Forcing a component to be the root focus owner

Question

I've never really understood how focus works in Java, and even with the new focus technology I'm still struggling!!!
I am trying to build an instant messenger dialog box. It is just a JFrame with a JTextPane inserted in "Center" and a JTextField inserted in "South" (by the way, there is no button - just pressing enter sends the message). I want the JTextField to have focus when the box opens up but I can't get it to do such a simple thing!!! Could someone help???
Thanks.
Andrew

Answer 1

Thanks for your help. Here is my code. Also, I am using JDK1.4 but I would like to make it work in 1.3 if possible.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
public class InstantMessageBox extends JFrame
     public InstantMessageBox()
          setTitle( "DMST - Instant Message Box" );
          setSize( 350, 250 );
          addWindowListener( new WindowAdapter()
                    public void windowClosing( WindowEvent we )
                         System.exit( 0 );
               DefaultKeyboardFocusManager focus_manager = new DefaultKeyboardFocusManager();
               Container content_pane = getContentPane();
               JTextPane text_area = new JTextPane();
               text_area.setEditable( false );
               SimpleAttributeSet red_attr = new SimpleAttributeSet();
               StyleConstants.setForeground( red_attr, Color.red );
               SimpleAttributeSet blue_attr = new SimpleAttributeSet();
               StyleConstants.setForeground( blue_attr, Color.blue );
               StyledDocument sd = text_area.getStyledDocument();
               try
                    sd.insertString( sd.getLength(), "<peter> Hello James... how are you?\n", red_attr );
                    sd.insertString( sd.getLength(), "<james> Oh, hello.\n", blue_attr );
               catch( BadLocationException ble )
                    System.out.println( ble );
               JScrollPane text_area_scroll = new JScrollPane( text_area );
               text_area_scroll.setBackground( Color.white );
               Border display_matte_border = BorderFactory.createMatteBorder( 4, 4, 4, 4, Color.blue );
               Border display_titled_border = BorderFactory.createTitledBorder( display_matte_border, "Display Area" );
               text_area_scroll.setBorder( display_titled_border );
               content_pane.add( text_area_scroll, "Center" );
               JTextField text_field = new JTextField( 10 );
               text_field.requestFocus();
               Border input_matte_border = BorderFactory.createMatteBorder( 4, 4, 4, 4, Color.blue );
               Border input_titled_border = BorderFactory.createTitledBorder( input_matte_border, "Input Area" );
               text_field.setBorder( input_titled_border );
               content_pane.add( text_field, "South" );
               System.out.println("The current focus owner is " + focus_manager.getFocusOwner());
     public static void main( String[] args )
          JFrame message_box = new InstantMessageBox();
          message_box.show();
}