#8 Editable BComboBox doesn't generate key events

[Avi Drissman]

A BComboBox, editable or not, generates a ValueChangedEvent
when a value is selected from its menu. An editable BComboBox
also generates that event when the return key is pressed.

But I need to know as each letter is typed into the BComboBox. I
can even catch events by Object.class, but no key events are ever
generated.

[Peter Eastman]

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This happens because an editable JComboBox is actually a compound
component. That is, it's a Container with multiple Components inside it.
I'll think about this and see if I can figure out a reasonable workaround...

[Peter Johnson]

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I've been looking at this problem for another reason. It really seems
that BComboBox does not get many events, because most of the awt
events are targeted at the BComboBox's JComboBox's "editor"
component.
(((BasicComboBoxEditor)JComboBox.getEditor()).getEditorComponent())

I can get the events I need (in particular for me, focus events) by getting
that component and listening to it directly. But of course, it would be
much more generally useful to have BComboBox do this for you already.
I have considered a couple of different ways of going about this. Every
solution so far must assume that the JComboBox's editor
(ComboBoxEditor interface) is actually a BasicComboBoxEditor
implementation.

1. Have BComboBox implement listeners for events on its editor
component and dispatch Buoy events directly.
2. Modify EventAdaptor so that it can be constructed with--and use--a
JComponent that is different that the Widget's defined JComponent, then
have BComboBox override addEventLink/removeEventLink to use a
second EventAdaptor for that editor component.
3. Modify EventAdaptor so that it can be constructed with an array of
additional JComponents for which to register listeners, all for the same
Widget. BComboBox will still have to override addEventLink/
removeEventLink to construct its EventAdaptor differently that most
other Widgets.
4. Add a JComponent[] getComponents() method to Widget and have
EventAdaptor use that to set up listeners for each returned component.
Normally getComponents() would just return the single JComponent used
by the Widget, but this would give Widgets such as BComboBox to tell
the outside world about its auxiliary components.

I'm leaning towards #4 or possibly #3. I'd be interested in hearing
other's thoughts.

[Nobody/Anonymous]

I solved the problem of getting events from the editor by doing the following:

Create a class MyComboBoxEditor derived from BasicComboBoxEditor:

public class MyComboBoxEditor extends BasicComboBoxEditor
{
BTextField textField;

protected JTextField createEditorComponent()
{
textField = new BTextField();
return textField.getComponent();
}

public BTextField getTextField()
{
return textField;
}
}

To add events, try the following:
BComboBox comboBox = new BComboBox();
MyComboBoxEditor cbEditor = new MyComboBoxEditor();
comboBox.getComponent().setEditor( cbEditor );
cbEditor.getTextField().addEventLink( eventType, target, method );

This is somewhat simplified from my actual code, but I think it includes the essential elements.