Trouble binding "TAB" key to JTree

Question

Hi,
I tried to bind the TAB key (tab only) by doing this:
jTree.getInputMap().put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_TAB, 0), "tabActionKey");
jTree.getActionMap().put("tabActionKey", new AbstractAction() {....and it doesn't seem to work. Nothing happens when i hit tab. However, if i add a modifier, such as CTRL, then it works fine, but unfortunately, I need this to work with TAB only.
So then I figure the tab key was already binded to this component, so i tried to unbind it, but that didn't work.
So I found some code which lists all the bindings for a components..found here:
http://javaalmanac.com/egs/javax.swing/ListKeyBinds.html
and i printed that out before I assigned my keyStroke, and TAB was not listed. I printed it out after I assigned my keyStroke, and tab WAS listed. (however, it still didn't work).
Anyone have any ideas about what is goin on?
thanks

Answer 1

Here's the complete example: removing TAB from the focus traversal and then adding it to the keyboard actions.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        JTree tree = new JTree();
        KeyStroke tab = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("TAB");
        removeKeystroke(tree, KeyboardFocusManager.FORWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, tab);
        Action action = new AbstractAction("example") {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
                System.out.println("example action");
        addAction(tree, JComponent.WHEN_FOCUSED, tab, action);
        JFrame f = new JFrame("");
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        Container cp = f.getContentPane();
        cp.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,2));
        cp.add(tree);
        cp.add(new JTree());
        f.pack();
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
    static void removeKeystroke(Component comp, int id, AWTKeyStroke ks) {
        Set keys = comp.getFocusTraversalKeys(id);
        Set alteredKeys = new HashSet(keys);
        alteredKeys.remove(ks);
        comp.setFocusTraversalKeys(id, alteredKeys);
    static void addAction(JComponent comp, int condition, KeyStroke ks, Action action) {
        Object binding = action.getValue(Action.NAME);
        comp.getInputMap(condition).put(ks, binding);
        comp.getActionMap().put(binding, action);
}