FocusLost event for JTextField sometimes triggered, sometimes not

Question

Some background.
A column in a table consists of a number of cells.
Each cell can be a JTextField or a JComboBox.
I have written a CellEditor who returns either a JTextField or a JComboBox depending on some conditions.
The JTextField listens for a FocusLost event to update the database.
When I leave the first cell the FocusLost event is always triggered.
For the ther cells the FocusLost event is triggeed every now and then.
In the mean time I have found a simple workaround by placing the update code in method getCellEditorValue() which is called always by the table when moving to the next cell.
I am just curious if someone has an explanation for this inconsistent behaviour of the FocusLost event.
Code is below:
* QuoteProductPropertyValueEditor.java
* Created on May 4, 2005
package tsquote.gui;
* @author johnz
import java.awt.Component;
import java.util.EventObject;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.table.*;
import tsquote.controller.QueryHandler;
import tsquote.exception.FinderException;
import tsquote.gui.control.GenericTableModel;
import tsquote.gui.control.Table;
import tsquote.util.Messager;
public class QuoteProductPropertyValueEditor implements TableCellEditor {
      * We use EvetListenerList, because it is thread-safe
     protected EventListenerList listenerList = new EventListenerList();
     protected ChangeEvent changeEvent = new ChangeEvent(this);
     private List<Component> componentList = new ArrayList();
     private Map<Integer, Integer> indexMap = new HashMap(); // maps row to index
     private Table table;
     private int currentRow;
     private QueryHandler queryHandler = QueryHandler.getInstance();
     public QuoteProductPropertyValueEditor() {
          super();
     public Object getCellEditorValue() {
          Component component = componentList.get(indexMap.get(currentRow));
          if (component instanceof JComboBox) {
               JComboBox comboBox = (JComboBox) component;
               return comboBox.getSelectedItem();
          JTextField textField = (JTextField) component;
          return textField.getText();
     public Component getTableCellEditorComponent(
               JTable jTable,
               Object value,
               boolean isSelected,
               int row,
               int column) {
          final int thisRow = row;
          System.out.println("getTableCellEditorComponent(): thisRow=" + thisRow);
          table = (Table) jTable;
          currentRow = thisRow;
          if (!indexMap.containsKey(thisRow)) {
               System.out.println("Control added: thisRow=" + thisRow);
               indexMap.put(thisRow, componentList.size());
               // This is actually a tsquote.gui.control.Table
               GenericTableModel genericTableModel = table.getGenericTableModel();
               List<Map> list = genericTableModel.getList();
               Map recordMap = list.get(thisRow);
               Boolean hasList = (Boolean) recordMap.get("product_property.has_list");
               if (hasList) {
                    JComboBox comboBox = new JComboBox();
                    componentList.add(comboBox);
                    comboBox.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                         public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
                              fireEditingStopped();
                    for (int i=0; i<=row +1; i++) {
                         comboBox.addItem("Item" + i);
               } else {
                    JTextField textField = new JTextField();
                    componentList.add(textField);
                    textField.addFocusListener(new FocusAdapter() {
                         public void focusLost(FocusEvent e) {
                              System.out.println("textField: thisRow=" + thisRow);
                              JTextField textField = (JTextField) componentList.get(indexMap.get(thisRow));
                              String newValue = textField.getText();
                              fireEditingStopped();
                              updateQuoteProductProperty(thisRow, newValue);
                    String text = (String) recordMap.get("quote_product_property.value");
                    textField.setText(text);
          Component component = componentList.get(indexMap.get(thisRow));
          if (component instanceof JComboBox) {
               JComboBox comboBox = (JComboBox) component;
               if (value == null) {
                    comboBox.setSelectedIndex(0);
               } else {
                    comboBox.setSelectedItem(value);
          } else {
               JTextField textField = (JTextField) component;
               textField.setText((String) value);
          return component;
     private void updateQuoteProductProperty(
               int row,
               String newValue) {
          // Get PK quote_prodcut_property from list
          GenericTableModel genericTableModel = table.getGenericTableModel();
          List<Map> list = genericTableModel.getList();
          Map modelRecordMap = list.get(row);
          String storedValue = (String) modelRecordMap.get("quote_product_property.value");
          // If nothing changed, ready
//          if (storedValue == null) {
//               if (newValue == null) {
//                    return;
//          } else {
//               if (storedValue.equals(newValue)){
//                    return;
          // Update model
          modelRecordMap.put ("quote_product_property.value", newValue);
          Integer quoteProductPropertyID = (Integer) modelRecordMap.get("quote_product_property.quote_product_property_id");
          try {
               queryHandler.setTable("quote_product_property");
               queryHandler.setWhere("quote_product_property_id=?", quoteProductPropertyID);
               Map recordMap = queryHandler.getMap();
               recordMap.put("value", newValue);
               recordMap.get("quote_product_property.value");
               queryHandler.updateRecord("quote_product_property", "quote_product_property_id", recordMap);
          } catch (FinderException fE) {
               Messager.warning("Cannot find record in quote_product_property\n" + fE.getMessage());
     public void addCellEditorListener(CellEditorListener listener) {
          listenerList.add(CellEditorListener.class, listener);
     public void removeCellEditorListener(CellEditorListener listener) {
          listenerList.remove(CellEditorListener.class, listener);
     public void cancelCellEditing() {
          fireEditingCanceled();
     public boolean stopCellEditing() {
          fireEditingStopped();
          return true;
     public boolean isCellEditable(EventObject event) {
          return true;
     public boolean shouldSelectCell(EventObject event) {
          return true;
     protected void fireEditingStopped() {
          CellEditorListener listener;
          Object[] listeners = listenerList.getListenerList();
          for (int i = 0; i < listeners.length; i++) {
               if (listeners[i] == CellEditorListener.class) {
                    listener = (CellEditorListener) listeners[i + 1];
                    listener.editingStopped(changeEvent);
     protected void fireEditingCanceled() {
          CellEditorListener listener;
          Object[] listeners = listenerList.getListenerList();
          for (int i = 0; i < listeners.length; i++) {
               if (listeners[i] == CellEditorListener.class) {
                    listener = (CellEditorListener) listeners[i + 1];
                    listener.editingCanceled(changeEvent);
}

Answer 1

The JTextField listens for a FocusLost event to update the database.I don't recommend using a FocusListener. Wouldn't you get a FocusLost event even if the user cancels any changes made to the cell?
Whenver I want to know if data has changed in the table I use a TableModelListener:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=527578&messageID=2533071
I'm not very good at writing cell editors so I don't. I just override the getCellEditor method to return an appropriate editor. Here's a simple example:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.table.*;
public class TableComboBoxByRow extends JFrame
     ArrayList editors = new ArrayList(3);
     public TableComboBoxByRow()
          // Create the editors to be used for each row
          String[] items1 = { "Red", "Blue", "Green" };
          JComboBox comboBox1 = new JComboBox( items1 );
          DefaultCellEditor dce1 = new DefaultCellEditor( comboBox1 );
          editors.add( dce1 );
          String[] items2 = { "Circle", "Square", "Triangle" };
          JComboBox comboBox2 = new JComboBox( items2 );
          DefaultCellEditor dce2 = new DefaultCellEditor( comboBox2 );
          editors.add( dce2 );
          String[] items3 = { "Apple", "Orange", "Banana" };
          JComboBox comboBox3 = new JComboBox( items3 );
          DefaultCellEditor dce3 = new DefaultCellEditor( comboBox3 );
          editors.add( dce3 );
          //  Create the table with default data
          Object[][] data =
               {"Color", "Red"},
               {"Shape", "Square"},
               {"Fruit", "Banana"},
               {"Plain", "Text"}
          String[] columnNames = {"Type","Value"};
          DefaultTableModel model = new DefaultTableModel(data, columnNames);
          JTable table = new JTable(model)
               //  Determine editor to be used by row
               public TableCellEditor getCellEditor(int row, int column)
                    int modelColumn = convertColumnIndexToModel( column );
                    if (modelColumn == 1 && row < 3)
                         return (TableCellEditor)editors.get(row);
                    else
                         return super.getCellEditor(row, column);
          JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane( table );
          getContentPane().add( scrollPane );
     public static void main(String[] args)
          TableComboBoxByRow frame = new TableComboBoxByRow();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible(true);
}