Event listener in Java without app having focus? (Global keypress detection)

java java-native-interface listener keylistener
Ross picture Ross · Apr 29, 2009 · Viewed 14.8k times · Source

I've been searching for a while and everybody seems to think this is not possible using just Java, so I'll give SO a shot ;)

Is there any way to have my Java application listen for events (key events in particular) while another unrelated application has window focus? In my situation, I'm looking to detect when the user has pressed the 'Pause' key on the keyboard even though my Java application does not have focus.

I've heard some people mention that the only way is to write some C code and use JNI. Just curious if anybody knew of a way to avoid that? Or, if not, at least a really nice tutorial on the c/JNI stuff?

Thanks

Answer

Jen S. picture Jen S. · May 30, 2011

Here is the best answer I've found:

" There is a library to handle native keyboard and mouse control: https://github.com/kwhat/jnativehook) "

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