How do I set input focus in an HTML menu?

Speednet · Post by **Speednet** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:21 pm

I have a menu with type=html, and that menu has one input space. When the menu opens, I would like to set the input focus to that input space, so that the user already has the cursor blinking in it without having to click it.

I cannot find an "openfunction" property that would fire when the menu first opens (like the "load" attribute on the <body> tag). If there were such a property, I presumably could set that property to "document.form.textelement.focus()".

Anyone have a clue how to do this?

Thanks!

Post by **Andy** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 12:57 am

You could do it with a timed function, something like this:

function setFocus()
{
setTimeout("document.forms.search.q.focus()",100);
}
Assuming a form object named "search" and a text box called "q"

Called from the parent menu item with an onfunction embedded inside the aI string, like this:

aI("url=/search.php;text=Search;showmenu=mm search;onfunction=setFocus()");

Hope this helps
Andy

Speednet · Post by **Speednet** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:30 am

Interesting concept, thanks. It's actually a popup menu, so there's no parent. But I guess I could call the Timeout function just before calling popup(), right?

Speednet · Post by **Speednet** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:00 am

I just tested it - works great with a popup. I put the following code in the onClick event:

onClick="setTimeout('document.forms.frm.q.focus()',100);popup('menuname');"

Thanks again!

rudy · Post by **rudy** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:23 am

I'm interested in doing somethiing like that - mind sharing a URL so we can see it in action

Speednet wrote:I just tested it - works great with a popup. I put the following code in the onClick event:

onClick="setTimeout('document.forms.frm.q.focus()',100);popup('menuname');"

Thanks again!