Get a Tab-keypress?

If you add this line to your constructor:  setFocusTraversalKeysEnabled(false);
it will work.

But - by doing so, you are disabling the focus subsystem traversal keys, and therefore you need to handle the focus traversal on your own.

Take a look here:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/events/keylistener.html

Of course you could use the KeyBoardFocusManager and add a new KeyEventDispatcher, that gives you the possibility to capture all keyboard events before they hit the component and do whit these events whatever you like.

I've modified yuor Test class a little, to show what happens when you hit the TAB button.

Hope this gives some ways to solve your problem.


import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class Test extends JPanel implements FocusListener
{
    public Test(Color color)
    {
        button = new JButton("Don't dispatch");
        button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) {
                if(button.getText().equals("Don't dispatch")){
                    button.setText("Dispatch event");
                    dispKeyEvent = true;
                }
                else{
                    button.setText("Don't dispatch");
                    dispKeyEvent = false;
                }
            }
        });
        setBackground(color);
        setFocusable(true);
        requestFocus();
        addFocusListener(this);
       
        KeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().addKeyEventDispatcher(
                new KeyEventDispatcher() {
                            public boolean dispatchKeyEvent(KeyEvent e) { 
                                if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_TAB) {
                                    System.out.println("Tab pressed");
                                    return dispKeyEvent;
                                }
                                System.out.println("Char " + e.getKeyChar());
                                return dispKeyEvent;
                            }
        });
}


    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Tab Test");
        frame.getContentPane().add(new Test(Color.red),BorderLayout.NORTH);
        frame.getContentPane().add(new Test(Color.green), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        frame.getContentPane().add(button, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        frame.setSize(200, 200);
        frame.show();
    }
 
    public void focusGained(FocusEvent e) {
        setBackground(Color.BLUE);
    }
   
    public void focusLost(FocusEvent e) {
        setBackground(Color.YELLOW);
    }
   
    private static JButton button;
    private boolean dispKeyEvent = false;
}

Thanks for your great answer mate!
Thanks a lot!
Fredrik