[news.eclipse.platform.swt] Re: Halting SWT thread but repainting

[Hans <hans______@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hans wrote:
> [This is a follow-up question to a receent question on modal Swing 
> dialogs.]
>
> I am using SWT_AWT to embed a legacy Swing application inside Eclipse.  
> This application opens modal (Swing) dialogs.  The Swing dialogs show up 
> nicely and block the AWT panel correctly.  However, the main Eclipse 
> shell is still editable, i.e. users can select menus and tool bar 
> actions, breaking the modalness of the Swing panel.
>
> Question: How can I block the SWT handling as if there was a modal 
> dialog, so that only the Swing dialog remains editable?  I tried to 
> block the SWT thread, but then also no repainting gets through.

Just for the archive - here is the solution: use Shell.setEnabled(false) 
to block it while the Swing process is running.  This will reject any 
use input but still handle repaint events.

So a pattern such as the following can be employed (from SWT thread, 
assuming there is a boolean field "busy" in the class):


  	SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
   		public void run() {
   			try {
                            // Do the Swing work, e.g. modal dialog
   			}
    			finally {
        	        	busy = false;
    			}
    		}
    	});
				
	shell.setEnabled(false);
	Display display = shell.getDisplay();
	while (!shell.isDisposed() && busy) {
	    if (!display.readAndDispatch()) {
	        display.sleep();
	    }
	}
	shell.setEnabled(true);


Hans