I'm having a problem with this approach. When I construct a JOptionPane,
I don't know how to specify the parent frame correctly. In the example
below, on WinXP, if you open the MyApp5 Customer dialog, then open
another app over the top, then click MyApp5 in the tray at the bottom to
bring it to front, you don't see the modal dialog because I havent set
its parent correctly. How do I specify the parent?

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import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

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

public class MyApp5 extends JFrame implements ActionListener {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 3258412832977860659L;

    public MyApp5() {
        JMenu editMenu = new JMenu("Edit");
        editMenu.add(makeMenuItem("Suppliers"));
        editMenu.add(makeMenuItem("Customers"));
        JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
        menuBar.add(editMenu);
        setJMenuBar(menuBar);
    }

    JMenuItem makeMenuItem(String itemName) {
        JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem(itemName);
        item.addActionListener(this);
        return item;
    }

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        String command = e.getActionCommand();
        if (command == "Customers") {
            MyApp5CustomerPane custPane = new MyApp5CustomerPane();
        }
        if (command == "Suppliers") {
            //
        }
        // Lots more like this
    }

    private static void createAndShowGUI() {
        JFrame frame = new MyApp5();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        int width = 600;
        int height = 400;
        Dimension screen = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
        int x = (screen.width - width) / 2;
        int y = (screen.height - height) / 2;
        frame.setBounds(x, y, width, height);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGUI();
            }
        });
    }
} // class MyApp5
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import javax.swing.JDialog;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTable;

public class MyApp5CustomerPane extends JOptionPane {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 3257571685141197368L;

    private String[] columnNames = { "Name", "City" };

    private Object[][] data = { { "British", "London" },
            { "Continental", "Houston" }, { "SouthWest", "Dallas" },
            { "United", "Chicago" }, { "Virgin", "London" } };

    public MyApp5CustomerPane() {

        JTable table = new JTable(data, columnNames);
        JScrollPane scroller = new JScrollPane(table);
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.add(scroller);
        setMessage(panel);

        setMessageType(JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE);
        setOptionType(JOptionPane.OK_CANCEL_OPTION);

        JDialog dialog = createDialog(new JFrame(), "Customers");
                                     // ^^^^^^^^ problem!
        dialog.setResizable(true);
        dialog.setVisible(true);
    }
}
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