How to stop JOptionPane from disabling root frame

Question

How do I show a JOptionPane without disabling any currently open frames?

I have a JFrame with a Start and Stop button. At any point, I want the user to be able to press the 'Stop' button on the main frame, to stop a secondary Thread (which was started by the Start button).

However the second running Thread sometimes opens a JOptionPane. When it does so, the main frame is disabled, and the user can't press the stop button.

(And when it opens multiple of these JOptionPanes in a row, it becomes immensely frustrating trying to stop it).

I've tried

JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "It's Broken Mate");

With no success. I also tried passing it a JFrame to disable:

JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(new JFrame(), "Still No Go");

That failed too. I even tried

JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setVisible(true);
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(frame, "CMON Please");

And even furthermore,

JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setVisible(true);
JOptionPane.setRootFrame(frame);
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(frame, "I'm getting angry now.");

And STILL. Nothing. Does not work. It opens up a message box, and everything is disabled. I have to dismiss the JOptionPane before anything becomes enabled again...

Any ideas?

Cheers

Answer 1

JOptionPanes are modal, so you can't do this directly.

All dialogs are modal. Each showXxxDialog method blocks the caller until the user's interaction is complete.

You'll have to use a JDialog or similar.

    JOptionPane p = new JOptionPane("I'm getting happy now.");
    JDialog k = p.createDialog(":-)");
    k.setModal(false); // Makes the dialog not modal
    k.setVisible(true);