java - How to wait for a transition to end in javafx 2.1?

Question

My scene consists only of an ImageView, displaying an image. I would like to fade the image to black (assigned color of the scene), then after some time, fade from black to the image again. I found the FadeTransition very fitting for this purpose. This is a piece of my code:

    // fade to black transition
    FadeTransition ft1 = new FadeTransition(Duration.millis(2000), myImageView);
    ft1.setFromValue(1.0);
    ft1.setToValue(0.0);
    ft1.play();

    // fade from black transition
    FadeTransition ft2 = new FadeTransition(Duration.millis(2000), myImageView);
    ft2.setFromValue(0.0);
    ft2.setToValue(1.0);
    ft2.play();

My problem is that ft1.play() is asynchronous, so the code below will start being executed before ft1.play() is exited. As the result I see only the second transition. How can I wait for the first transition to end and then to launch the second transition? I cannot put the thread to sleep in between because it's the main javafx thread (tried and didn't work).

I tried using the onFinishedProperty() method with the combination of a busy-waiting on a flag, but I get stuck in the while loop forever. Here is my code for that:

    boolean isTransitionPlaying;
    FadeTransition ft = new FadeTransition(Duration.millis(2000), iv);
    ft.setFromValue(1.0);
    ft.setToValue(0.0);
    ft.onFinishedProperty().set(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
        @Override 
        public void handle(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
            transitionPlaying = false;
        }
    });
    transitionPlaying = true;
    ft.play();

    while (transitionPlaying == true)
    {
        // busy wait
        System.out.println("still waiting...");
    }

    FadeTransition ft2 = new FadeTransition(Duration.millis(2000), iv);
    ft2.setFromValue(0.0);
    ft2.setToValue(1.0);
    ft2.play();

How is waiting done properly? Thank you

Answer 1

Ok if your ft2 is the reflective animation of ft1 then do

ft1.setAutoReverse(true);
ft1.setCycleCount(1);
// Or
// ft1.setCycleCount(Timeline.INDEFINITE);
// to loop infinitely (blinking effect) until stop()

and you don't ft2. If you still need ft2 to play after ft1 then

ft1.setOnFinished(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {

    @Override
    public void handle(ActionEvent event) {
        ft2.play();
    }
});