public String getClipboardContents() {
		String result = "";
		Clipboard clipboard = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
		//odd: the Object param of getContents is not currently used
		Transferable contents = clipboard.getContents(null);
		boolean hasTransferableText = (contents != null) && contents.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
		if ( hasTransferableText ) {
			try {
				result = (String)contents.getTransferData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
			}
			catch(Exception e)
			{
				return null;
			}
		}
		return result;
	}