SwingWorker not responding

Question

What I am trying to do ?

At the click of the Start JButton, the SwingWorker will execute. Inside the doInBackground() method, I am passing each index of arrNames, to the publish() method, so that it can be displayed inside the JTextArea.

What happened ?

If I do not keep line System.out.format("Counter : %d%n", counter); as a comment, in my doInBackground() method of the SwingWorker, then the SwingWorker is working as expected. Though if I comment it out, then the SwingWorker stops responding.

Am I doing something wrong ?

---

Java Version :

java version "1.7.0_25"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_25-b16)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 23.25-b01, mixed mode, sharing)

Here is the code I am using :

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class SwingWorkerExample1
{
    private JLabel statusLabel;
    private JTextArea tArea;
    private JButton startButton;
    private JButton stopButton;

    private BackgroundTask backgroundTask;

    private ActionListener buttonActions =
                            new ActionListener()
    {
        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)
        {
            JButton source = (JButton) ae.getSource();
            if (source == startButton)
            {
                startButton.setEnabled(false);
                stopButton.setEnabled(true);
                backgroundTask = new BackgroundTask();
                backgroundTask.execute();
            }
            else if (source == stopButton)
            {
                backgroundTask.cancel(true);
                stopButton.setEnabled(false);
                startButton.setEnabled(true);
            }
        }
    };

    private void displayGUI()
    {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Swing Worker Example");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);

        JPanel contentPane = new JPanel();
        contentPane.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
        contentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout(5, 5));

        statusLabel = new JLabel("Status Bar", JLabel.CENTER);

        tArea = new JTextArea(20, 20);
        tArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        tArea.setLineWrap(true);        
        JScrollPane textScroller = new JScrollPane();
        textScroller.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Textual OUTPUT : "));
        textScroller.setViewportView(tArea);

        startButton = new JButton("Start");
        startButton.addActionListener(buttonActions);
        stopButton = new JButton("Stop");
        stopButton.setEnabled(false);
        stopButton.addActionListener(buttonActions);
        JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
        buttonPanel.add(startButton);
        buttonPanel.add(stopButton);

        contentPane.add(statusLabel, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
        contentPane.add(textScroller, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        contentPane.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);

        frame.setContentPane(contentPane);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    private class BackgroundTask extends SwingWorker<Void, String>
    {
        private int counter = 0;

        private String[] arrNames = { "US Rates Strategy Cash",
            "Pavan Wadhwa(1-212) 844-4597", "Srini Ramaswamy(1-212) 844-4983",
            "Meera Chandan(1-212) 855-4555", "Kimberly Harano(1-212) 823-4996",
            "Feng Deng(1-212) 855-2555", "US Rates Strategy Derivatives",
            "Srini Ramaswamy(1-212) 811-4999",
            "Alberto Iglesias(1-212) 898-5442",
            "Praveen Korapaty(1-212) 812-3444", "Feng Deng(1-212) 812-2456",
            "US Rates Strategy Derivatives", "Srini Ramaswamy(1-212) 822-4999",
            "Alberto Iglesias(1-212) 822-5098",
            "Praveen Korapaty(1-212) 812-3655", "Feng Deng(1-212) 899-2222" };

        public BackgroundTask()
        {
            statusLabel.setText((this.getState()).toString());
            System.out.println(this.getState());
        }

        @Override
        protected Void doInBackground()
        {
            statusLabel.setText((this.getState()).toString());
            System.out.println(this.getState());
            while (!isCancelled())
            {
                counter %= arrNames.length;
                //System.out.format("Counter : %d%n", counter);
                publish(arrNames[counter]);
                counter++;
            }
            statusLabel.setText((this.getState()).toString());
            System.out.println(this.getState());
            return null;
        }

        @Override
        protected void process(java.util.List<String> messages)
        {
            for (String message : messages)
                tArea.append(String.format(message + "%n"));
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        Runnable runnable = new Runnable()
        {
            @Override
            public void run()
            {
                new SwingWorkerExample1().displayGUI();
            }
        };
        EventQueue.invokeLater(runnable);
    }
}

EDIT 1 :

As suggested, if I add Thread.sleep(...), it does work, though, it throws a InterruptedException as shown below. So the trick works. But is this the legitimate way of performing it ?

C:\Mine\JAVA\J2SE\classes>java SwingWorkerExample1
PENDING
STARTED
java.lang.InterruptedException: sleep interrupted
        at java.lang.Thread.sleep(Native Method)
        at SwingWorkerExample1$BackgroundTask.doInBackground(SwingWorkerExample1.java:108)
        at SwingWorkerExample1$BackgroundTask.doInBackground(SwingWorkerExample1.java:76)
        at javax.swing.SwingWorker$1.call(SwingWorker.java:296)
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
        at javax.swing.SwingWorker.run(SwingWorker.java:335)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)
DONE

---

EDIT 2 :

Only doInBackground() is changed, that raised the above exception :

@Override
protected Void doInBackground()
{
    Runnable runnable = new Runnable()
    {
        @Override
        public void run()
        {
            statusLabel.setText((BackgroundTask.this.getState()).toString());
        }
    };
    EventQueue.invokeLater(runnable);

    System.out.println(this.getState());
    while (!isCancelled())
    {
        counter %= arrNames.length;             
        //System.out.format("Counter : %d%n", counter);
        publish(arrNames[counter]);
        try
        {Thread.sleep(30);}
        catch(InterruptedException ie)
        {ie.printStackTrace();}
        counter++;
    }
    runnable = new Runnable()
    {
        @Override
        public void run()
        {
            statusLabel.setText((BackgroundTask.this.getState()).toString());
        }
    };
    EventQueue.invokeLater(runnable);
    System.out.println(this.getState());
    return null;
}

Answer 1

if I add Thread.sleep(...), it does work, though, it throws a InterruptedException

The code that apparently produces the exception (copied from OP's edit):

while (!isCancelled()) {
    counter %= arrNames.length;
    // System.out.format("Counter : %d%n", counter);
    publish(arrNames[counter]);
    try {
        Thread.sleep(30); // throws
    } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
        ie.printStackTrace();
    }
    counter++;
}

The reason, though, is the code that cancels the worker (in the actionListener):

backgroundTask.cancel(true);

which explicitly tells the worker to cancel by .. interrupting the thread. From its api doc:

mayInterruptIfRunning - true if the thread executing this task should be interrupted; otherwise, in-progress tasks are allowed to complete

As an aside: catching the exception and doing nothing (thereby effectively ignoring the interrupt) is not the best of ideas. Probably not too damaging in this case - due to checking the cancelled status. Typical worker implementations either catch and return, after doing some internal cleanup if needed, or don't handle it at all.

Answer 2

Amplifying on the other answers, don't update the GUI from your background thread, which blocks the EDT, and don't try to avoid the problem with invokeLater(). Instead, publish() the desired result and update both statusLabel and tArea in process(), as suggested below. For testing, Thread.sleep(100) simulates a small latency, but you can use Thread.yield(), as shown here. You can also update the GUI in a PropertyChangeListener, as shown here.

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class SwingWorkerExample1 {

    private JLabel statusLabel;
    private JTextArea tArea;
    private JButton startButton;
    private JButton stopButton;
    private BackgroundTask backgroundTask;
    private ActionListener buttonActions = new ActionListener() {
        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
            JButton source = (JButton) ae.getSource();
            if (source == startButton) {
                startButton.setEnabled(false);
                stopButton.setEnabled(true);
                backgroundTask = new BackgroundTask();
                backgroundTask.execute();
            } else if (source == stopButton) {
                backgroundTask.cancel(true);
                stopButton.setEnabled(false);
                startButton.setEnabled(true);
            }
        }
    };

    private void displayGUI() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Swing Worker Example");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);

        JPanel contentPane = new JPanel();
        contentPane.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
        contentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout(5, 5));

        statusLabel = new JLabel("Status Bar", JLabel.CENTER);

        tArea = new JTextArea(20, 20);
        tArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        tArea.setLineWrap(true);
        JScrollPane textScroller = new JScrollPane();
        textScroller.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Textual OUTPUT : "));
        textScroller.setViewportView(tArea);

        startButton = new JButton("Start");
        startButton.addActionListener(buttonActions);
        stopButton = new JButton("Stop");
        stopButton.setEnabled(false);
        stopButton.addActionListener(buttonActions);
        JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
        buttonPanel.add(startButton);
        buttonPanel.add(stopButton);

        contentPane.add(statusLabel, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
        contentPane.add(textScroller, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        contentPane.add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);

        frame.setContentPane(contentPane);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    private class BackgroundTask extends SwingWorker<Void, String> {

        private int counter = 0;
        private String[] arrNames = {"US Rates Strategy Cash",
            "Pavan Wadhwa(1-212) 844-4597", "Srini Ramaswamy(1-212) 844-4983",
            "Meera Chandan(1-212) 855-4555", "Kimberly Harano(1-212) 823-4996",
            "Feng Deng(1-212) 855-2555", "US Rates Strategy Derivatives",
            "Srini Ramaswamy(1-212) 811-4999",
            "Alberto Iglesias(1-212) 898-5442",
            "Praveen Korapaty(1-212) 812-3444", "Feng Deng(1-212) 812-2456",
            "US Rates Strategy Derivatives", "Srini Ramaswamy(1-212) 822-4999",
            "Alberto Iglesias(1-212) 822-5098",
            "Praveen Korapaty(1-212) 812-3655", "Feng Deng(1-212) 899-2222"};

        public BackgroundTask() {
            statusLabel.setText((this.getState()).toString());
        }

        @Override
        protected Void doInBackground() {
            while (!isCancelled()) {
                counter %= arrNames.length;
                publish(arrNames[counter]);
                counter++;
                try {
                    Thread.sleep(100); // simulate latency
                } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                    publish("Cancelled: " + isCancelled());
                }
            }
            return null;
        }

        @Override
        protected void process(java.util.List<String> messages) {
            statusLabel.setText((this.getState()).toString());
            for (String message : messages) {
                tArea.append(String.format(message + "%n"));
            }
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Runnable runnable = new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new SwingWorkerExample1().displayGUI();
            }
        };
        EventQueue.invokeLater(runnable);
    }
}