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Java AWT: how to make cursor automatically show?

Hello experts,

I am working on a user interface with java.awt packages. There are several input fields on different lines. I would like to make the cursor to move automatically to the head position of the next line after I hit "return" on my keyboard on the current line.

How to do this? Any ideas, any website tutorials or a piece of code to share? I searched online but I did not find related information.

Thanks so much.

Wendyu66

ASKER

Just a quick search and I found https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/24442517/How-do-you-set-the-cusor-caret-to-a-particluar-TextField.html.

I actually also use requestFocus(), but it did not pop up a cursor. Following is a piece of my code.

	private void addFaxNumberTextBox() {
		faxNumberTextField = new TextField();
		faxNumberTextField.setSize(GUIAttributes.FAX_TEXTFIELD_SIZE);
		faxNumberTextField.setLocation(faxNumberLabel.getX() + faxNumberLabel.getWidth() + GUIAttributes.PADDER, faxNumberLabel.getY());
		setPrevTextFieldPos(faxNumberTextField.getX(), faxNumberTextField.getY());			
		faxNumberTextField.setBackground(GUIAttributes.TEXTFIELD_BACKGROUND);
		
		faxNumberTextField.setVisible(true);
		faxNumberTextField.addFocusListener(new TextBoxListener());
		this.add(faxNumberTextField);	
				
		faxNumberTextField.requestFocus();
}

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There are also other methods like addFaxSenderNameTextBox(), addFaxReceiverNameTextBox(), etc. They all have similiar code. These text fields are all popped up once instead of filling a field then popping up another.

Any ideas? Thanks a lot.

krakatoa

Yeah iirc you have to use a keylistener to trap the event and find if the user used VK_ENTER, then add in the CRLF tokens.

[edit] no they are for single lines of text.

But it looks anyway like you are talking about moving the tab to another field - is that correct? Can you tell us?

Wendyu66

ASKER

Thanks Karakatoa. I actually have two questions.

1. Why faxNumberTextField.requestFocus() did not bring a cursor to this text field?
2. How to pop up a cursor on the head position of next line (input text field) after I have hit "return" on my keyboard? For example, following are input fields.

Fax Number:
Sender Name:
Sender Email:

After I have inputted a fax number in the input field of Fax Number, right now I have to manually click my mouse to put a cursor at the head position of the input field of Sender Name. Now that I do not want to do this manually, I just want the cursor to show at that position after I hit "return" button on my keyboard after I have finished inputting to the input field of "Fax Number". Is this clear?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

krakatoa

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krakatoa

And you might need this :

((JTextField)e.getSource()).transferFocus();

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krakatoa

Sorry - in context such as

public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e){if(e.getKeyCode()==KeyEvent.VK_ENTER){((JTextField)e.getSource()).transferFocus();}}

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(keyPressed() being a method in a KeyListener, (which is best obtained via a KeyAdapter), and 'e' being a KeyEvent passed as a parameter to the method from the callback).

Wendyu66

ASKER

I finally figured it out. requestFocus() did the miracle.

Thanks so much for your replies. Appreciated!

krakatoa

Right-o.