JTable TAB key listener

Question

Hi all:
I'm trying to write a filterable jtable. User can input the filter rule in the table header and the table displays the filtered data at the same time when the user inputs letters. The table filter works fine. But when I try to add "TAB" key listener, I find that I can't track the "TAB" key. I use a customerized cell renderer to display the filterable table header, a customerized cell editor to edit the filterable table header. The cell editor is created like this:
JTextField textField = new JTextField("");
DefaultCellEditor cellEditor = new DefaultCellEditor(textField);
And I add a KeyListener to the textField. The KeyListener can track other keys like "Shift", "Alt", "Ctrl", but it can't track "TAB". It's weird. I also add the KeyListener to JTableHeader, JTable, but when I edit something in the JTextField, I still can't catch the "TAB" key. Have any ideas? Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

by default the Tab is used (and consumed) by
focusManager to move focus between components. If you
want to get it in a component you have to signal the
manager to keep it's hands off. How to do so depends
on the jdk version. Focus handling changed
considerably between 1.3 and 1.4: Prior to 1.4 you
have to subclass the component in question to return
true on isManagingFocus(), since 1.4 you have to set
the comp's focusTraversalKeys to make the manager take
those instead of the default keys.
Greetings
JeanetteThanks Jeanette, it works. I use the Component.setFocusTraversalKeysEnabled(false) to disable all traversal keys of JTextField and add a KeyEventDispatcher to the KeyboardFocusManager. It finally works. Users can use "TAB" keyStroke and "Shift-TAB" keyStroke to traverse in the filterable table header now. Thank you for your great help and the $$ are yours.