regain focus after java.awt.Robot.keyPress()/mousePress()

Question

Hello all,

I writing an application which controls another application by using the keyboard only. To more concrete, the application simulates key presses and mouse clicks when a certain key is pressed on the keyboard. For example, pressing on the 'x' key simulates a mouse click on the [X] in the rop right corner, followed by a little sleep of 2 seconds and an 'enter' to confirm the exit dialog. Pretty easy. I am developing this application in Java.

Sending a key press or a mouse click is very easy with java.awt.Robot. I am facing one little problem. Say I have configured a key which will click somewhere on the screen. The problem is that consecutive key presses aren't catched anymore, as my application lost its focus caused by the mouse click outside it's window.

My question now is: what is the best way to be sure that my main application keeps the focus? Is there a way to focus my application again after the key presses and mouse clicks are sent out? Is there a better way?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If your application lost the focus. because you or your Robot clicked to somwhere else, the Robot must click on the application again before sending a new key. In c/c++ you could force the focus to the application (a non-trivial task), not in Java!

Answer 2

You might want to take a look at Component.requestFocus() to see if can do what you want.

Be aware however that window focusing has very platform dependent behaviour, so you will probably need to do quite a bit of testing to ensure that your code does what you want in all circumstances.