Creating / Running / Interrupting my thread

[Sam Bluesman]

Hi there.

I have a program consisting of 4 classes at the moment:

MainProgram.java class
FileProcessor.java class
FileCreator.java class
ServerCommands.java class

The MainProgram class provides an interface where somebody can input a file name and press a button 'Go'. This file name is then passed to the FileProcessor.

The FileProcessor class interprets the data in the user input file and passes some of the interpreted data to the FileCreator class, which stores this data in a new file.

Having done this, the ServerCommands class is then invoked, which issues commands that uses the file to a statistical server that interprets these and produces a statistial output. However, as this takes some time to do and plots the data in a new window that needs to ineractive while open, I want to run the ServerCommands class as a thread, so that the GUI created by the MainProgram class is still accessible and functional whilst this is going on.

On the MainProgram GUI I have a button 'Reset'. What I would like to know is how I can stop the thread from this MainProgram class.

I am new to threads and have read the API, Java tutorial AND chapter 8 of 'Learning Java' by Niemeyer & Knudsen but I am still having difficulties achiveing the desired effect. Could anyone help me?

So far, to invoke the FileProcessor class from the MainProgram, having clicked the Go button, the following code was used:

private void goButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                               
   // Send the file names to the FileProcessor class and invoke the processFile method that does the processing 
               
   FileProcessor ThisFileName = new FileProcessor(  FileNameTextField.getText)         
   
   try{            
      ThisFileName.ProcessFile(FileNameTextField.getText()) 
      }catch(IOException e){}               
   } 
 

So, after control has been passed to the FileProcessor class, it processes the file and hands over to the FileCreator class, which writes to a file. Once the file has been created, control should hand over to the ServerCommands class. Here is the bottom of the FileCreator class which is invoked from the ProcessFile class:

   ServerCommands newThread = new ServerCommands();
   Thread myThread = new Thread(newThread);
   myThread.start();

The ServerCommands looks like the following:

import java.lang.Thread;
 
class ServerCommands extends Thread implements Runnable{
    public ServerCommands() {
       
    }
    
    public void run() {
     
     try{ 
         
            try{ 
                [code here for server connection and commands]                
                
                while (!Thread.interrupted()) {
                    [code to keep plot window interactive]
                    Thread.interrupted(); //check to see if interrupted from 'Reset' button method in MainProgram class
                }
  
                throw new java.lang.InterruptedException();
                
            }catch(RSrvException e){
               System.out.println("Server Error");
            }
            
     }catch(InterruptedException ex){
         System.out.println("Thread interrupted"); //test that thread is interrupted
         
     }
        
        
    }
}

Here is the code so far for the event for when the Reset button is activated. This is in the MainProgram class, and it is this that I want to use to Interrupt the thread in the ServerCommands class:

 private void resetButtonActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                            
        fileNameTextField.setText("");
        ServerCommands.currentThread().interrupt();
    }                                           

Thanks

Sam

[ July 09, 2007: Message edited by: Sam Bluesman ]

[ July 09, 2007: Message edited by: Sam Bluesman ]

[ July 09, 2007: Message edited by: Sam Bluesman ]
[ July 09, 2007: Message edited by: Sam Bluesman ]