How to make a JFrame Modal in Swing java

Question

I have created one GUI in which I have used a JFrame. How should I make it Modal?

Eudemonism

See also The Use of Multiple JFrames, Good/Bad Practice? – Metrology

Answer 1

Your best bet is to use a JDialog instead of a JFrame if you want to make the window modal. Check out details on the introduction of the Modality API in Java 6 for info. There is also a tutorial.

Here is some sample code which will display a JPanel panel in a JDialog which is modal to Frame parentFrame. Except for the constructor, this follows the same pattern as opening a JFrame.

final JDialog frame = new JDialog(parentFrame, frameTitle, true);
frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);

Edit: updated Modality API link & added tutorial link (nod to @spork for the bump).

Matthus

Afraid that appears to be the only solution. I'm fighting this same problem with some inherited code. I've got a JFrame that I really need to be modal. Doing the work to convert it all to JDialog is really going to be ugly... :-( – Clermontferrand

Can you hack it through? Create an invisible, modal JDialog, make it instantiate the JFrame, and, when the JFrame is closed, capture the values if necessary, and close the JDialog – Genevagenevan

The link is broken :( still people trying to learn from this 3 years on! Try this in 2013: docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/misc/modality.html – Abbasid

updated link to original article & added sporks tutorial link - thanks. – Matthus

I didn't find changing over to JDialog ugly at all. This was an easy change. – Esther

Answer 2

You can create a class that is passed a reference to the parent JFrame and holds it in a JFrame variable. Then you can lock the frame that created your new frame.

parentFrame.disable();

//Some actions

parentFrame.enable();

Thorndike

nice, made me think on a loop to "suspend" (sleep) the application while the frame isVisible(), thx! – Mopey

Kamil, Imgonzalves, can you clarify for me? Are you saying the new class should be created in the JDialog, JFrame or whatever that creates the OP's subject JFrame? – Maize

Answer 3

just replace JFrame to JDialog in class

public class MyDialog extends JFrame // delete JFrame and write JDialog

and then write setModal(true); in constructor

After that you will be able to construct your Form in netbeans and the form becomes modal

Margarethe

Was not aware of setModal(true);.. this is great – Alignment

need to tell that this not working under netbeans because his form editor sets the close operation on closing dialogue wich is not allowed in jdialog – Mousetrap

Answer 4

1. Create a new JPanel form
2. Add your desired components and code to it

---

YourJPanelForm stuff = new YourJPanelForm();
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,stuff,"Your title here bro",JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE);

Your modal dialog awaits...

Floyd

Ou, but there is an OK button, which I don't want. – Enameling

Wait what? You can just add the JPanel to the JDialog like that? – Fanchon

this has nothing to do with a jFrame – Triumphant

Answer 5

As far as I know, JFrame cannot do Modal mode. Use JDialog instead and call setModalityType(Dialog.ModalityType type) to set it to be modal (or not modal).

Engdahl

Answer 6

This static utility method shows a modal JFrame by secretly opening a modal JDialog, too. I used this successfully and with proper behavior on Windows 7, 8, and 10-with-multiple-desktops.

It's a nice example for the very rarely used feature of local classes.

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.Dialog;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;

// ... (class declaration)

/**
 * Shows an already existing JFrame as if it were a modal JDialog. JFrames have the upside that they can be
 * maximized.
 * <p>
 * A hidden modal JDialog is "shown" to effect the modality.
 * <p>
 * When the JFrame is closed, this method's listener will pick up on that, close the modal JDialog, and remove the
 * listener.
 *
 * made by dreamspace-president.com
 *
 * @param window the JFrame to be shown
 * @param owner  the owner window (can be null)
 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if argument "window" is null
 */
public static void showModalJFrame(final JFrame window, final Frame owner) {

    if (window == null) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException();
    }
    window.setModalExclusionType(Dialog.ModalExclusionType.APPLICATION_EXCLUDE);
    window.setVisible(true);
    window.setAlwaysOnTop(true);

    final JDialog hiddenDialogForModality = new JDialog(owner, true);
    final class MyWindowCloseListener extends WindowAdapter {
        @Override
        public void windowClosed(final WindowEvent e) {
            window.dispose();
            hiddenDialogForModality.dispose();
        }
    }

    final MyWindowCloseListener myWindowCloseListener = new MyWindowCloseListener();
    window.addWindowListener(myWindowCloseListener);

    final Dimension smallSize = new Dimension(80, 80);
    hiddenDialogForModality.setMinimumSize(smallSize);
    hiddenDialogForModality.setSize(smallSize);
    hiddenDialogForModality.setMaximumSize(smallSize);
    hiddenDialogForModality.setLocation(-smallSize.width * 2, -smallSize.height * 2);
    hiddenDialogForModality.setVisible(true);
    window.removeWindowListener(myWindowCloseListener);
}

Prem

Thank you! It's an interesting trick. I posted a similar question and came here on a commenter's advice – Convenient

Answer 7

If you're prepared to use a JDialog instead of a JFrame, you can set the ModalityType to APPLICATION_MODAL.

This provides identical behaviour to your typical JOptionPane:

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

public class MyDialog extends JFrame {

public MyDialog() {
    setBounds(300, 300, 300, 300);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    setVisible(true);
    setLayout(new FlowLayout());
    JButton btn = new JButton("TEST");
    add(btn);
    btn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() 
    {

        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            showDialog();
        }
    });
}

private void showDialog() 
{

    JDialog dialog = new JDialog(this, Dialog.ModalityType.APPLICATION_MODAL);
    //OR, you can do the following...
    //JDialog dialog = new JDialog();
    //dialog.setModalityType(Dialog.ModalityType.APPLICATION_MODAL);

    dialog.setBounds(350, 350, 200, 200);
    dialog.setVisible(true);
}

public static void main(String[] args) 
{
    new MyDialog();
}
}

Haldis

Answer 8

The only code that have worked for me:

childFrame.setAlwaysOnTop(true);

This code should be called on the main/parent frame before making the child/modal frame visible. Your child/modal frame should also have this code:

parentFrame.setFocusableWindowState(false);
this.mainFrame.setEnabled(false);

Chiffchaff

Answer 9

"Simply" way to show any framea in dialog mode

public static void showFrameAsDialog(Component parentComponent, JFrame frame)
{
    try
    {
        JOptionPane pane = new JOptionPane(frame.getContentPane(), JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE,
                JOptionPane.NO_OPTION, null,
                new Object[]
                {
                }, null);

        pane.setComponentOrientation(((parentComponent == null)
                ? getRootFrame() : parentComponent).getComponentOrientation());

        int style = JRootPane.PLAIN_DIALOG;

        Method method = pane.getClass().getDeclaredMethod("createDialog", Component.class, String.class, int.class);
        method.setAccessible(true);
        Object objDialog = method.invoke(pane, parentComponent, frame.getTitle(), style);

        JDialog dialog = (JDialog) objDialog;
        if (frame.getWidth() > dialog.getWidth() || frame.getHeight() > dialog.getHeight())
        {
            dialog.setSize(frame.getWidth(), frame.getHeight());
            dialog.setLocationRelativeTo(parentComponent);
        }

        frame.addWindowListener(new java.awt.event.WindowAdapter()
        {
            @Override
            public void windowClosed(java.awt.event.WindowEvent windowEvent)
            {
                dialog.dispose();
            }
        });

        dialog.show();
        dialog.dispose();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Antepenult

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Electret

WTF?! but it work – Sumner

Answer 10

What I've done in this case is, in the primary jframe that I want to keep visible (for example, a menu frame), I deselect the option focusableWindowState in the property window so It will be FALSE. Once that is done, the jframes I call don´t lose focus until I close them.

Ned

Answer 11

As others mentioned, you could use JDialog. If you don't have access to the parent frame or you want to freeze the hole application just pass null as a parent:

final JDialog frame = new JDialog((JFrame)null, frameTitle, true); frame.setModal(true);
frame.getContentPane().add(panel);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);

Vicky

Answer 12

There's a bit of code that might help:

import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter;
import java.awt.event.WindowEvent;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JMenu;
import javax.swing.JMenuBar;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;

public class ModalJFrame extends JFrame {

    Object currentWindow = this;

    public ModalJFrame() 
    {
        super();
        super.setTitle("Main JFrame");
        super.setSize(500, 500);
        super.setResizable(true);
        super.setLocationRelativeTo(null);

        JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
        super.setJMenuBar(menuBar);

        JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
        JMenu editMenu = new JMenu("Edit");

        menuBar.add(fileMenu);
        menuBar.add(editMenu);

        JMenuItem newAction = new JMenuItem("New");
        JMenuItem openAction = new JMenuItem("Open");
        JMenuItem exitAction = new JMenuItem("Exit");
        JMenuItem cutAction = new JMenuItem("Cut");
        JMenuItem copyAction = new JMenuItem("Copy");
        JMenuItem pasteAction= new JMenuItem("Paste");

        fileMenu.add(newAction);
        fileMenu.add(openAction);
        fileMenu.addSeparator();
        fileMenu.add(exitAction);

        editMenu.add(cutAction);
        editMenu.add(copyAction);
        editMenu.addSeparator();
        editMenu.add(pasteAction);

        newAction.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
        {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0)
            {

                JFrame popupJFrame = new JFrame();

                popupJFrame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter()
                {
                      public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) 
                      {
                          ((Component) currentWindow).setEnabled(true);                     }
                      });

                ((Component) currentWindow).setEnabled(false);
                popupJFrame.setTitle("Pop up JFrame");
                popupJFrame.setSize(400, 500);
                popupJFrame.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
                popupJFrame.setResizable(false);
                popupJFrame.setLocationRelativeTo(getRootPane());
                popupJFrame.setVisible(true);
                popupJFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.HIDE_ON_CLOSE);
            }
        });

        exitAction.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
        {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0)
            {
                System.exit(0);
            }
        });
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        ModalJFrame myWindow = new ModalJFrame();
        myWindow.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        myWindow.setVisible(true);
    }
}

Bucovina

Answer 13

not sure the contetns of your JFrame, if you ask some input from users, you can use JOptionPane, this also can set JFrame as modal

            JFrame frame = new JFrame();
            String bigList[] = new String[30];

            for (int i = 0; i < bigList.length; i++) {
              bigList[i] = Integer.toString(i);
            }

            JOptionPane.showInputDialog(
                    frame, 
                    "Select a item", 
                    "The List", 
                    JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE,
                    null,
                    bigList,
                    "none");
            }

Clothespress

Answer 14

The most simple way is to use pack() method before visualizing the JFrame object. here is an example:

myFrame frm = new myFrame();
frm.pack();
frm.setVisible(true);

Aphis

how is this even related? – Lindgren