How do I find out which DOM element has the focus?

Question

I would like to find out, in JavaScript, which element currently has focus. I\'ve been looking through the DOM and haven\'t found what I need, yet. Is there a way to do this

Answer 1

I liked the approach used by Joel S, but I also love the simplicity of document.activeElement. I used jQuery and combined the two. Older browsers that don't support document.activeElement will use jQuery.data() to store the value of 'hasFocus'. Newer browsers will use document.activeElement. I assume that document.activeElement will have better performance.

(function($) {
var settings;
$.fn.focusTracker = function(options) {
    settings = $.extend({}, $.focusTracker.defaults, options);

    if (!document.activeElement) {
        this.each(function() {
            var $this = $(this).data('hasFocus', false);

            $this.focus(function(event) {
                $this.data('hasFocus', true);
            });
            $this.blur(function(event) {
                $this.data('hasFocus', false);
            });
        });
    }
    return this;
};

$.fn.hasFocus = function() {
    if (this.length === 0) { return false; }
    if (document.activeElement) {
        return this.get(0) === document.activeElement;
    }
    return this.data('hasFocus');
};

$.focusTracker = {
    defaults: {
        context: 'body'
    },
    focusedElement: function(context) {
        var focused;
        if (!context) { context = settings.context; }
        if (document.activeElement) {
            if ($(document.activeElement).closest(context).length > 0) {
                focused = document.activeElement;
            }
        } else {
            $(':visible:enabled', context).each(function() {
                if ($(this).data('hasFocus')) {
                    focused = this;
                    return false;
                }
            });
        }
        return $(focused);
    }
};
})(jQuery);