Java Thread stop notifier

Question

My task here is to perform unzip operation using multiple threads. I did it with following structure Way.

// A class for Unzipping files
public class UnzipClass extends Thread(){
    private String zipfile;
    private Thread t;
    public UnzipClass(String zipFile){
       this.zipFile = zipFile;
    }

    public String getZipFile() {
       return zipFile;
    }

    public void setZipFile(String zipFile) {
       this.zipFile = zipFile;
    }

    public void run() {
    try {
        unzipFolder(this.getZipFile());
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(Unzipper.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }
}
public void start(String filename){
    if (t == null){
        t = new Thread(this,filename);
        t.start();
    }
}
public unzipFolder(String zipFile) throws ZipException, IOException   
    // Here is the Unzip Method 
 }

}

// Now I am calling this class from another class
public static void main(){
   Thread t1 = new UnzipClass("filename1");  
   t1.start();
    if(!(t1.isAlive())){
      logEvent("Unzip Complete");
    } 

  // Similarly I have Thread t2 with another file name 

 }

The above code works perfect and unzips the files but I have following problems.

1. I wanted to use implements Runnable , but I cannot use it because I did not find a way to pass variable(Filename) to another class which implements Runnable and do it. Literally: How to implement Runnable instead of extends Thread`

2. Using above method, How can I detect if the unzip process has been completed. To be specific how to stop the thread when the file unzip process is completed`.

Any sort of hint or solution would be really great.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

1.change

public class UnzipClass extends Thread

into

public class UnzipClass implements Runnable 

and use

Runnable t1 = new UnzipClass("filename1");

to create the thread.

2. use a while loop here

while((t1.isAlive())){
  logEvent("Unziping...");
} 

logEvent("Unzip Complete");

but using a flag like boolean isComplete in the UnzipClass will me more effective. like

in class UnzipClass add

private boolean complete=false;

then,

public void run() {
try {
    unzipFolder(this.getZipFile());
    complete=true;
} catch (IOException ex) {
    Logger.getLogger(Unzipper.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}

//simple getter.
public boolean isComplete()
{
    return this.complete;
}

in main...

while(!t1.isComplete()){
  logEvent("Unziping...");
} 

logEvent("Unzip Complete");