JTextArea should get focus...

Question

Hi everybody,
I want to accomplish a relatively easy task: when I click on a JButton the text area in my frame should get focus, i.e.: there should be a blinking cursor in the text area and the user should be able to start typing in it right away. However, the text area refuses to get the focus. This is my code:
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
public class TextAreaFocus implements ActionListener
   private static JTextArea text = new JTextArea();
   private static JButton btn = new JButton("Click me");
   public static void main(String[] args)
      // Init the JTextArea.
      text.setText("testje");
      text.setRows(10);
      text.setColumns(50);
      text.setFocusable(true);
      // Create the JPanel for the components.
      JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 1));
      panel.add(btn);
      panel.add(text);
      // Create a JFrame to show it all.
      JFrame frame = new JFrame("Testing JTextArea focus");
      frame.add(panel);
      frame.pack();
      frame.setVisible(true);
   public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
      // When the button is clicked the cursor should be placed in the text area.
      // text.requestFocus();
      text.requestFocusInWindow();
}I guess I am doing / forgetting something really trivial, however I just don't see it.
Best regards,
Jethro

Answer 1

You are right, what i huge mistake! I made this program however, to demonstrate the problem. In my original program (much more complicated that the example off course) requestFocus() does not do the trick. Tomorrow I will try and see if I can give a more complete example which comes closer to the original program.