Sending a keyboard event from java to any application (on-screen-keyboard)
events, java, java-native-interface, keyboard, swing
Solution
Apparently the only way to do this is to have a JNI layer that will make the conversion from java to native. Java has no easy way to provide such funcionality.
This could be an interesting concept for a small, third party library for someone who wants to learn JNI...
Problem
I am working on developing an on-screen keyboard with java. This keyboard has a `JComponent` for every possible key. When a mouse down is detected on the button, I want to send a specific keyboard code to the application currently on focus. The keyboard itself is within a `JFrame` with no decorations and set to always-on-top. I found that the Robot class can be used to simulate these keyboard events on the native queue. However, in this case, selecting the `JComponent` would mean that the key-press is received on the `JFrame`, and I wouldn't be able to receive it in the other application How can I keep my on-screen keyboard "Always-without-focus"? Is it maybe possible to use another approach to send the key-press?