Disable JButton, while background job, to avoid multiple clicks

Question

I need to stop user making multiple clicks on a JButton while the first click still execute.

I was able to came with a solution for this issue but I do not completelly understand why it's working.

Bellow I posted the code (trimmed to a minimum) that works and the one that does not work.

In first example (good) if you run it and click the button multiple times only one action is considered as for the second example (bad) if you click the mouse multiple times you get action executed at least twice.

The second (bad) example simply does not use invokeLater() method.

Where the difference in behaviour cames from?

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.swing.*;

public class TestButtonTask {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);

        final JButton task = new JButton("Test");

        task.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                long t = System.currentTimeMillis();
                System.out.println("Action received");

                task.setText("Working...");
                task.setEnabled(false);

                SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Thread() {

                    @Override
                    public void run() {
                        try {
                            sleep(2 * 1000);
                        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                            Logger.getLogger(TestButtonTask.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
                        }

                        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

                            public void run() {
                                task.setEnabled(true);
                                task.setText("Test");
                            }
                        });

                    }
                });
            }
        });

        frame.add(task);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    } //end main
} //end class

And now the "wrong" code

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.swing.*;

public class TestButtonTask {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);

        final JButton task = new JButton("Test");

        task.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                long t = System.currentTimeMillis();
                System.out.println("Action received");

                task.setText("Working...");
                task.setEnabled(false);

                SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Thread() {

                    @Override
                    public void run() {
                        try {
                            sleep(2 * 1000);
                        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                            Logger.getLogger(TestButtonTask.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
                        }

                        //SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

                            //public void run() {
                                task.setEnabled(true);
                                task.setText("Test");
                            //}
                        //});

                    }
                });
            }
        });

        frame.add(task);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    } //end main
} //end class

After info provided by @kleopatra and @Boris Pavlović here is the code I created that seems to work pretty decent.

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeEvent;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.swing.*;

public class TestButtonTask {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        final JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);

        final JButton task = new JButton("Test");

        task.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                task.setText("Working...");
                task.setEnabled(false);

                SwingWorker worker = new SwingWorker<Void, Void>() {

                    @Override
                    protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
                        try {
                            Thread.sleep(3 * 1000);
                        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                            Logger.getLogger(TestButtonTask.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
                        }

                        return null;
                    }                    
                };

                worker.addPropertyChangeListener(new PropertyChangeListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
                        System.out.println("Event " + evt + " name" + evt.getPropertyName() + " value " + evt.getNewValue());
                        if ("DONE".equals(evt.getNewValue().toString())) {
                            task.setEnabled(true);
                            task.setText("Test");
                        }
                    }
                });

                worker.execute();
            }
        });

        frame.add(task);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
    } //end main
} //end class

Answer 1

you have two choises

1) JButton#setMultiClickThreshhold

2) you have to split this idea to the two separated actions inside actionListener or Action

• 1st. step, JButton#setEnabeld(false);
• 2nd. step, then call rest of code wrapped to the javax.swing.Action (from and dealyed by javax.swing.Timer), SwingWorker or Runnable#Thread

Answer 2

Okay, here's a code snippet using an Action

• it disable's itself on performed
• it spawns a task, at the end of which is enables itself again. Note: for simplicity here the task is simulated by a Timer, real-world would spawn a SwingWorker to do the background work, listening to its property changes and enable itself on receiving a done
• set as the button's action

The code:

    Action taskAction = new AbstractAction("Test") {

        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            System.out.println("Action received ");
            setEnabled(false);
            putValue(NAME, "Working...");
            startTask();
        }

        // simulate starting a task - here we simply use a Timer
        // real-world code would spawn a SwingWorker
        private void startTask() {
            ActionListener l = new ActionListener() {
                @Override
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                    putValue(NAME, "Test");
                    setEnabled(true);

                }
            };
            Timer timer = new Timer(2000, l);
            timer.setRepeats(false);
            timer.start();
        }};

     JButton task = new JButton(taskAction);

Answer 3

There are two more ways.

You can define a flag. Set it when action start and reset back after the end. Check the flags in the actionPerformed. If inProgress==true just do nothing.

Another way is to remove the listener and assign it back after the action ends.