Disable default ALT key action in JFrame under Windows - java

I would like to let my JFrame under Windows not act upon an ALT key press. To clarify, when you execute the following snippet of code:
import javax.swing.*;
public class FrameTest {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(400, 400);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
and press the ALT key and then the arrow down key, you get a menu in the upper left corner in which you can choose to minimize, move, close etc. the frame (at least I get that). I would like to disable this: ie. the JFrame should not "listen" to these ALT presses.
I believe that certain Windows components react by default on the ALT key because when I add a menu bar to my frame, and explicitly set the look & feel to the system look & feel, the menu (File) is now automatically selected after pressing the ALT key:
import javax.swing.*;
public class FrameTest {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(400, 400);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
JMenu menu = new JMenu("File");
menuBar.add(menu);
frame.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName()); // set Windows look and feel
frame.setVisible(true);
}
}
and when I remove UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName()) from the example above, this behaviour is not exhibited when pressing the ALT key: the menu is not selected, but the JFrame is.
When no look & feel is set, the "Metal" look and feel is used. It is clear by looking at the menu bar in my previous example that you go from "native look" to "Metal look" when you remove UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName()) from the code. However, I don't see a change in the JFrame, no matter what look & feel I set, it always looks like a native Windows frame.
So, my question is: how can I disable this ALT behaviour on my JFrame? I guess I can do it by actually changing the look and feel of the JFrame. Is that possible? If so, how?
Thanks!

Just for history:
You can do this. Window manger handles all the events to the current keyboard focus manager and it decides what to do with the particular key. Every swing application has only one keyboard focus manager that's why your changes will affect the whole application and not the particular frame. The code below should do the trick:
frame.addFocusListener(new FocusListener() {
private final KeyEventDispatcher altDisabler = new KeyEventDispatcher() {
#Override
public boolean dispatchKeyEvent(KeyEvent e) {
return e.getKeyCode() == 18;
}
};
#Override
public void focusGained(FocusEvent e) {
KeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().addKeyEventDispatcher(altDisabler);
}
#Override
public void focusLost(FocusEvent e) {
KeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().removeKeyEventDispatcher(altDisabler);
}
});

Actually, what you are seeing here is pretty much outside your nice, Swing-y Java world. The window frame (except for MDI interfaces) will always be drawn by the window manager of the underlying operating system. And that's also the reason why the Alt key behaves like you observe. This key is intercepted by the WM in this case and it decides that you want to bring up the system menu of the program. That's totally unrelated to Java.
For several reasons you can't change the "look and feel" of the window frame, the main one being that this is outside Swing's PLAF system. You can remove the window frame, leaving behind a naked window (freezing in the cold November wind), then you also shouldn't get a system menu anymore.
Furthermore you could try handling the Alt keypress and not delegating that very keypress further (the application gets it before the WM does, so you can mess with these things). My Java-Fu is a little rusty right now, though, so no idea if and how this can be achieved.

It sounds like you're hitting upon some default interactions with the Windows window manager. It is possible that if you draw your own titlebar and borders that Windows will no longer set these default handlers on the Alt key.
You might want to try Substance, which gives you much more control over these sorts of things, while still working with the standard Swing components.
Or, try this before you make your frame visible:
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);

Related

Java Detect MouseClick anywhere in Window doesn't work in certain areas

So I have a Java Swing program and I want to be able detect mouse clicks.
addMouseListener(new java.awt.event.MouseAdapter() {
public void mouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
update(evt); //another method in the program
}
});
The code works if I click on the window's side or places where there isn't an object, but does not work when I click on objects in the JFrame, such as my JTable or my text field.
Please help me how to have the MouseListener work on objects inside the JFrame as well.
When you click on a textfield, the textfield gains focus. That means your frame loses ownership of focus, and since your listener is most likely added to your frame, your listener stops working right when frame isnt in focus. Add your listener to all compoments, or use Key Binding

Why does a JOptionPane cause JFrame to disappear from taskbar?

I have a problem where I create two separate JFrames (one is my main application, the other shows task progress using console output...).
However, subsequently bringing up a dialog box has a strange effect on the two taskbar icons (i.e. for the JFrames). Namely it causes one taskbar icon to disappear, although both windows still exist. Note that the missing taskbar icon can be "restored" by minimising or maximising the corresponding window.
The following example code generates the problem:
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
public class taskbarExample {
private static JFrame frame1;
private static JFrame frame2;
public static void main (String[] args) {
frame1 = new JFrame("Frame 1");
frame1.setSize(200,600);
frame1.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
frame1.setVisible(true);
frame2 = new JFrame("Frame 2");
frame2.setSize(600,200);
frame2.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
frame2.setVisible(true);
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Dialog box");
}
}
For comparison, try commenting out the JOptionPane line... results in no problems.
Can anyone explain what is going on here? I have seen a previous question referring to a similar problem, but without example code and no answer that helped me. Found here
This is basic property, JOptionPane
blocked code executions untill is visible on the screen,
this container is Modal and locking for mouse and keyboeard event outside of JOptionPane bounds
The showMessageDialog brings up an information-message dialog. The first parameters determines the Frame in which the dialog is displayed. if null, or if the parentComponent has no Frame, a default Frame is used.
When this function (showMessageDialog) is started the mouse and keyboard is blocked until you close the dialog information.
This effect is natural and does not mean that icon disappeared.

Forcing a JPopupMenu to disable hover effects on its owner JFrame?

When i right click on a JTable in a JFrame I show a JPopupMenu. If I left this JPopupMenu shown as it is and moved with the mouse to the JTable I can still hover on its rows.
This is not the default behavior of Windows applications. In normal case if a popup menu appears in a program it blocks any hover actions on the popup owner window.
Can i do the same thing in Java ?
One way to approach this problem is to set an instance variable in one of your GUI elements to flag whether or not to enable hover events. I have shown below how this may work, but it's not in its complete form, you will also need to re-enable hover when the JPopupMenu is dismissed, and also check the state of the ENABLE_HOVER field before firing hover effects.
public MyTable extends JTable {
private boolean ENABLE_HOVER = true;
public MyTable() {
...
this.addMouseListener(new MouseListener(){
...
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
if (isRightClick(e)) {
setHoverEnabled(false);
showJPopupMenu();
}
}
});
}
protected void setHoverEnabled(final boolean hover) {
this.ENABLE_HOVER = hover;
}
}
Another method which may be better suited to disabling multitudes of however enabled elements is to intercept the events at the glass pane. An example of how this might work is shown here. Be warned though if your interface is already built it may require significant re-jigging of your component classes.
You will need to intercept all events at the glass pane, if hover is enabled (no popup menu shown) you would pass the event to the appropriate component. Otherwise if hover is disabled and the MouseEvent occurred over the JPopupMenu is passed only to the JPopupMenu.

JWindow alway on top not getting focus events

I have a jwindow(set to be always on top) that you can click to get a pop menu. If the user right clicks the window it shows the pop menu but then if the user clicks any other window(such as firefox) pop menu does not disappear.
I tried to fix it by adding FocusListener on the jwindow, i implemented FocusListener and override
public void focusGained(FocusEvent e) {
System.out.println("gain" );
}
public void focusLost(FocusEvent e) {
System.out.println("lost" );
}
but there event never get called. i also tried the following,
addWindowFocusListener(new WindowAdapter() {
public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e) {
System.out.println("gain 2" );
}
});
this event also not called.
All this jwindows has is a single JLabel with a picture on it.
From memory JWindow's do not receive focus/window events.
You are suppose to call setFocusableWindowState(true) on a JWindow to allow it to be focusable. But that "still" is not enough. The JWindow must also have focusable Components and I'm still not able to get it to work.
Using JFrame setUndecorated() seems the best choice.
To be focusable, a JWindow needs to be created with a parent Frame, like new JWindow(parentFrame). Do that and I think you should find it will automatically get the focus when you set it to visible.
Not really sure what you are trying to do. If you are trying to hide the popup manually then you should probably use a WindowListener and handle the windowDeactivated event.
If you really want to display a popup menu, you should be using JPopupMenu, not implementing it yourself.

How could I implement new JFrame functionality

I am trying to remove the drag bar across the top of the JFrame. I would like to keep the minimize maximize and close options that appear on this bar available. What I was thinking was to remove the bar (and icons). Then add the icons as embedded images, that implement the JFrame actionlistener. It would also be necessary for this to work with JInternalFrames. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You need to step back and understand how Swing works.
When you create a JFrame, Swing uses the OS widget for the frame. The title bar that you see is part of the OS component and you have no direct control over it with Swing. You can hide the titlebar (and border) of the frame by using setUndecorated(false) as suggested earlier. In this case you loose all the functionality associated with the title bar (dragging and access to all the buttons) and the Border (resizing). So if you need any of this functionality you need to recreate it all yourself.
On the other hand you can use:
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
and Swing will build a title bar and Border for you and add back all the default functionality. So if you want to prevent dragging you would now need to inspect the JFrame for all its components to find the component that represent the title bar. When you find this component you can then remove the MouseMotionListeners from the component to prevent dragging. This way the title bar will still be there and the buttons will be active, but the dragging will be disabled. I would guess that is easier the adding in all the functionality to an undecorated frame.
As you have already realized a JInternalFrame is a component completely written in Swing so you have access to the child components, which is essentially the approach I'm suggesting for the JFrame as well.
To remove the titlebar, use
setUndecorated(true);
You could then re-add buttons for maximize/minimize. The source for maximize-button could look something like that (just to get an idea). Use JFrame.ICONIFIED for minimize button.
JButton btnMaximize = new JButton("+");
btnMaximize.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
if(MainFrame.this.getExtendedState() == JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH) {
MainFrame.this.setExtendedState(JFrame.NORMAL);
}
else {
MainFrame.this.setExtendedState(JFrame.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
}
}
});
Take a look at this article - i think it is pretty much what you need for the JFrame part.
http://www.stupidjavatricks.com/?p=4
It is based on JDialog, but it should be pretty much the same as JFrame. Maximize/minimize should be pretty much the same as the close button.
For JInternalFrames...
javax.swing.plaf.InternalFrameUI ifu= this.getUI();
((javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicInternalFrameUI)ifu).setNorthPane(null);

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