How to make GUI wait for user input?

Question

I'm a rather basic programmer who has been assigned to make a GUI program without any prior experience with creating a GUI. Using NetBeans, I managed to design what I feel the GUI should look like, and what some of the buttons should do when pressed, but the main program doesn't wait for the user's input before continuing. My question is, how do I make this program wait for input?

    public class UnoMain {

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        UnoGUI form = new UnoGUI(); // GUI class instance
        // NetBeans allowed me to design some dialog boxes alongside the main JFrame, so
        form.gameSetupDialog.setVisible(true); // This is how I'm trying to use a dialog box

        /* Right around here is the first part of the problem.
         * I don't know how to make the program wait for the dialog to complete.
         * It should wait for a submission by a button named playerCountButton.
         * After the dialog is complete it's supposed to hide too but it doesn't do that either. */

        Uno Game = new Uno(form.Players); // Game instance is started
        form.setVisible(true); // Main GUI made visible
        boolean beingPlayed = true; // Variable dictating if player still wishes to play.
        form.playerCountLabel.setText("Players: " + Game.Players.size()); // A GUI label reflects the number of players input by the user in the dialog box.

        while (beingPlayed) {
            if (!Game.getCompleted()) // While the game runs, two general functions are repeatedly called.
            {

                Player activePlayer = Game.Players.get(Game.getWhoseTurn());
                // There are CPU players, which do their thing automatically...
                Game.Turn(activePlayer);
                // And human players which require input before continuing.

                /* Second part of the problem:
                 * if activePlayer's strategy == manual/human
                 *   wait for GUI input from either a button named 
                 *   playButton or a button named passButton */

                Game.advanceTurn();
                // GUI updating code //

            }
        }
    }
}

I've spent about three days trying to figure out how to integrate my code and GUI, so I would be grateful if someone could show me how to make this one thing work. If you need any other information to help me, please ask.

EDIT: Basically, the professor assigned us to make a game of Uno with a GUI. There can be computer and human players, the numbers of which are determined by the user at the beginning of the game. I coded the entire thing console-based at first to get the core of the game to work, and have since tried to design a GUI; currently this GUI only displays information about the game while it's running, but I'm not sure how to allow the code to wait for and receive input from the GUI without the program charging on ahead. I've investigated other StackOverflow questions like this, this, this, or this, but I cannot comprehend how to apply the answers to my own code. If possible, I'd like an answer similar to the answers in the links (an answer with code I can examine and/or use). I apologize if I sound demanding or uneducated and confusing; I've been working diligently on this project for a couple weeks and it's now due tomorrow, and I've been stressing because I can't advance until I figure this out.

TL;DR - How do I get my main program to wait and listen for a button click event? Should I use modal dialog boxes, or is there some other way to do it? In either case, what code needs to be changed to do it?

Answer 1

Unlike console based programming, that typically has a well defined execution path, GUI apps operate within a event driven environment. Events come in from the outside and you react to them. There are many types of events that might occur, but typically, we're interested in those generate by the user, via mouse clicks and keyboard input.

This changes the way an GUI application works.

For example, you will need to get rid of your while loop, as this is a very dangerous thing to do in a GUI environment, as it will typically "freeze" the application, making it look like your application has hung (in essence it has).

Instead, you would provide a serious of listeners on your UI controls that respond to user input and update some kind of model, that may effect other controls on your UI.

So, to try and answer your question, you kind of don't (wait for user input), the application already is, but you capture that input via listeners and act upon them as required.