I am trying to move the focus to the next element in the tab sequence based upon the current element which has focus. Thus far I have not turned up anything in my searches.<
This is a potential enhancement to the great solution that @Kano and @Mx offered. If you want to preserve TabIndex ordering, add this sort in the middle:
// Sort by explicit Tab Index, if any
var sort_by_TabIndex = function (elementA, elementB) {
let a = elementA.tabIndex || 1;
let b = elementB.tabIndex || 1;
if (a < b) { return -1; }
if (a > b) { return 1; }
return 0;
}
focussable.sort(sort_by_TabIndex);
You can call this:
Tab:
$.tabNext();
Shift+Tab:
$.tabPrev();
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.js" integrity="sha256-2Kok7MbOyxpgUVvAk/HJ2jigOSYS2auK4Pfzbm7uH60=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script>
(function($){
'use strict';
/**
* Focusses the next :focusable element. Elements with tabindex=-1 are focusable, but not tabable.
* Does not take into account that the taborder might be different as the :tabbable elements order
* (which happens when using tabindexes which are greater than 0).
*/
$.focusNext = function(){
selectNextTabbableOrFocusable(':focusable');
};
/**
* Focusses the previous :focusable element. Elements with tabindex=-1 are focusable, but not tabable.
* Does not take into account that the taborder might be different as the :tabbable elements order
* (which happens when using tabindexes which are greater than 0).
*/
$.focusPrev = function(){
selectPrevTabbableOrFocusable(':focusable');
};
/**
* Focusses the next :tabable element.
* Does not take into account that the taborder might be different as the :tabbable elements order
* (which happens when using tabindexes which are greater than 0).
*/
$.tabNext = function(){
selectNextTabbableOrFocusable(':tabbable');
};
/**
* Focusses the previous :tabbable element
* Does not take into account that the taborder might be different as the :tabbable elements order
* (which happens when using tabindexes which are greater than 0).
*/
$.tabPrev = function(){
selectPrevTabbableOrFocusable(':tabbable');
};
function tabIndexToInt(tabIndex){
var tabIndexInded = parseInt(tabIndex);
if(isNaN(tabIndexInded)){
return 0;
}else{
return tabIndexInded;
}
}
function getTabIndexList(elements){
var list = [];
for(var i=0; i<elements.length; i++){
list.push(tabIndexToInt(elements.eq(i).attr("tabIndex")));
}
return list;
}
function selectNextTabbableOrFocusable(selector){
var selectables = $(selector);
var current = $(':focus');
// Find same TabIndex of remainder element
var currentIndex = selectables.index(current);
var currentTabIndex = tabIndexToInt(current.attr("tabIndex"));
for(var i=currentIndex+1; i<selectables.length; i++){
if(tabIndexToInt(selectables.eq(i).attr("tabIndex")) === currentTabIndex){
selectables.eq(i).focus();
return;
}
}
// Check is last TabIndex
var tabIndexList = getTabIndexList(selectables).sort(function(a, b){return a-b});
if(currentTabIndex === tabIndexList[tabIndexList.length-1]){
currentTabIndex = -1;// Starting from 0
}
// Find next TabIndex of all element
var nextTabIndex = tabIndexList.find(function(element){return currentTabIndex<element;});
for(var i=0; i<selectables.length; i++){
if(tabIndexToInt(selectables.eq(i).attr("tabIndex")) === nextTabIndex){
selectables.eq(i).focus();
return;
}
}
}
function selectPrevTabbableOrFocusable(selector){
var selectables = $(selector);
var current = $(':focus');
// Find same TabIndex of remainder element
var currentIndex = selectables.index(current);
var currentTabIndex = tabIndexToInt(current.attr("tabIndex"));
for(var i=currentIndex-1; 0<=i; i--){
if(tabIndexToInt(selectables.eq(i).attr("tabIndex")) === currentTabIndex){
selectables.eq(i).focus();
return;
}
}
// Check is last TabIndex
var tabIndexList = getTabIndexList(selectables).sort(function(a, b){return b-a});
if(currentTabIndex <= tabIndexList[tabIndexList.length-1]){
currentTabIndex = tabIndexList[0]+1;// Starting from max
}
// Find prev TabIndex of all element
var prevTabIndex = tabIndexList.find(function(element){return element<currentTabIndex;});
for(var i=selectables.length-1; 0<=i; i--){
if(tabIndexToInt(selectables.eq(i).attr("tabIndex")) === prevTabIndex){
selectables.eq(i).focus();
return;
}
}
}
/**
* :focusable and :tabbable, both taken from jQuery UI Core
*/
$.extend($.expr[ ':' ], {
data: $.expr.createPseudo ?
$.expr.createPseudo(function(dataName){
return function(elem){
return !!$.data(elem, dataName);
};
}) :
// support: jQuery <1.8
function(elem, i, match){
return !!$.data(elem, match[ 3 ]);
},
focusable: function(element){
return focusable(element, !isNaN($.attr(element, 'tabindex')));
},
tabbable: function(element){
var tabIndex = $.attr(element, 'tabindex'),
isTabIndexNaN = isNaN(tabIndex);
return ( isTabIndexNaN || tabIndex >= 0 ) && focusable(element, !isTabIndexNaN);
}
});
/**
* focussable function, taken from jQuery UI Core
* @param element
* @returns {*}
*/
function focusable(element){
var map, mapName, img,
nodeName = element.nodeName.toLowerCase(),
isTabIndexNotNaN = !isNaN($.attr(element, 'tabindex'));
if('area' === nodeName){
map = element.parentNode;
mapName = map.name;
if(!element.href || !mapName || map.nodeName.toLowerCase() !== 'map'){
return false;
}
img = $('img[usemap=#' + mapName + ']')[0];
return !!img && visible(img);
}
return ( /^(input|select|textarea|button|object)$/.test(nodeName) ?
!element.disabled :
'a' === nodeName ?
element.href || isTabIndexNotNaN :
isTabIndexNotNaN) &&
// the element and all of its ancestors must be visible
visible(element);
function visible(element){
return $.expr.filters.visible(element) && !$(element).parents().addBack().filter(function(){
return $.css(this, 'visibility') === 'hidden';
}).length;
}
}
})(jQuery);
</script>
<a tabindex="5">5</a><br>
<a tabindex="20">20</a><br>
<a tabindex="3">3</a><br>
<a tabindex="7">7</a><br>
<a tabindex="20">20</a><br>
<a tabindex="0">0</a><br>
<script>
var timer;
function tab(){
window.clearTimeout(timer)
timer = window.setInterval(function(){$.tabNext();}, 1000);
}
function shiftTab(){
window.clearTimeout(timer)
timer = window.setInterval(function(){$.tabPrev();}, 1000);
}
</script>
<button tabindex="-1" onclick="tab()">Tab</button>
<button tabindex="-1" onclick="shiftTab()">Shift+Tab</button>
</body>
</html>
I modify jquery.tabbable PlugIn to complete.
I checked above solutions and found them quite lengthy. It can be accomplished with just one line of code:
currentElement.nextElementSibling.focus();
or
currentElement.previousElementSibling.focus();
here currentElement may be any i.e. document.activeElement or this if current element is in function's context.
I tracked tab and shift-tab events with keydown event
let cursorDirection = ''
$(document).keydown(function (e) {
let key = e.which || e.keyCode;
if (e.shiftKey) {
//does not matter if user has pressed tab key or not.
//If it matters for you then compare it with 9
cursorDirection = 'prev';
}
else if (key == 9) {
//if tab key is pressed then move next.
cursorDirection = 'next';
}
else {
cursorDirection == '';
}
});
once you have cursor direction then you can use nextElementSibling.focus
or previousElementSibling.focus
methods
I've never implemented this, but I've looked into a similar problem, and here's what I would try.
First, I would see if you could simply fire a keypress event for the Tab key on the element that currently has focus. There may be a different way of doing this for different browsers.
Referencing the jQuery implementation, you must:
Listening for Tab and Shift+Tab are probably well-covered elsewhere on the web, so I'll skip that part.
Knowing which elements are tab-able is trickier. Basically, an element is tab-able if it is focusable and does not have the attribute tabindex="-1"
set. So then we must ask which elements are focusable. The following elements are focusable:
input
, select
, textarea
, button
, and object
elements that aren't disabled.a
and area
elements that have an href
or have a numerical value for tabindex
set.tabindex
set.Furthermore, an element is focusable only if:
display: none
.visibility
is visible
. This means that the nearest ancestor to have visibility
set must have a value of visible
. If no ancestor has visibility
set, then the computed value is visible
.More details are in another Stack Overflow answer.
The tab order of elements in a document is controlled by the tabindex
attribute. If no value is set, the tabindex
is effectively 0
.
The tabindex
order for the document is: 1, 2, 3, …, 0.
Initially, when the body
element (or no element) has focus, the first element in the tab order is the lowest non-zero tabindex
. If multiple elements have the same tabindex
, you then go in document order until you reach the last element with that tabindex
. Then you move to the next lowest tabindex
and the process continues. Finally, finish with those elements with a zero (or empty) tabindex
.
I created a simple jQuery plugin which does just this. It uses the ':tabbable' selector of jQuery UI to find the next 'tabbable' element and selects it.
Example usage:
// Simulate tab key when element is clicked
$('.myElement').bind('click', function(event){
$.tabNext();
return false;
});
Tabbable is a small JS package that gives you a list of all tabbable elements in tab order. So you could find your element within that list, then focus on the next list entry.
The package correctly handles the complicated edge cases mentioned in other answers (e.g., no ancestor can be display: none
). And it doesn't depend on jQuery!
As of this writing (version 1.1.1), it has the caveats that it doesn't support IE8, and that browser bugs prevent it from handling contenteditable
correctly.