Focus Next Element In Tab Index

Question

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.

function OnFocusOut()
{
    var currentElement = $get(currentElementId); // ID set by OnFocusIn 

    currentElementId = "";
    currentElement.nextElementByTabIndex.focus();
}

Of course the nextElementByTabIndex is the key part for this to work. How do I find the next element in the tab sequence? The solution would need to be based using JScript and not something like JQuery.

Answer 1

Here's something I build for this purpose:

focusNextElement: function () {
    //add all elements we want to include in our selection
    var focussableElements = 'a:not([disabled]), button:not([disabled]), input[type=text]:not([disabled]), [tabindex]:not([disabled]):not([tabindex="-1"])';
    if (document.activeElement && document.activeElement.form) {
        var focussable = Array.prototype.filter.call(document.activeElement.form.querySelectorAll(focussableElements),
        function (element) {
            //check for visibility while always include the current activeElement 
            return element.offsetWidth > 0 || element.offsetHeight > 0 || element === document.activeElement
        });
        var index = focussable.indexOf(document.activeElement);
        if(index > -1) {
           var nextElement = focussable[index + 1] || focussable[0];
           nextElement.focus();
        }                    
    }
}

Features:

• configurable set of focusable elements
• no jQuery needed
• works in all modern browsers
• fast & lightweight

Answer 2

As mentioned in a comment above, I don't think that any browsers expose tab order information. Here a simplified approximation of what the browser does to get the next element in tab order:

var allowedTags = {input: true, textarea: true, button: true};

var walker = document.createTreeWalker(
  document.body,
  NodeFilter.SHOW_ELEMENT,
  {
    acceptNode: function(node)
    {
      if (node.localName in allowedTags)
        return NodeFilter.FILTER_ACCEPT;
      else
        NodeFilter.FILTER_SKIP;
    }
  },
  false
);
walker.currentNode = currentElement;
if (!walker.nextNode())
{
  // Restart search from the start of the document
  walker.currentNode = walker.root;
  walker.nextNode();
}
if (walker.currentNode && walker.currentNode != walker.root)
  walker.currentNode.focus();

This only considers some tags and ignores tabindex attribute but might be enough depending on what you are trying to achieve.

Answer 3

Hope this is helpful.

<input size="2" tabindex="1" id="one"
  maxlength="2" onkeyup="toUnicode(this)" />

<input size="2" tabindex="2" id="two"
  maxlength="2" onkeyup="toUnicode(this)" />

<input size="2" tabindex="3" id="three"
 maxlength="2" onkeyup="toUnicode(this)" />

then use simple javascript

function toUnicode(elmnt)
{
  var next;
 if (elmnt.value.length==elmnt.maxLength)
{
next=elmnt.tabIndex + 1;
//look for the fields with the next tabIndex
var f = elmnt.form;
for (var i = 0; i < f.elements.length; i++)
{
  if (next<=f.elements[i].tabIndex)
  {
    f.elements[i].focus();
    break;
    }
   }
  }
}

Answer 4

It seems that you can check the tabIndex property of an element to determine if it is focusable. An element that is not focusable has a tabindex of "-1".

Then you just need to know the rules for tab stops:

• tabIndex="1" has the highest priorty.
• tabIndex="2" has the next highest priority.
• tabIndex="3" is next, and so on.
• tabIndex="0" (or tabbable by default) has the lowest priority.
• tabIndex="-1" (or not tabbable by default) does not act as a tab stop.
• For two elements that have the same tabIndex, the one that appears first in the DOM has the higher priority.

Here is an example of how to build the list of tab stops, in sequence, using pure Javascript:

function getTabStops(o, a, el) {
    // Check if this element is a tab stop
    if (el.tabIndex > 0) {
        if (o[el.tabIndex]) {
            o[el.tabIndex].push(el);
        } else {
            o[el.tabIndex] = [el];
        }
    } else if (el.tabIndex === 0) {
        // Tab index "0" comes last so we accumulate it seperately
        a.push(el);
    }
    // Check if children are tab stops
    for (var i = 0, l = el.children.length; i < l; i++) {
        getTabStops(o, a, el.children[i]);
    }
}

var o = [],
    a = [],
    stops = [],
    active = document.activeElement;

getTabStops(o, a, document.body);

// Use simple loops for maximum browser support
for (var i = 0, l = o.length; i < l; i++) {
    if (o[i]) {
        for (var j = 0, m = o[i].length; j < m; j++) {
            stops.push(o[i][j]);
        }
    }
}
for (var i = 0, l = a.length; i < l; i++) {
    stops.push(a[i]);
}

We first walk the DOM, collecting up all tab stops in sequence with their index. We then assemble the final list. Notice that we add the items with tabIndex="0" at the very end of the list, after the items with a tabIndex of 1, 2, 3, etc.

For a fully working example, where you can tab around using the "enter" key, check out this fiddle.

Answer 5

I've never implemented this, but I've looked into a similar problem, and here's what I would try.

Try this first

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.

If that doesn't work, you'll have to work harder…

Referencing the jQuery implementation, you must:

1. Listen for Tab and Shift+Tab
2. Know which elements are tab-able
3. Understand how tab order works

1. Listen for Tab and Shift+Tab

Listening for Tab and Shift+Tab are probably well-covered elsewhere on the web, so I'll skip that part.

2. Know which elements are tab-able

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.
• any element that has a numerical value for tabindex set.

Furthermore, an element is focusable only if:

• None of its ancestors are display: none.
• The computed value of 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.

3. Understand how tab order works

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.

Answer 6

The core of the answer lies on finding the next element:

  function findNextTabStop(el) {
    var universe = document.querySelectorAll('input, button, select, textarea, a[href]');
    var list = Array.prototype.filter.call(universe, function(item) {return item.tabIndex >= "0"});
    var index = list.indexOf(el);
    return list[index + 1] || list[0];
  }

Usage:

var nextEl = findNextTabStop(element);
nextEl.focus();

Notice I don't care about prioritizing tabIndex.