Prevent JavaFX Window from Stealing Focus - java

I'm trying to make an overlay on the screen using JavaFX and an issue I'm having is that whenever my overlay pops up, it steals focus from whichever program I'm currently in. The issue with this is that my overlay allows the user to simulate keyboard key presses using the robot class (like an on-screen keyboard) and without keeping the focus in the original window, the typed characters have nowhere to go. I've tried setting the modality to none, but that's also the default option and it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Would putting my JavaFX scene in a JFrame work or is there some better way to do it only in JavaFX?

Try this
when focused -> compute what you want to
then call Stage.toBack(); //the currently focused window prior to yours will gain focus back

Related

Javafx popup won't hide behind other application upon losing focus

So my question, as stated (sort of) in the title, is about the behaviour in some respects of the Javafx (namely 2.2) Popup. Most of the time, you get a popup, and you give it a window to act as it's parent, you give it some scene, and it tends to act relatively independently.
This is all fine, however, in my case, I needed a popup that would anchor itself to a particular stage (window), at a particular location, when an event happened. That popup would then, in turn, disappear when the window disappeared (minimize, off screen, whatever), moved when it would, and in all essence and functionality, be a physical extension of the window, just with a custom shape.
Now of course, there are a lot of nuances with that, and everything for the most part, works great. The only thing I can't seem to figure out is that normally in a platform like Windows 7 64 bit, say. You open two programs, alright. Then if the programs are overlapping a little bit, whichever has focus gets to have the entire program displayed, whereas the other one gives the impression of being 'behind' the other window. (Whether or not windows actually renders application graphics 'behind' a window when another has focus on the same spot, I'm not sure.). Normally, javafx also supports this functionality just fine. But for some reason, The Popup class in javafx (see docs here) doesn't do that. It's always on top of whatever it's displayed with, without exception. For the point of completeness, here's my pretty straightforward popup code (at least the part pertaining to showing it and it's properties):
Popup myPop = new Popup();
//************************Popup Property Setter**************************
//&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
myPop.setWidth(width);
myPop.setHeight(initialHeight);
myPop.setAutoHide(false);
myPop.setAutoFix(false);
myPop.setHideOnEscape(false);
myPop.setX(xLocation);
myPop.setY(yLocation);
//&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
//**********************end of Popup Properties**************************
myPop.getContent().add(main_anchor);
myPop.show(FileChooserWindow.get_stage());
main anchor has some various components i include inside of the 'myPop' popup, and FileChooserWindow is a non-null parent window that will be open at the time of this method calling without exception.
Here is a screenshot as well of the behaviour I'm referring to. Notice the highlighted text in the pdf, that is where my cursor currently has focus. Also, the window that the popup is anchored to can be seen in the back of the pdf poking out from the left.
Any help you guys can give would be much appreciated. I really hope I don't have to check for active processes and their location relative to the popup, that's getting dangerously close to my knowledge border, and sounds like a total PITA.
So, after toying with this for a few more days, I have a rough workaround, although it is a hack in the full meaning of the term.
Although the popup behaviour is still mystifying me, I can simulate a fix in this behaviour by adding a changeListener to the stage to which it is attached (since I didn't want the popup to close if it's parent window had focus, only if anything BUT the popup and it's parent got focus).
See code as follows:
FileChooserWindow.get_stage().focusedProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<Boolean>(){
#Override
public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends Boolean> ov, Boolean oldValue, Boolean newValue) {
if (!newValue){
if(AutogenPopup.popupReturner().focusedProperty().get()){
AutogenPopup.popupReturner().hide();
}
}else{
if(FileChooserController.refreshAutoPopup && FileChooserController.autoGen_flag){
AutogenPopup.popupReturner().show(FileChooserWindow.get_stage());
}
}
}
});
never mind some of those flags that I'm checking against, they are simply some internal tools to make sure that the popup only appears when the program is in the proper state.
Now, one interesting thing to note. The AutogenPopup.popupReturner().focusedProperty().get()
Seemed to be returning true when the popup's parent window LOST focus. Which is quite counter-intuitive to me, and in my opinion, is even a touch buggy. Now, this does not simulate the behaviour of a modern operating system where a window can slide in and out of focus incrementally, since the popup will just completely disappear upon it's parent window losing focus. But seeing as how my popup just displays additional text entry on the side of the main window, this is an acceptable compromise until I think of a better solution. (Perhaps the better solution is not to use a popup at all, and instead skin a window to act in a popup-y fashion).
Anyway, I hope this helps someone, maybe eventually there will be a more fine-grained way to control this popup functionality.

How to set a window invisible but focused?

I want to set a window invisible but focused for a fraction of seconds.
I'm writing a key board emulator using Robot class as a part of project for detecting key loggers.
Keyboard emulator should not disrupt the normal work of the user, so I want to set a hidden window focused for a short span so that the keys entered by the robot class received by the hidden window instead of normal user applications.
Is there any way to do this in Java when window is actually invisible? How to do this? at least in windows platform?
How about transparent full screen window in case the above thing is not possible?
My base paper: http://www.atlantis-press.com/php/download_paper.php?id=9980
Is there any way to do this in Java when window is actually invisible?
No. Not in pure Java at least.
How about transparent full screen window in case the above thing is not possible?
A transparent window does not receive events. So again, no.

SWT disable window causes lose focus

I'm making custom dialogs that I want to pop up and disable the main shell behind it so that it cannot be clicked while the dialog is active.
My initial plan was something like as follows:
shell.setEnabled(false);
doDialogStuff();
shell.setEnabled(true);
this worked but as I close the dialog, it loses focus of the shell that was open before the dialog. I managed to sort of fix it by adding
shell.setFocus();
after the last line but this is messy and causes the screen to flicker as the window loses and then gains focus in a split second, also, it sometimes doesn't regain focus and I can't understand why :/
Is there a better way to disable the background window without it losing focus.
Thanks in advance SO peeps
You should create a custom dialog based on this tutorial.
This way you just have to set the modality of the dialog to whatever you need exactly and the dialog will take care of the rest for you.
This should be helpful as well (Javadoc of Shell):
The modality of an instance may be specified using style bits. The modality style bits are used to determine whether input is blocked for other shells on the display. The PRIMARY_MODAL style allows an instance to block input to its parent. The APPLICATION_MODAL style allows an instance to block input to every other shell in the display. The SYSTEM_MODAL style allows an instance to block input to all shells, including shells belonging to different applications.
The proper thing to do is create the dialog as a modal window. When you create the dialog's shell you should do something like
dialogShell = new Shell(mainShell, PRIMARY_MODAL | DIALOG_TRIM);

Make a JDialog stick or snap to another one when moving it close to it

I'm trying to reproduce a feature I've seen on several apps:
I have a GUI app with several JDialogs.
I'd like to easily organize them tightly on screen:
when I move one JDialog, and one of its borders gets "close" (within 5 pixels for example) to another JDialog, I'd like it to automatically snap and stick right along it.
any idea how to achieve that ?
Add a ComponentListener to the dialog and listen for the comopnentMoved() event.
You can use the Window.getWindows() method to get all the Windows. Then you loop through the Windows and get the bounds of each window. Whenever you are near a window you manually set the size of the window you are moving.
Of course you will also need to handle the situation when you want to move the window away from another window so maybe you need to start a Timer with every componentMoved event and only manually position the window after events have stopped being generated.

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

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.
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!
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.
I managed a way to prevent applications from losing all focus in Java.
By placing a WindowFocusListener on the frame (or dialog) and calling setVisible(false) followed by setVisible(true) in windowLostFocus the component will re-appear as soon as it is dissapears (not the prettiest solution but it does work).
By then calling component.requestFocus() your robot should be able to continue where it left off

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