Non-modal help dialog blocked by modal dialogs

[Patrick Lim]

Here is the problem:

I have written a non-modal frame class in Java for displaying help
text when a user is using an application. It works as desired in that
if the user selects "help" again, the same frame is used -- this is
done using a singleton. The user can do other stuff in the main
window while the help window is up.

However, when I have a modal dialog pop-up to get information from the
user, it blocks events to the help window and continues that way until
the modal dialog goes away. You can't even scroll the help window or
tell it to go away. What I would like is for the user to still be
able to use the help window, scroll it, whatever, and not have it
blocked by the modal dialog. But I still want the rest of the
application to be blocked until the modal dialog is done.

Example: A user is using a GUI to edit some data. He brings up the
help window to see what format the data should be in. The help window
being up doesn't block anything. He then clicks a button to edit
"item 1", and that data is shown in a modal dialog box for editing.
He should not be able to do anything in the main app (like select a
different item for editing or click other buttons) until he tells the
edit dialog to go away. But he should still be able to work with the
help window (scroll it, etc).

I can't be the first person to want to have this kind of
functionality, but I haven't been able to find how others have solved
this problem. (Note: I am using JDK 1.3.0.)

Thanks for any help you can offer.
Patrick Lim

[nos]

"Patrick Lim" <li*****@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:57**************************@posting.google.c om...

Here is the problem:

I have written a non-modal frame class in Java for displaying help
text when a user is using an application. It works as desired in that
if the user selects "help" again, the same frame is used -- this is
done using a singleton. The user can do other stuff in the main
window while the help window is up.

However, when I have a modal dialog pop-up to get information from the
user, it blocks events to the help window and continues that way until
the modal dialog goes away. You can't even scroll the help window or
tell it to go away. What I would like is for the user to still be
able to use the help window, scroll it, whatever, and not have it
blocked by the modal dialog. But I still want the rest of the
application to be blocked until the modal dialog is done.

Example: A user is using a GUI to edit some data. He brings up the
help window to see what format the data should be in. The help window
being up doesn't block anything. He then clicks a button to edit
"item 1", and that data is shown in a modal dialog box for editing.
He should not be able to do anything in the main app (like select a
different item for editing or click other buttons) until he tells the
edit dialog to go away. But he should still be able to work with the
help window (scroll it, etc).

I can't be the first person to want to have this kind of
functionality, but I haven't been able to find how others have solved
this problem. (Note: I am using JDK 1.3.0.)

Thanks for any help you can offer.
Patrick Lim

Modal is supposed to prevent other stuff until you dismiss it.

[S Manohar]

This seems to do the trick

http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp...essage=2270741