Calling1.4.1 signed applet from Javascript causes keyboard/focus problems

Question

Pretty sure there's a JRE bug here, but I'm posting to forums before I open one in case I'm missing something obvious :-)
This issue may be specific to IE, I haven't tested elsewhere yet. Our web application is centered around a signed applet that is initialized with XML data via Javascript. We first noticed the problem when our users started upgrading from the 1.3.x plug-in to the 1.4.x plug-in. The major symptom was that shortcut keys stopped working. I debugged the problem off and on for about a month before I boiled it down to a very simple program that demonstrates the issue (included below). Basically, the program has a function that adds a JButton to a JPanel and registers a keyboard listener (using the new DefaultKeyboardFocusManager class) that prints a message to the console. This function is called by the applet's init() method, as well as by a public method that can be called from Javascript (called callMeFromJavascript()). I also included a very simple HTML file that provides a button that calls the callMeFromJavascript() method. You can test this out yourself: To recreate, compile the class below, JAR it up, sign the JAR, and put in the same dir with the HTML file. Load the HTML file in IE 5.0 or greater, and bring the console up in a window right next to it. Now click the button that says init--you should see the small box appear inside the button that indicates it has the focus. Now press some keys on your keyboard. You should see "KEY PRESSED!!!" appearing in the console. This is proper behavior. Now click the Init Applet from Javascript button. It has removed the button called init, and added one called "javascript". Press this button. Notice there is no focus occurring. Now press your keyboard. No keyboard events are registered.
Where is gets interesting is that if you go back and make this an unsigned applet, and try it again, everything works fine. This bug only occurs if the applet is signed.
Furthermore, if you try it in 1.3, signed or unsigned, it also works. So this is almost certainly a 1.4 bug.
Anyone disagree? Better yet, anyone have a workaround? I've tried everything I could think of, including launching a thread from the init() method that sets up the components, and then just waits for the data to be set by Javascript. But it seems that ANY communication between the method called by Javascript and the code originating in init() corrupts something and we don't get keyboard events. This bug is killing my users who are very reliant on their shortcut keys for productivity, and we have a somewhat unique user interface that relies on Javascript for initialization. Any help or suggestions are appreciated.
================================================================
Java Applet (Put it in a signed JAR called mainapplet.jar)
================================================================
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class MainApplet extends JApplet implements KeyEventDispatcher
    JPanel test;
    public void init()
        System.out.println("init called");
        setUp("init");
    public void callMeFromJavascript()
        System.out.println("callMeFromJavascript called");
        setUp("javascript");
    private void setUp(String label)
        getContentPane().removeAll();
        test = new JPanel();
        getContentPane().add( test );
        JButton button = new JButton(label);
        test.add( button );
        test.updateUI();
        DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().addKeyEventDispatcher(this);
    public boolean dispatchKeyEvent(KeyEvent e)
        System.out.println("== KEY PRESSED!!! ==");
        return false;
}================================================================
HTML
================================================================
<form>
<APPLET code="MainApplet" archive="mainapplet.jar" align="baseline" id="blah"
     width="200" height="400">
     No Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition v 1.4.1 support for APPLET!!
</APPLET>
<p>
<input type="button" onClick="document.blah.callMeFromJavascript();" value="Init Applet via Javascript">
</form>

Answer 1

I tried adding the requestFocus() line you suggested... Same behavior.
A good thought, but as I mention in my description, the applet has no trouble gaining the focus initially (when init() is called). From what I have seen, it is only when the call stack has been touched by Javascript that I see problems. This is strange though: Your post gave me the idea of popping the whole panel into a JFrame... I tried it, and the keyboard/focus problem went away! It seems to happen only when the component hierarchy is descended from the JApplet's content pane. So that adds yet another variable: JRE 1.4 + Signed + Javascript + components descended from JApplet content pane.
And yes, signed or unsigned DOES seem to make a difference. Don't ask me to explain why, but I have run this little applet through quite a few single variable tests (change one variable and see what happens). The same JAR that can't receive keyboard events when signed, works just fine unsigned. Trust me, I'm just as baffled as you are.