Stopping cell editing in a JTable using a JComboBox editor w/ AutoComplete

Question

Hi there! Me again with more questions!
I'm trying to figure out the finer parts of JTable navigation and editing controls. It's getting a bit confusing. The main problem I'm trying to solve is how to make a JTable using a combo box editor stop editing by hitting the 'enter' key in the same fashion as a JTextField editor. This is no regular DefaultCellEditor though -- it's one that uses the SwingX AutoCompleteDecorator. I have an SSCCE that demonstrates the issue:
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import javax.swing.AbstractCellEditor;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.WindowConstants;
import javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel;
import javax.swing.table.TableCellEditor;
import javax.swing.table.TableModel;
import org.jdesktop.swingx.autocomplete.AutoCompleteDecorator;
public class AutoCompleteCellEditorTest extends JFrame {
  public AutoCompleteCellEditorTest() {
    JTable table = new JTable();
    Object[] items = {"A", "B", "C", "D"};
    TableModel tableModel = new DefaultTableModel(2, 2);
    table.setModel(tableModel);
    table.getColumnModel().getColumn(0).setCellEditor(new ComboCellEditor(items));
    getContentPane().add(table);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    pack();
  private class ComboCellEditor extends AbstractCellEditor implements TableCellEditor {
    private JComboBox comboBox;
    public ComboCellEditor(Object[] items) {
      this.comboBox = new JComboBox(items);
      AutoCompleteDecorator.decorate(this.comboBox);
    public Object getCellEditorValue() {
      return this.comboBox.getSelectedItem();
    public Component getTableCellEditorComponent(JTable table, Object value, boolean isSelected, int row, int column) {
      comboBox.setSelectedItem(value);
      return comboBox;
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        new AutoCompleteCellEditorTest().setVisible(true);
}Problem 1: Starting to 'type' into the AutoCompleteDecorate combo box doesn't cause it to start editing. You have to hit F2, it would appear. I've also noticed this behaviour with other JComboBox editors. Ideally that would be fixed too. Not sure how to do this one.
Problem 2: After editing has started (say, with the F2 key), you may start typing. If you type one of A, B, C, or D, the item appears. That's all good. Then you try to 'complete' the edit by hitting the 'enter' key... and nothing happens. The 'tab' key works, but it puts you to the next cell. I would like to make the 'enter' key stop editing, and stay in the current cell.
I found some stuff online suggesting you take the input map of the table and set the Enter key so that it does the same thing as tab. Even though that's not exactly what I desired (I wanted the same cell to be active), it didn't work anyway.
I also tried setting a property on the JComboBox that says that it's a table cell editor combo box (just like the DefaultCellEditor), but that didn't work either. I think the reason that fails is because the AutoCompleteDecorator sets isEditable to true, and that seems to stop the enter key from doing anything.
After tracing endless paths through processKeyBindings calls, I'm not sure I'm any closer to a solution. I feel like this should be a fairly straightforward thing but I'm having a fair amount of difficulty with it.
Thanks for any direction you can provide!

Answer 1

Hi Jeanette,
Thanks for your advice. I looked again at the DefaultCellEditor. You are correct that I am not firing messages for fireEditingStopped() and fireEditingCancelled(). Initially I had copied the behaviour from DefaultCellEditor but had trimmed it out. I assumed that since I was extending AbstractCellEditor and it has them implemented correctly that I was OK. But I guess that's not the case! The problem I'm having with implementing the Enter key stopping the editing is that:
1) The DefaultCellEditor stops cell editing on any actionPerformed. Based on my tests, actionPerformed gets called whenever a single key gets pressed. I don't want to end the editing on the AutoCompleteDecorated box immediately -- I'd like to wait until the user is happy with his or her selection and has hit 'Enter' before ending cell editing. Thus, ending cell editing within the actionPerformed listener on the JComboBox (or JXComboBox, as I've made it now) will not work. As soon as you type a single key, if it is valid, the editing ends immediately.
2) I tried to add a key listener to the combo box to pick up on the 'Enter' key and end the editing there. However, it appears that the combo box does not receive the key strokes. I guess they're going to the AutoCompleteDecorator and being consumed there so the combo box does not receive them. If I could pick up on the 'Enter' key there, then that would work too.
I did more reading about input maps and action maps last night. Although informative, I'm not sure how far it got me with this problem because if the text field in the AutoCompleteDecorator takes the keystroke, I'm not sure how I'm going to find out about it in the combo box.
By the way, when you said 'They are fixed... in a recent version of SwingX', does that mean 1.6.2? That's what I'm using.
Thanks!
P.S. - Maybe I should create a new question for this? I wanted to mark your answer as helpful but I already closed the thread by marking the answer to the first part as correct. Sorry!
Edited by: aardvarkk on Jan 27, 2011 7:41 AM - Added SwingX versioning question.