Focus API changes

This document outlines the API changes that have been done to AWT and Swing to accomodate the new focus model. For a general overview of the changes, you may want to first read this.

Modifications to existing classes:

New classes:

Add the following to java.awt.AWTEvent:

    public void setSource(Object newSource)

Changes to java.awt.Component:

    public boolean isFocusTraversable()

    public boolean isFocusable()

    public void setFocusable(boolean focusable)

    public void setFocusTraversalKeys(int id, Set keystroke)

    public Set getFocusTraversalKeys(int id)

    public void setFocusTraversalKeysEnabled(boolean focusTraversalKeysEnabled)

    public boolean getFocusTraversalKeysEnabled()

    public void requestFocus()

    protected boolean requestFocus(boolean temporary)

    public boolean requestFocusInWindow()

    protected boolean requestFocusInWindow(boolean temporary)

    public void transferFocus()

    public void transferFocusBackward()

    public void transferFocusUpCycle()

    public Container getFocusCycleRootAncestor()

    public boolean isFocusCycleRoot(Container container)

    public boolean hasFocus()

    public boolean isFocusOwner()

    public void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)

    public void removePropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)

    public void addPropertyChangeListener(String propertyName, PropertyChangeListener listener)

    public void removePropertyChangeListener(String propertyName, PropertyChangeListener listener)

    public void firePropertyChange(String propertyName, boolean oldValue, boolean newValue)

    public void firePropertyChange(String propertyName, int oldValue, int newValue)

    public boolean isFontSet()

    public boolean isBackgroundSet()

    public boolean isForegroundSet()
  
    public boolean isCursorSet()

    public boolean areFocusTraversalKeysSet(int id)

Changes to java.awt.Container:

    public void setFocusTraversalKeys(int id, Set keystroke)

    public Set getFocusTraversalKeys(int id)

    public void setFocusTraversalPolicy(FocusTraversalPolicy policy)

    public FocusTraversalPolicy getFocusTraversalPolicy()

    public void setFocusCycleRoot(boolean focusCycleRoot)

    public boolean isFocusCycleRoot()

    public boolean isFocusCycleRoot(Container container)

    public void transferFocusDownCycle()

    public void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)

    public void addPropertyChangeListener(String propertyName, PropertyChangeListener listener)

    public boolean areFocusTraversalKeysSet(int id)

    public boolean isFocusTraversalPolicySet()

Changes to java.awt.Window:

    public void toFront()

    public void toBack()

    public Component getFocusOwner()

    public Component getMostRecentFocusOwner()

    public boolean isActive()

    public boolean isFocused()

    public final void setFocusCycleRoot(boolean focusCycleRoot)

    public final boolean isFocusCycleRoot()

    public final Container getFocusCycleRootAncestor()

    public boolean isFocusableWindow()

    public void setFocusableWindowState(boolean focusableWindowState)

    public void addPropertyChangeListener(PropertyChangeListener listener)

    public void addPropertyChangeListener(String propertyName, PropertyChangeListener listener)

Add the following to the javadoc of java.awt.Frame:

/**
 * Frames are capable of generating the following types of WindowEvents:
 * WindowOpened, WindowClosing, WindowClosed, WindowIconified,
 * WindowDeiconified, WindowActivated, WindowDeactivated, WindowGainedFocus,
 * WindowLostFocus.
 */

Add the following to the javadoc of java.awt.Dialog:

/**
 * Dialogs are capable of generating the following WindowEvents:
 * WindowOpened, WindowClosing, WindowClosed, WindowActivated,
 * WindowDeactivated, WindowGainedFocus, WindowLostFocus.
 */

Add the following to java.awt.event.FocusEvent:

    public FocusEvent(Component source, int id, boolean temporary, Component opposite)

    public Component getOppositeComponent()

Add the following to the javadoc of java.awt.event.WindowEvent:

/**
 * A low-level event that indicates that a window has changed its status. This
 * low-level event is generated by a Window object when it is opened, closed,
 * activated, deactivated, iconified, or deiconified, or when focus is
 * transfered into or out of the Window.
 */

Add the following to java.awt.event.WindowEvent:

    public static final int WINDOW_ACTIVATED

    public static final int WINDOW_DEACTIVATED

    public static final int WINDOW_GAINED_FOCUS

    public static final int WINDOW_LOST_FOCUS

    public WindowEvent(Window source, int id, Window opposite) 

    public Window getOppositeWindow()

Add the following to java.awt.event.WindowListener:

    public void windowActivated(WindowEvent e)

    public void windowDeactivated(WindowEvent e)

Add the following to java.awt.event.WindowAdapter:

    public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e)

    public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e)

Add the following to java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster:

    public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e)

    public void windowLostFocus(WindowEvent e)

Modifications to javax.swing.FocusManager

This class has been obsoleted. New applications should use java.awt.KeyboardFocusManager exclusively. Nevertheless, we have preserved backward compatibility for existing applications (but not applets) which define their own FocusManager.

The Swing FocusManager has been changed to be a subclass of the new, AWT KeyboardFocusManager. FocusManager.setCurrentManager(FocusManager) and FocusManager.getCurrentManager() have been changed to wrappers around KeyboardFocusManager.setCurrentKeyboardFocusManager(KeyboardFocusManager) and KeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager(), respectively.

There was much discussion over these changes because KeyboardFocusManager.setCurrentKeyboardFocusManager(KeyboardFocusManager) will throw a SecurityException if the calling thread was not granted the "replaceKeyboardFocusManager" permission. Previously, FocusManager.setCurrentManager(FocusManager) would never throw a SecurityException. Although we were able to design a convoluted class organization which avoided this problem, we felt that the elegance and simplicity of the proposed design outweighed the rather small backward compatibility concern.

disableSwingFocusManager() and isFocusManagerEnabled() should not be used. Disabling the Swing FocusManager now has the semantics of reverting the default FocusTraversalPolicy from the Swing default of javax.swing.LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy to the AWT default of java.awt.DefaultFocusTraversalPolicy.

Modifications to javax.swing.DefaultFocusManager

This class has been obsoleted. New applications should use java.awt.KeyboardFocusManager exclusively. Nevertheless, we have preserved backward compatibility for existing applications (but not applets) which define their own DefaultFocusManager.

If client code installs a legacy DefaultFocusManager, we provide backward compatibility by installing a non-public LegacyGlueFocusTraversalPolicy which routes FocusTraversalPolicy method invocations to the corresponding methods on DefaultFocusManager.

Modifications to javax.swing.JComponent

isManagingFocus: This method has been obsoleted. It changed a JComponent's focus traversal keys from TAB and SHIFT-TAB to CTRL-TAB and CTRL-SHIFT-TAB. It also marked the JComponent in such a way that focus traversal would not automatically enter the JComponent. This was similar to, but different from, marking a JComponent as a focus cycle root. Its functionality is superseded by the FocusTraversalPolicy class, per-Component focus traversal keys, and the ability to disable a Component's focus traversal keys en masse.

setNextFocusableComponent/getNextFocusableComponents: These methods have been obsoleted FocusTraversalPolicies are more reliable because they allow an algorithmic expression of focus traversal. These methods force applications to hard-code focus traversal Component by Component.

The spec for setRequestFocusEnabled/isRequestFocusEnabled has changed, such that the requestFocusEnabled property is now a hint to the current look and feel.

requestDefaultFocus: This method has been obsoleted. Its functionality is superseded by FocusTraversalPolicy.getDefaultComponent(Container).requestFocus().

Modifications to javax.swing.JWindow

setFocusableWindow/isFocusableWindow: These methods are declared final in JWindow to enforce the restriction that all JWindows constructed with a 'null' owner must be non-focusable. This restriction is necessary because Swing constructs such JWindows so that they are owned by a private, hidden Frame, and the new focus implementation requires that KeyEvents intended for a Window or its descendants be proxied through that Frame. Since X11 requires a window to be mapped in order to be focused, a JWindow with a 'null' owner could never receive KeyEvents on X11.

Modifications to javax.swing.JInternalFrame

getMostRecentFocusOwner: Like java.awt.Window, JInternalFrame has a getFocusOwner() method left over from before centralization of focus management in java.awt.KeyboardFocusManager. To round out the API, and to remain consistent with Window, getMostRecentFocusOwner() has been added to JInternalFrame with the same specification as the corresponding method on Window.

setFocusCycleRoot/isFocusCycleRoot: These methods give JInternalFrames similar semantics to top-level Windows in AWT. Since a JInternalFrame must always be a focus cycle root, these methods are overridden and declared final to enforce that restriction. However, unlike an AWT Window, a JInternalFrame can have a focus-cycle-root ancestor, such as a JDesktopPane. Thus, Component.getFocusCycleRootAncestor() is not declared final in JInternalFrame as it is in Window.

Modifications to javax.swing.KeyStroke

Because the existing KeyStroke class was useful for designing per-Component focus traversal key APIs, this class was promoted with minor modifications to AWT as java.awt.AWTKeyStroke. The Swing class is now a subclass of the AWT class.

The one deprecated method in KeyStroke, getKeyStroke(char, boolean), was not promoted to AWT. Because of this, there is no simple way for this method to participate in the standard AWTKeyStroke caching scheme. The specification of this method has been changed to note that implementations need not cache the instances returned by this method.

Modifications to javax.swing.SwingUtilities

findFocusOwner: This method has been obsoleted. Its functionality is superseded by KeyboardFocusManager.getFocusOwner().