash screen in one thread and the other dialog in a second thread.
Following is the Splash Screen class:
public class SplashScreen extends JWindow {
    public SplashScreen(int d) {
        duration = d;
        this.launchSplash();
    public void launchSplash() {
        JPanel content = (JPanel) getContentPane();
        content.setBackground(Color.white);
        // Set the window's bounds, centering the window
        int width = 350;
        int height = 255;
        Dimension screen = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
        int x = (screen.width - width) / 2;
        int y = (screen.height - height) / 2;
        setBounds(x, y, width, height);
        // Build the splash screen
        JLabel label = new JLabel();
        label.setIcon(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("loading.gif")) );         
        label.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);    
        content.add(label, BorderLayout.CENTER);          
        // Display it
        this.setVisible(true);
        // Wait a little while, maybe while loading resources
        try {
            Thread.sleep(duration);
        } catch (Exception e) {
        this.setVisible(false);
//        System.exit(0);
//    public static void main(String[] args) {
//        // Throw a nice little title page up on the screen first
//        SplashScreen splash = new SplashScreen(10000);
//        // Normally, we'd call splash.launchSplash() and get on
//        // with the program. But, since this is only a test...
//        System.exit(0);
//    }When I run this as a standalone, it works fine (i.e. uncomment the 'main' function). But when I try to call it from another function, it doesn't launch.
Eg: I am calling it when a button has been clicked. Code is as follows:
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
     SplashScreen sd = new SplashScreen(10000);
     // Calling the dialog (that takes a long time to load) here
}Would like to know whether
[1] is it possible to launch a splash screen on the click of a button? As usually a splash screen is done at the beginning of an application before anything is loaded. In my case an application is already running, during which a splash screen needs to be launched.
[2] Would using the new splashscreen class of Java 6.0 support this?
[3] If not what is the best way to approach this problem
Appreciate any input.
Thanks,
Edited by: mnr on Feb 20, 2008 9:47 AM

Answer 1

Thanks Michael_Dunn, I see what you mean.
I know this is not exactly as you suggested, but when I tried the following I got a partial solution. Just wanted to know whether I am on the right track.
I wrote a small class for the thread
public class cSplashScreenThread extends Thread {
    public volatile boolean finished = false;
    public cSplashScreenThread(){       
// override run() method in interface
    public void run() {
       SplashScreen sd = new SplashScreen(10000);
    }This calls the SplashScreen(code encl in earlier post).
In the main application I added the following
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
// SPLASH SCREEN
//                    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
//                        public void run() {
                            cSplashScreenThread sd = new cSplashScreenThread();
                            sd.start();
                            sd.finished = true;
// DIALOG
                    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
                        public void run() {
                      DialogToCall tempDialolog = new DialogToCall(.......);
                            tempDialolog .setVisible(true);
:When I run this in the application, the SplashScreen does indeed appear(earlier I wasn't able to see the splashScreen), and I notice (when I put a breakpoint at the pt where it calls the dialog), that it is going and creating the dialog etc, but the dialog never appears ...... after the splash screen closes, nothing else happens!
Could you please guide me on what best to do?
Thanks,
Edited by: mnr on Feb 21, 2008 11:19 AM