Generate an event from another event

Question

Hello,
What im trying to achieve is once a user presses the enter key in a Text Area, it generates another event which is 'pressing a button' without actually physically doing it.
private JButton btn = new jButton("Submit");
private void msg_taKeyReleased(java.awt.event.KeyEvent evt) {                                  
    if(evt.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_ENTER){
       // generate event that clicks button without doing it physically
} Does anybody know how to do this?
Thanks

Answer 1

I would use key binding: [http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/misc/keybinding.html]
Demo:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class KeyboardBindingExample {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
            public void run() {
                new KeyboardBindingExample().launch();
    private Action click = new AbstractAction("Submit") {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
            System.out.println("click!");
    void launch() {
        JTextArea text = new JTextArea(20,60);
        JButton submit = new JButton(click);
        JPanel south = new JPanel();
        south.add(submit);
        InputMap im = text.getInputMap();
        ActionMap am = text.getActionMap();
        Object key = click.getValue(Action.NAME);
        im.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("ENTER"), key);
        am.put(key, click);
        JFrame f = new JFrame("KeyboardBindingExample");
        Container cp = f.getContentPane();
        cp.add(new JScrollPane(text), BorderLayout.CENTER);
        cp.add(south, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.pack();
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
}