Thread noobie

Question

I have absolutely no experience with threads.. I have read several tutorials but there's something I dont really get.
I have an application and its gui delays to load up due to a class that is responsible with connecting to an Imap server
so i have decided to use threads.. i hope you guys can help me out and point me in the right direction
My IMAP class has methods some of which are:
connect() //to connect to the server
getFolders() //to get Folders from the server
printFolders() //to print all the folders from the server
getMessages() // get all messages
close() // close connection
I am now trying to make this class run as a different thread..
Should i make this class implement runnable or would it be easier and cleaner to create a new class that implements runnable and constructs an object of my existing IMAP class.
Assuming it's easier to just create a new class.. i now have:
public class threadIMAP implements Runnable
public void run()
            IMAP imap = new IMAP();
            imap.connect();
            imap.getFolders();
            imap.printFolders();
        }From my GUI class now how would i call threadIMAP to run as a new thread?

Answer 1

Thanks for the help Peter.. could you give me some as to how i would use the ExecutorService?
Other than that.. i have this problem:
The following method creates threads that retrieve the Store objects of connections to an imap server
My problem is that this lines:
store = IMAP.getStore();
storeList.add(store);
run before the thread has reached the stage where it stores the object in the IMAPthread class
How would i get the thread to wait exactly the right amount of time, until the store object gets stored?
for (int i = 0;i<=accountsDetails.size()-1;i++)
         IMAPthread IMAP = new IMAPthread();
            IMAP.setUser(usernames);
IMAP.setPass(passwords[i]);
Thread t1 = new Thread(IMAP);
t1.start();
store = IMAP.getStore();
storeList.add(store);
public class IMAPthread implements Runnable {
private String theUser;
private String thePass;
private Store store;
public void run()
ImapServer imap = new ImapServer();
imap.setUser(theUser,thePass);
imap.connect();
store = imap.getStore();
public Store getStore()
return store;