# Preventing multiple clicks with a button

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/preventing-multiple-clicks-with-a-button/8592>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [June 19, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/preventing-multiple-clicks-with-a-button/8592 "2014-06-19T14:55:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![drewdin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/drewdin/32/3363_2.png) [@drewdin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/drewdin)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/preventing-multiple-clicks-with-a-button/8592/1 "2014-06-19T14:55:58Z")

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I have a button with some scripts behind it, it takes about 3 seconds to complete. During the script execution the screen renders useless but i found that if I click the button 2 times during the script execution, it will execute those 2 times.

I want to prevent the button from being clicked multiple times to prevent it from running a bunch of times. I planned on using a tag and enable/disable the button based on the script.

Does anyone have any other suggestions or recommendations? Thanks

Andrew

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**Author:** ![JGJohnson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jgjohnson/32/29582_2.png) [@JGJohnson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JGJohnson)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/preventing-multiple-clicks-with-a-button/8592/2 "2014-06-19T15:36:13Z")

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I recommend making the script run asynchronously because if the script is freezing the UI thread then you might have problems with disabling/enabling the button.

If you put the script in an asynchronous function call then you can disable the button before running the script and re-enable the button when the script is done running. It’s a confusing pattern when you first look at it but it is extremely useful for database interaction and heavy duty scripting.

Psuedo code: (With [numbers] added to show the order in which things happen)

```auto

# Disable button until script is done running
[1] myButton = event.source 
[2] myButton.enabled = False
[3] myVariable = "About to start a long running script."

# Run the script in function called asynchronously so UI will still be responsive
# Also pass in any data that your script will need
# The script in these functions will not execute until called below by invokeAsynchronous
[5] def runTheScript(event=event, myVariable=myVariable):
    [6]import system
    # Run the script here
    # Don't do anything UI related here. If you need values from components
    # get them before calling this function and pass the values into the function
    # variables available within the scope of this function are also available
    # to the updateUI() function
     [7]myVariable = "%s And now the script has been run." % myVariable
    
    # Function to call after script is finished, defined within the runTheScript() function 
    [9] def updateUI():
          # myButton was not passsed in so redefine it here
          # event was passed in so it is accessible
          [10] myButton = event.source
          [11] myButton.enabled = True
          # If script produced results to be displayed then update the UI here
          [12] event.source.parent.getComponent("myTextBox").text = myVariable

     # After script has run call the updateUI function
     [8] system.util.invokeLater(updateUI)

# Start the whole thing with invokeAsynchronous
[4] system.util.invokeAsynchronous(runTheScript)
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![drewdin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/drewdin/32/3363_2.png) [@drewdin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/drewdin)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/preventing-multiple-clicks-with-a-button/8592/3 "2014-06-19T17:34:49Z")

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Thanks, I am actually trying out the invokeLater function, it was recommended for interacting with the GUI.

I’ll let you know what i decide on, thanks.

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**Author:** ![hewking32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@hewking32](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/hewking32)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/preventing-multiple-clicks-with-a-button/8592/4 "2022-02-15T17:20:53Z")

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8 years have passed 🙂  
which way did you go?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![drewdin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/drewdin/32/3363_2.png) [@drewdin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/drewdin)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 7:01pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/preventing-multiple-clicks-with-a-button/8592/5 "2022-03-02T19:01:18Z")

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I used invokeLater and it works great