I have a search input text which I'd like to apply a focus()
when loading the page, the problem is that the focus
function automatically does a scroll to this field. Any solution to disable this scroll?
<input id="search_terms" type="text" />
<script>
document.getelementbyId('search-terms').focus();
</script>
Here's a complete solution:
var cursorFocus = function(elem) {
var x = window.scrollX, y = window.scrollY;
elem.focus();
window.scrollTo(x, y);
}
cursorFocus(document.getElementById('search-terms'));
There is a new WHATWG standard which allows you you to pass an object to focus()
which specifies that you want to prevent the browser from scrolling the element into view:
const element = document.getElementById('search-terms')
element.focus({
preventScroll: true
});
It is currently supported in Chrome 64 and Edge Insider Preview build 17046.
A bit modified version that supports more browsers (incl. IE9)
var cursorFocus = function(elem) {
var x, y;
// More sources for scroll x, y offset.
if (typeof(window.pageXOffset) !== 'undefined') {
x = window.pageXOffset;
y = window.pageYOffset;
} else if (typeof(window.scrollX) !== 'undefined') {
x = window.scrollX;
y = window.scrollY;
} else if (document.documentElement && typeof(document.documentElement.scrollLeft) !== 'undefined') {
x = document.documentElement.scrollLeft;
y = document.documentElement.scrollTop;
} else {
x = document.body.scrollLeft;
y = document.body.scrollTop;
}
elem.focus();
if (typeof x !== 'undefined') {
// In some cases IE9 does not seem to catch instant scrollTo request.
setTimeout(function() { window.scrollTo(x, y); }, 100);
}
}
If you are using jQuery, you can also do this:
$.fn.focusWithoutScrolling = function(){
var x = window.scrollX, y = window.scrollY;
this.focus();
window.scrollTo(x, y);
};
and then
$('#search_terms').focusWithoutScrolling();
The answers here do not take care of scrolling on the whole hierarchy, but the main scrollbars only. This answer will take care of everything:
var focusWithoutScrolling = function (el) {
var scrollHierarchy = [];
var parent = el.parentNode;
while (parent) {
scrollHierarchy.push([parent, parent.scrollLeft, parent.scrollTop]);
parent = parent.parentNode;
}
el.focus();
scrollHierarchy.forEach(function (item) {
var el = item[0];
// Check first to avoid triggering unnecessary `scroll` events
if (el.scrollLeft != item[1])
el.scrollLeft = item[1];
if (el.scrollTop != item[2])
el.scrollTop = item[2];
});
};
As of today, the preferred way to set the focus on an element upon page load is using the autofocus
attribute. This does not involve any scrolling.
<input id="search_terms" type="text" autofocus />
The autofocus
attrubute is part of the HTML5 standard and is supported by all major browsers, with the only notable exception of Internet Explorer 9 or earlier.