Java applet: IE Browser hangs after opening a file dialog. Workaround?

Question

This is a registered bug (Bug ID: 6515708) but does anyone have a workaround for it?

Scenario

• javascript calls OpenDialog() method in applet
• applet starts new thread which opens the AWT FileDialog
• on completion, the file name is read and the javascript method OnDialogComplete is called
• At this point the dialog is disposed and (on some browsers only) the browser hangs.

We have a mixture of XP with IE6/7 and Vista with IE7 but unfortunately the bug appears randomly on any of them.

Ideas anyone?

Answer 1

The bug report suggests it only happens when two FileDialogs are open at once. Perhaps you could detect when the Java implementation is affected (pre-1.6.2), and in that case use an inter-applet-communication method such as a static variable on a class, to implement a mutex preventing OpenDialog() from working when there is already a FileDialog in progress?