1 /*
2 * Copyright 2006-2016 The JGUIraffe Team.
3 *
4 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License")
5 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
6 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
7 *
8 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
9 *
10 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
11 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
12 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
13 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
14 * limitations under the License.
15 */
16 package net.sf.jguiraffe.gui.builder.utils;
17
18 /**
19 * <p>
20 * Definition of an interface that supports updating GUI components from
21 * different threads.
22 * </p>
23 * <p>
24 * Typical Java GUI libraries use a specific thread (e.g. event dispatch thread)
25 * that is alone responsible for updating GUI components. When working with
26 * multiple threads special care has to be taken if GUI components are to be
27 * accessed; it has to be ensured that such operations are only performed on the
28 * event dispatch thread.
29 * </p>
30 * <p>
31 * This interface provides a generic way for such updates. It defines typical
32 * operations that deal with an event dispatch thread: to invoke a code block
33 * synchronously or asynchronously on this thread. Concrete, platform specific
34 * implementations have to use the appropriate means provided by the platform
35 * they encapsulate to ensure that this code gets executed on the event dispatch
36 * thread.
37 * </p>
38 *
39 * @author Oliver Heger
40 * @version $Id: GUISynchronizer.java 205 2012-01-29 18:29:57Z oheger $
41 */
42 public interface GUISynchronizer
43 {
44 /**
45 * Invokes the given runnable object asynchronously on the event dispatch
46 * thread. This method will no block, the code of the runnable will be
47 * executed some time in the future.
48 *
49 * @param runnable the code to be executed on the event dispatch thread
50 */
51 void asyncInvoke(Runnable runnable);
52
53 /**
54 * Invokes the given runnable object synchronously on the event dispatch
55 * thread. The calling thread will block until the runnable's execution is
56 * finished.
57 *
58 * @param runnable the code to be executed on the event dispatch thread
59 * @throws GUIRuntimeException if an error occurs
60 */
61 void syncInvoke(Runnable runnable) throws GUIRuntimeException;
62
63 /**
64 * Returns a flag whether the current thread is the event dispatch thread.
65 *
66 * @return a flag if the current thread is the event dispatch thread
67 */
68 boolean isEventDispatchThread();
69 }