Updating UI from different threads in JavaFX

Not sure if I completely understand, but I think this may help.

Using Platform.runLater(...) is an appropriate approach for this.

The trick to avoiding flooding the FX Application Thread is to use an Atomic variable to store the value you're interested in. In the Platform.runLater method, retrieve it and set it to a sentinel value. From your background thread, update the Atomic variable, but only issue a new Platform.runLater if it's been set back to its sentinel value.

I figured this out by looking at the source code for Task. Have a look at how the updateMessage method (line 1131 at the time of writing) is implemented.

Here's an example which uses the same technique. This just has a (busy) background thread which counts as fast as it can, updating an IntegerProperty. An observer watches that property and updates an AtomicInteger with the new value. If the current value of the AtomicInteger is -1, it schedules a Platform.runLater.

In the Platform.runLater, I retrieve the value of the AtomicInteger and use it to update a Label, setting the value back to -1 in the process. This signals that I am ready for another UI update.

import java.text.NumberFormat;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.application.Platform;
import javafx.beans.property.IntegerProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleIntegerProperty;
import javafx.beans.value.ChangeListener;
import javafx.beans.value.ObservableValue;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.layout.AnchorPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class ConcurrentModel extends Application {

  @Override
  public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
    
    final AtomicInteger count = new AtomicInteger(-1);
    
    final AnchorPane root = new AnchorPane();
    final Label label = new Label();
    final Model model = new Model();
    final NumberFormat formatter = NumberFormat.getIntegerInstance();
    formatter.setGroupingUsed(true);
    model.intProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<Number>() {
      @Override
      public void changed(final ObservableValue<? extends Number> observable,
          final Number oldValue, final Number newValue) {
        if (count.getAndSet(newValue.intValue()) == -1) {
          Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
              long value = count.getAndSet(-1);
              label.setText(formatter.format(value));
            }
          });          
        }

      }
    });
    final Button startButton = new Button("Start");
    startButton.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
      @Override
      public void handle(ActionEvent event) {
        model.start();
      }
    });

    AnchorPane.setTopAnchor(label, 10.0);
    AnchorPane.setLeftAnchor(label, 10.0);
    AnchorPane.setBottomAnchor(startButton, 10.0);
    AnchorPane.setLeftAnchor(startButton, 10.0);
    root.getChildren().addAll(label, startButton);

    Scene scene = new Scene(root, 100, 100);
    primaryStage.setScene(scene);
    primaryStage.show();
  }

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

  public class Model extends Thread {
    private IntegerProperty intProperty;

    public Model() {
      intProperty = new SimpleIntegerProperty(this, "int", 0);
      setDaemon(true);
    }

    public int getInt() {
      return intProperty.get();
    }

    public IntegerProperty intProperty() {
      return intProperty;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
      while (true) {
        intProperty.set(intProperty.get() + 1);
      }
    }
  }
}

If you really want to "drive" the back end from the UI: that is throttle the speed of the backend implementation so you see all updates, consider using an AnimationTimer. An AnimationTimer has a handle(...) which is called once per frame render. So you could block the back-end implementation (for example by using a blocking queue) and release it once per invocation of the handle method. The handle(...) method is invoked on the FX Application Thread.

The handle(...) method takes a parameter which is a timestamp (in nanoseconds), so you can use that to slow the updates further, if once per frame is too fast.

For example:

import java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;

import javafx.animation.AnimationTimer;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.property.LongProperty;
import javafx.beans.property.SimpleLongProperty;
import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.geometry.Pos;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.control.TextArea;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;


public class Main extends Application {
    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
        
        final BlockingQueue<String> messageQueue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<>(1);
        
        TextArea console = new TextArea();
        
        Button startButton = new Button("Start");
        startButton.setOnAction(event -> {
            MessageProducer producer = new MessageProducer(messageQueue);
            Thread t = new Thread(producer);
            t.setDaemon(true);
            t.start();
        });
        
        final LongProperty lastUpdate = new SimpleLongProperty();
        
        final long minUpdateInterval = 0 ; // nanoseconds. Set to higher number to slow output.
        
        AnimationTimer timer = new AnimationTimer() {

            @Override
            public void handle(long now) {
                if (now - lastUpdate.get() > minUpdateInterval) {
                    final String message = messageQueue.poll();
                    if (message != null) {
                        console.appendText("\n" + message);
                    }
                    lastUpdate.set(now);
                }
            }
            
        };
        
        timer.start();
        
        HBox controls = new HBox(5, startButton);
        controls.setPadding(new Insets(10));
        controls.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER);
        
        BorderPane root = new BorderPane(console, null, null, controls, null);
        Scene scene = new Scene(root,600,400);
        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.show();
    }
    
    private static class MessageProducer implements Runnable {
        private final BlockingQueue<String> messageQueue ;
        
        public MessageProducer(BlockingQueue<String> messageQueue) {
            this.messageQueue = messageQueue ;
        }
        
        @Override
        public void run() {
            long messageCount = 0 ;
            try {
                while (true) {
                    final String message = "Message " + (++messageCount);
                    messageQueue.put(message);
                }
            } catch (InterruptedException exc) {
                System.out.println("Message producer interrupted: exiting.");
            }
        }
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }
}

The best way to performing this is by usage of Task in JavaFx. This is be by far the best technique I've come across to update UI Controls in JavaFx.

Task task = new Task<Void>() {
    @Override public Void run() {
        static final int max = 1000000;
        for (int i=1; i<=max; i++) {
            updateProgress(i, max);
        }
        return null;
    }
};
ProgressBar bar = new ProgressBar();
bar.progressProperty().bind(task.progressProperty());
new Thread(task).start();