JavaFX thread synchronization with Java thread

Question

Is there a way to synchronize a JavaFX Platform thread and a standard Java thread? Currently, when triggered, the JavaFX thread fires before the standard Java thread has finished adding all of the images to the observable list, and so the imageList is updated with a blank collection.

private final TilePane imageList;
final File[] files = new File(dir).listFiles();
final List<ImageView> views = FXCollections.observableArrayList();

new Thread() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            for (final File file : files) {
                if (Utils.fileIsImage(file) && !file.isDirectory()) {
                    ImageView view = new ImageView(new Image("file:" + file, 72, 72, false, true));
                    views.add(view);
                }
            }
        }
    }.start();
    Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            imageList.getChildren().addAll(views);
        }
    });

I'm relatively new to JavaFX and concurrency, and don't have any experience with thread locks, so any help would be great. Thanks!

Answer 1

new Thread() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        for (final File file : files) {
            if (Utils.fileIsImage(file) && !file.isDirectory()) {
                ImageView view = new ImageView(new Image("file:" + file, 72, 72, false, true));
                views.add(view);
            }
        }

        Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                imageList.getChildren().addAll(views);
            }
        });
    }
}.start();

Consider adding views one by one as long as they are loaded:

if (Utils.fileIsImage(file) && !file.isDirectory()) {
    ImageView view = new ImageView(new Image("file:" + file, 72, 72, false, true));
    views.add(view);

    Platform.runLater(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            imageList.getChildren().add(view);
        }
    });
}