[SOLVED] "Threading" a method?

[Master Zero]

I am trying my hands at socket programming but I am kind of stuck. I am not sure how to implement multi-threading in java. I have a method call listen which I would like to run on a separate thread so that it will not freeze the GUI while it waits. The class is below, and any help is greatly appreciated.

import java.io.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.Date;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class ChatServer extends JFrame implements ActionListener {

	/**
	 * @param args
	 */
	
	// Variables
	TextField msg;
	TextArea room;
	
	JButton listen;
	
	PrintStream os;
	DataInputStream is;
	Socket clientSocket;
	ServerSocket server;
	
	public ChatServer() {
		server = null;
		clientSocket = null;
		
		msg = new TextField();
		room = new TextArea();
		
		listen = new JButton("Listen");
		
		this.add("South", msg);
		this.add("Center", room);
		this.add("North", listen);
			listen.addActionListener(this);
		
		this.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
			public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
				try {
					if (server != null) {
						server.close();
					}
					if (clientSocket != null) {
						clientSocket.close();
					}
				} catch (IOException e1) {
					// TODO Auto-generated catch block
					e1.printStackTrace();
					room.append(e1.getMessage());
				}
				
				System.exit(0);
			}
		});
	}
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		ChatServer f = new ChatServer();
			f.setBounds(0, 0, 250, 200);
			f.setTitle("Chat Server");
			f.setVisible(true);
	}
	
	public boolean keyDown(Event evt, int key) {
		if (key == 10) {
			room.append(msg.getText() + "\n");
			msg.setText("");
		} return super.keyDown(evt, key);
	}
	
	public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
		if (e.toString().split(",")[1].substring(4).equals("Listen")) {
			try {
				server = new ServerSocket(4000);
				
				room.append("Server now listening for client...\n");
				this.clientSocket = server.accept();
				
				room.append("Client has connected!\n");
				os = new PrintStream(this.clientSocket.getOutputStream());
				is = new DataInputStream(this.clientSocket.getInputStream());
				
				this.sendText("Welcome, current login time is :" + new Date());	
				listen();
			} catch (IOException e2) {
				// TODO Auto-generated catch block
				e2.printStackTrace();
				room.append(e2.getMessage());
			}
		}
	}
	
	public void sendText(String message) {
		os.println(message);
		os.flush();
	}
	
	public void listen() {
		try {
			room.append(is.readLine() + "\n");
		} catch (IOException e) {
			// TODO Auto-generated catch block
			e.printStackTrace();
			room.append(e.getMessage());
			System.exit(0);
		}
		listen();
	}
}

[Eranga]

You want to add another thread basically. Before that seems to me your GUI freez. May be you use some deprecated methods which is not allowed in my Java version.

[Master Zero]

I am not sure how to go about you solution; but yeah, I wish to call the method below on its own thread.

public void listen() {
		try {
			room.append(is.readLine() + "\n");
		} catch (IOException e) {
			// TODO Auto-generated catch block
			e.printStackTrace();
			room.append(e.getMessage());
			System.exit(0);
		}
		listen();
	}

Right now, the method is simply calling it’s self over and over.

Thanks for the reply.

[Eranga]

I just say keyDown() and readLine() are deprecated since 1.1

You can try something like this. In this way, not effect to GUI thread.

public class ThreadTest implements Runnable{

    Thread processThread;
    
    public void run() {
        while(true) {
            // Do the process
        }
    }

}

[Master Zero]

Thanks a million!

[Eranga]

No problem my friend. Nice to hear that I'm help to solve your question.