Question

I need to have a parallel function running all the time in my program.
I don’t know if I am thinking correct, but what I want to do is to have a piece of code updating my TextArea all the time, getting information from a server.

I am using RMI, just you to know.

Can I create a thread function, within MainClass, and let it run all the time?

Or how can I create a thread to update my TextArea in another class? How do I share my TextArea?

Answer 1

Not sure if I am understanding, I will assume TextArea means a JTextArea and MainClass is the application’s entry point.

What prevents you from doing it like this?

public class Updater implements Runnable {
    private JTextArea textArea;

    public Updater(JTextArea textArea){
        this.textArea = textArea;
    }

    @Override
    public void run(){
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
            public void run(){
                            //do what you've got to do....
                textArea.setText("New Text");
            }
        });
    }

}

And in your “MainClass” something like this:

public static void main(String[] args) {

    Thread myThread = new Thread(new Updater(myTextArea));
    myThread.start();

}