JavaScript keydown event: can I tell what element previously had focus?

Question

When a user was focused on a particular element when they pressed the tab key, I want to execute a particular function. But I don't want to this function to execute unless that particular element had focus when the tab key was pressed.

Is there a way to to tell what element had (has?) focus from the keydown event itself? Or should I set a particularElementHasFocus property in response to onBlur and onFocus events on that element?

Check out this post. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3362/capturing-tab-key-in-text-box — RyanFishman, Oct 10 '12 at 19:56

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 10 '12 at 19:55

You can use document.activeElement to get current focused element. or use following code

var particularElementHasFocus  ;
$('input, textarea, button').focus(function() {
  particularElementHasFocus = this;
});

$('input, textarea, button').blur(function() {
  particularElementHasFocus = null;
});

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 10 '12 at 19:55

0

Using jQuery it could be done by testing the .focus of the element in question. With standard JS you can use document.activeElement - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/document.activeElement

answered Oct 10 '12 at 19:55

Fluidbyte

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JavaScript keydown event: can I tell what element previously had focus?

2 Answers2