Popups, focus, and J2SDK 1.4.2

Question

Hi,
I have a program that draws a cartoon of a physical device in a JPanel and monitors mouse position, movement and left-clicks on the cartoon. When the user clicks a particular region of the cartoon, a popup containing a JTextField is displayed and given the focus, allowing the user to change the label for that part of the cartoon.
All this works fine with every 1.4.1 SDK that I've tried. However, if I run the program under any 1.4.2 release, odd things happen. At first, things appear to work normally, but if the program displays a modal dialog like a JFileChooser or a JOptionPane, then dismisses the dialog, a JTextField in the popup that is brought up where the dialog appeared can no longer be given the focus. The problem appears to be associated with the region of the screen where the dialog appeared, not the window position since you can move the program window to a different location and the program will appear to work normally. Move it back to its original position and the "dead" area where the dialog was displayed still won't accept focus.
I've simplified the original program substantially and can reproduce it with the program listed below.
* FocusProblem.java
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.EtchedBorder;
import javax.swing.event.MouseInputAdapter;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
* Illustrate problem with obtaining focus after overlaying panel with
* a dialog.
public final class FocusProblem extends JFrame {
    private boolean editing;    // is the editor displayed or not
    private int xPos;           // mouse positions from mouse events
    private int yPos;
    private final JTextField chpEd;
    private final JPanel buttonPanel;
    private final JPanel clickPanel;
    private final JButton theButton;
    private Popup popup;
    private final PopupFactory factory = PopupFactory.getSharedInstance();
    public FocusProblem() {
        editing = false;
        xPos = yPos = -1;
        addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
            public void windowClosing(final WindowEvent evt) {
                exitForm(evt);
        clickPanel = new JPanel();
        clickPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(600, 400));
        getContentPane().add(clickPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        theButton = new JButton("Show Dialog");
        theButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(final ActionEvent evt) {
                theButtonActionPerformed(evt);
        buttonPanel = new JPanel();
        buttonPanel.setBorder(new EtchedBorder());
        buttonPanel.add(theButton);
        getContentPane().add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.EAST);
        pack();
        chpEd = new JTextField(10);
        // set up the mouse listeners
        final MyListener myListener = new MyListener();
        clickPanel.addMouseListener(myListener);
        clickPanel.addMouseMotionListener(myListener);
     * Handle a click on the button.
     * @param evt Not used.
    private void theButtonActionPerformed(final ActionEvent evt) {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "Just for testing", "A Modal Dialog",
                JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
     * Handle a click on the close decoration.
     * @param evt Not used.
    private static void exitForm(final WindowEvent evt) {
        System.exit(0);
    // Editor related methods.
     * Bring up the <code>JTextField</code> over the panel where clicked.
     * Highlight the contents of the test field.
    private void bringUpEditor() {
        editing = true;
        clickPanel.setToolTipText(null);
        chpEd.setText("X = " + xPos + ", Y = " + yPos);
        final Point p = new Point(xPos, yPos);
        // getPopup expects screen coordinates, so do the conversion
        SwingUtilities.convertPointToScreen(p, this);
        popup = factory.getPopup(clickPanel, chpEd, p.x, p.y);
        popup.show();
        chpEd.setVisible(true);
        if (chpEd.requestFocusInWindow() != true) {
            System.out.println("Failed to obtain focus");
//        chpEd.requestFocus();
//        chpEd.grabFocus();
        chpEd.getCaret().setDot(0);
        chpEd.getCaret().moveDot(chpEd.getText().length());
     * Hide the editor and set <code>editing</code>
     * to <code>false</code>.
    private void takeDownEditor() {
        popup.hide();
        popup = null;
        editing = false;
    // MouseInputAdapter methods
    final class MyListener extends MouseInputAdapter {
         * Watch mouse clicks on the panel. If the global variable
         * <code>editing</code> is <code>true</code>, the click occurred
         * outside of the editor, so any changes in the editor are
         * accepted and the editor is take down. If <code>editing</code>
         * is <code>false</code>, start editing at the position of the click.
         * @param e The <code>MouseEvent</code> to be responded to. Used
         * to retrieve the mouse position.
        public void mousePressed(final MouseEvent e) {
            if (editing) {
                takeDownEditor();
            } else {
                xPos = e.getX();
                yPos = e.getY();
                bringUpEditor();
         * Watch for mouse moves. If the global variable <code>editing</code>
         * is <code>false</code>, set the text of the panel's tooltip to the
         * mouse location.
         * @param e The <code>MouseEvent</code> to be responded to. Used to
         * retrieve the mouse position.
        public void mouseMoved(final MouseEvent e) {
            if (!editing) {
                xPos = e.getX();
                yPos = e.getY();
                clickPanel.setToolTipText("X = " + xPos + ", Y = " + yPos);
     * A program entry point to run the test.
     * @param args Not used.
    public static void main(final String[] args) {
        new FocusProblem().show();
}To observe the problem:
1. Start the program and allow the mouse to hover near the center of the left panel. A tooltip should appear with the position of the mouse.
2. Click and a popup with an editor should be brought up. The JTextField should have the focus. Click somewhere else to dismiss the editor.
3. Click the button in the right pane to display a dialog. over a region of the left panel. Dismiss the dialog.
4. Click in the area where the dialog was displayed. If running 1.4.1, the JTextField will be focused, just as in step 2. If running 1.4.2, the popup will appear with the JTextField but will not have foucs and will not accept focus by clicking (or any other method I've been able to find.)
I've observed this problem with Linux (Redhat 9), Windows 98, Win2K, and WinXP on PIII and P4's. The problem occurs with J2SDK 1.4.1 and 1.4.2_01.
I posted this as a bug right after 1.4.2 came out, but have only received the usual automated reply from Sun. Can't find it in the bug database. Am I missing something or is this really a bug? Any workarounds?
Other Weirdness
I've also noticed that if you run the program and let the mouse hover long enough for the tooltip to appear, then move the mouse down so that the tooltip appears to "touch" the bottom border, the tooltip will begin to flicker a lot when you move the mouse around higher in the window when running 1.4.2. Doesn't happen with any J2SDK 1.4.1 release that I've tried. Is this another manifestation of the problem described above?
Thanks in advance for all the help.

Answer 1

I'm wondering if you've been able to reconcile the problem. I have exactly the same situation. I've tried everything I could think of, but whenever I call popup.show() followed by a call to requestFocusInWindow,
I get a false return - meaning of course the popup (or more precisely a JList in the popup) can NOT receive the focus. Same behavior as yours. I really liked the way it worked under 1.4.1 and hate to give it up. Surely hope you've figured it out and can share with me.