NetBeans GUI Builder + constantly updating information

[Inventor22]

Hello, I have gotten myself into a somewhat tricky situation that i cannot for the life of me seem to figure out.

I am trying to write a program that will read the coordinates of the mouse on the screen (NOT just a panel), and output the coordinates and RGB values into a small window.

I can easily enough get the pixels/RGB values, but the problem lies in updating the screen. Currently I have a button which starts the program. however this button calls a method which has an infinite while loop in it, which is causing problems (freezes the program). I used the NetBeans GUI Builder to create the GUI. Here is the code:

package PixelPosAndColour;

import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.MouseInfo;
import java.awt.Robot;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;

/**
 *
 * @author Dustin
 */
public class PixelInfo extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    /** Creates new form PixelPosandColourFromMouseCoordinates */
    public PixelInfo() throws AWTException, InterruptedException {
	initComponents();
    }

    /** This method is called from within the constructor to
     * initialize the form.
     * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
     * always regenerated by the Form Editor.
     */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Generated Code">
    private void initComponents() {

        jLabel1 = new javax.swing.JLabel();
        jX = new javax.swing.JTextField();
        jLabel2 = new javax.swing.JLabel();
        jY = new javax.swing.JTextField();
        jLabel3 = new javax.swing.JLabel();
        jLabel4 = new javax.swing.JLabel();
        jLabel5 = new javax.swing.JLabel();
        jLabel6 = new javax.swing.JLabel();
        jGreen = new javax.swing.JTextField();
        jRed = new javax.swing.JTextField();
        jBlue = new javax.swing.JTextField();
        jButton1 = new javax.swing.JButton();
        jButton2 = new javax.swing.JButton();

        setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        jLabel1.setText("X:");

        jX.setEditable(false);
        jX.setText("0");

        jLabel2.setText("Y:");

        jY.setEditable(false);
        jY.setText("0");

        jLabel3.setFont(new java.awt.Font("Tahoma", 1, 11)); // NOI18N
        jLabel3.setText("Colour");

        jLabel4.setText("Red:");

        jLabel5.setText("Green:");

        jLabel6.setText("Blue:");

        jGreen.setEditable(false);
        jGreen.setText("0");

        jRed.setEditable(false);
        jRed.setText("0");

        jBlue.setEditable(false);
        jBlue.setText("0");

        jButton1.setText("Go");
        jButton1.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                jButton1ActionPerformed(evt);
            }
        });

        jButton2.setText("Stop");
        jButton2.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                jButton2ActionPerformed(evt);
            }
        });

        javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
        getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
        layout.setHorizontalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addContainerGap()
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                    .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                        .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                            .addGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING, layout.createSequentialGroup()
                                .addComponent(jLabel1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                                .addComponent(jX, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 48, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                                .addComponent(jLabel2))
                            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                                    .addComponent(jLabel5)
                                    .addComponent(jLabel4)
                                    .addComponent(jLabel6))
                                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
                                    .addComponent(jBlue, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 39, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                                    .addComponent(jGreen, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 39, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                                    .addComponent(jRed, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, 39, Short.MAX_VALUE))))
                        .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                        .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING, false)
                            .addComponent(jY, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, 43, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                            .addComponent(jButton2, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                            .addComponent(jButton1, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE)))
                    .addComponent(jLabel3))
                .addContainerGap())
        );

        layout.linkSize(javax.swing.SwingConstants.HORIZONTAL, new java.awt.Component[] {jX, jY});

        layout.setVerticalGroup(
            layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addContainerGap()
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(jLabel1)
                    .addComponent(jX, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                    .addComponent(jLabel2)
                    .addComponent(jY, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addComponent(jLabel3)
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(jLabel4)
                    .addComponent(jRed, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                    .addComponent(jButton1))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(jLabel5)
                    .addComponent(jGreen, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                    .addComponent(jButton2))
                .addPreferredGap(javax.swing.LayoutStyle.ComponentPlacement.RELATED)
                .addGroup(layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.BASELINE)
                    .addComponent(jBlue, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, javax.swing.GroupLayout.PREFERRED_SIZE)
                    .addComponent(jLabel6))
                .addContainerGap(javax.swing.GroupLayout.DEFAULT_SIZE, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );

        layout.linkSize(javax.swing.SwingConstants.VERTICAL, new java.awt.Component[] {jBlue, jGreen, jRed});

        pack();
    }// </editor-fold>

    private void jButton2ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
	// TODO add your handling code here:
	on = false;
    }

    private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
	try {
	    // TODO add your handling code here:
	    on = true;
	    Execute();
	} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
	    Logger.getLogger(PixelInfo.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
	}
}

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String args[]) throws InterruptedException, AWTException {
	java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

	    public void run() {
		try {

		    PixelInfo doStuff = new PixelInfo();
		    doStuff.setVisible(true);

//			doStuff.Execute();  //<-- this failed

		} catch (AWTException ex) {
		    Logger.getLogger(PixelInfo.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
		} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
		}
	    }
	});

    }
    //<editor-fold desc="Generated Variables (for GUI)">
    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    private javax.swing.JTextField jBlue;
    private javax.swing.JButton jButton1;
    private javax.swing.JButton jButton2;
    private javax.swing.JTextField jGreen;
    private javax.swing.JLabel jLabel1;
    private javax.swing.JLabel jLabel2;
    private javax.swing.JLabel jLabel3;
    private javax.swing.JLabel jLabel4;
    private javax.swing.JLabel jLabel5;
    private javax.swing.JLabel jLabel6;
    private javax.swing.JTextField jRed;
    private javax.swing.JTextField jX;
    private javax.swing.JTextField jY;
    // End of variables declaration
    //</editor-fold>
    int X = 0;
    int Y = 0;
    int red = 0;
    int green = 0;
    int blue = 0;
    Robot robot = new Robot(); // create robot and color objects.
    Color pixel;
    boolean on = false;


    public void getVariables() {
	try {
	    X = MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation().x; // get the mouses coordinates
	    Y = MouseInfo.getPointerInfo().getLocation().y;
	    pixel = robot.getPixelColor(X, Y); // set the pixel to get RGB data from to the mouses coordinates
	    red = pixel.getRed(); // get colour data.
	    green = pixel.getGreen();
	    blue = pixel.getBlue();
	} catch (Exception e) {
	}
    }

    public void Update() {

	getVariables(); // call the previous method

	jX.setText(Integer.toString(X)); // print all the gathered variables to
	jY.setText(Integer.toString(Y)); // the GUI
	jRed.setText(Integer.toString(red));
	jGreen.setText(Integer.toString(green));
	jBlue.setText(Integer.toString(blue));
    }

    public void Execute() throws InterruptedException {
	if (on) {
	    while (true) {  // <-- this method freezes the program.
		Update();  // (I realize the 'stop' button would never work...)
		Thread.sleep(100);
	    }
	}
    }

}

Here is what the GUI looks like, (the 'manage attachments' button is not working for me):

PixelInfoGUI.png

I have a feeling I may need to put the 'Execute()' method in a thread...so it may run at the same time as the event listeners which are active in the GUI. However, my knowledge on threads is Very rudimentary...any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Norm]

method which has an infinite while loop

Why do you have the loop there? Why not call the updating code when there is a change to be made to the GUI.

[Fubarable]

Agrees with Norm (what else is new) -- if you're coding a GUI you are doing event driven programming, and there's no reason for that infinite loop or a background thread. Use a Swing Timer instead.

[Inventor22]

Thanks a lot guys :D.
I used your recommendation of swing timers Fubarable. It worked AMAZINGLY!
I had no idea Swing Timers even existed...I never learned about them in school :(

[Fubarable]

You're welcome! My first choice would have been to add some kind of MouseListener to the Robot, but I can't see how to do that -- perhaps Rob, Darryl or one of the other Swing gurus can point out a way.

And best of luck with your project!

[Inventor22]

That's what I tried to do before using your idea, however I could only get the mouseListener to work Inside of the programs GUI, not just anywhere on the screen.