Changing tab order of JTextfield

Question

hi,
in my below code i've four textfields and i want to change the tab order of those textfields. i tried setNextFocusableComponent() but getting error on using this method. So plz tell me how it cud b done?
the error is: demo.java uses or overrides a deprecated API.
Recompile with -deprecation for details.
if ne body knows the meaning of this error & how to recompile with -deprecation plz tell me
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class demo
public static void main(String args[])
JFrame f = new JFrame("Demo");
f.setSize(640,480);
f.setLayout(null);
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JTextField a = new JTextField(10);
JTextField b = new JTextField(10);
JTextField c = new JTextField(10);
JTextField d = new JTextField(10);
a.setBounds(100,100,100,25);
b.setBounds(100,150,100,25);
c.setBounds(200,100,100,25);
d.setBounds(200,150,100,25);
f.getContentPane().add(a);
f.getContentPane().add(b);
f.getContentPane().add(c);
f.getContentPane().add(d);
// on adding these lines m gettin' error...
a.setNextFocusableComponent(c);
c.setNextFocusableComponent(b);
b.setNextFocusableComponent(c);
c.setNextFocusableComponent(a);
f.show();
}

Answer 1

This is all you need to understand to get going --
-- the Component returned by the method getComponentAfter (...) will get the focus on pressing Tab
-- the Component returned by the method getComponentBefore (...) will get the focus on pressing Shift+Tab
-- the Component returned by the method getDefaultComponent (...) will get the focus when the parent panel is displayed
Try to understand this Really Bad Example, then apply what you have understood to the sample you downloaded, which uses a Vector to store a list of Components and returns the next/previous Component for get..Before and get..After, wrapping around from the last to the first element and vice versa; also returns the first/last element for getFirst... and getLast... and the first element for getDefault...
Run this code and navigate by Tab or Shift-Tab, then uncomment the line I marked and try again. You'll understand.package ashwin;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Container;
import java.awt.FocusTraversalPolicy;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;
public class ReallyBadExample extends JFrame {
    private JPanel nyPanel;
    private JTextField myTextField1, myTextField2, myTextField3;
    private static MyFocusTraversalPolicy myFocusTraversalPolicy;
    public ReallyBadExample () {
        setLayout (new GridLayout (0,1));
        setDefaultCloseOperation (JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        myTextField1 = new JTextField ();
        add (myTextField1);
        myTextField2 = new JTextField ();
        add (myTextField2);
        myTextField3 = new JTextField ();
        add (myTextField3);
        myFocusTraversalPolicy = new MyFocusTraversalPolicy ();
        // Uncomment the next line and see the difference
        //setFocusTraversalPolicy (myFocusTraversalPolicy);
        pack ();
        setVisible (true);
    class MyFocusTraversalPolicy extends FocusTraversalPolicy {
        public Component getComponentAfter (Container aContainer, Component aComponent) {
            if (aComponent == myTextField1) {
                return myTextField3;
            } else if (aComponent == myTextField2) {
                return myTextField1;
            } else return myTextField2;
        public Component getComponentBefore (Container aContainer, Component aComponent) {
            if (aComponent == myTextField1) {
                return myTextField2;
            } else if (aComponent == myTextField2) {
                return myTextField3;
            } else return myTextField1;
        public Component getFirstComponent (Container aContainer) {
            return myTextField2;
        public Component getLastComponent (Container aContainer) {
            return myTextField2;
        public Component getDefaultComponent (Container aContainer) {
            return myTextField2;
    public static void main (String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater (new Runnable () {
            public void run () {
                try {
                    new ReallyBadExample ();
                } catch (Exception ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace ();
                    System.exit (1);
}db