Question

How do you get the SwingWorker that code is currently running in? You can use Thread.currentThread() to get the Thread instance, but I need the SwingWorker instance.

Code from the comments

private static void loadFeaturesForSym(final SeqSymmetry optimized_sym, 
                                       final GenericFeature feature) 
  throws OutOfMemoryError { 
  final CThreadWorker<Boolean, Object> worker = 
     new CThreadWorker<Boolean, Object>("Loading feature " + feature.featureName) { 
         @Override 
         protected Boolean runInBackground() { 
           try { 
             return loadFeaturesForSym(feature, optimized_sym); 
           } catch (Exception ex) { 
             ex.printStackTrace(); 
           } 
           return false; 
         } 
       }; 
       ThreadHandler.getThreadHandler().execute(feature, worker); 
     } 
   }

Answer 1

I recommend you create a model object to which the SwingWorker can listen and send those updates out the publish and process methods. Your other objects should not know about SwingWorker, they should just know about their own progress and publish that out to whoever wants to listen. It’s called decoupling. Here’s one idea for doing it, which uses something that approaches MVC. I have not compiled this code, but it helps explain what I am talking about.

import java.beans.PropertyChangeListener;
import java.beans.PropertyChangeSupport;

public class ProcessStatus {
    public static final String PROGRESS = "Progress";

    private PropertyChangeSupport propertyChangeSupport;

    private int progress = 0;

    public void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener) {
        propertyChangeSupport.addPropertyChangeListener(listener);
    }

    public void removePropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener) {
        propertyChangeSupport.removePropertyChangeListener(listener);
    }

    protected void firePropertyChange(String propertyName, Object oldValue, Object newValue) {
        propertyChangeSupport.firePropertyChange(propertyName, oldValue, newValue);
    }

    public void setProgress(int progress) {
        int oldProgress = progress;
        this.progress = progress;
        firePropertyChange(PROGRESS, oldProgress, progress);
    }

    public int getProgress() {
        return progress;
    }
}

public class SomeWorker extends SwingWorker implements PropertyChangeListener {
    public void doInBackground() {
        ProcessStatus status = new ProcessStatus();
        status.addPropertyChangeListener(this);
        ProcessorThingy processor = new ProcessorThingy(status);
        processor.doStuff();
    }

    public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt) {
        if (evt.getPropertyName().equals(ProcessStatus.PROGRESS)) {
            publish((Integer) evt.getNewValue());
        }
    }
}

public class ProcessorThingy {
    private ProcessStatus status;

    public ProcessorThingy(ProcessStatus status) {
        this.status = status;
    }

    public void doStuff() {
        //stuff part 1
        status.setProgress(10);
        //stuff part 2
        status.setProgress(50);
        //stuff part 3
        status.setProgress(100);
    }
}