nsIFocusManager

The focus manager deals with all focus related behaviour. Only one element
in the entire application may have the focus at a time; this element
receives any keyboard events. While there is only one application-wide
focused element, each nsIDOMWindow maintains a reference to the element
that would be focused if the window was active.

If the window’s reference is to a frame element (iframe, browser,
editor), then the child window contains the element that is currently
focused. If the window’s reference is to a root element, then the root is
focused. If a window’s reference is null, then no element is focused, yet
the window is still focused.

The blur event is fired on an element when it loses the application focus.
After this blur event, if the focus is moving away from a document, two
additional blur events are fired on the old document and window containing
the focus respectively.

When a new document is focused, two focus events are fired on the new
document and window respectively. Then the focus event is fired on an
element when it gains the application focus.

A special case is that the root element may be focused, yet does not
receive the element focus and blur events. Instead a focus outline may be
drawn around the document.

Blur and focus events do not bubble as per the W3C DOM Events spec.

Methods

getLastFocusMethod(window)

Returns the method that was used to focus the element in window. This
will either be 0, FLAG_BYMOUSE or FLAG_BYKEY. If window is null, then
the current focusedWindow will be used by default. This has the result
of retrieving the method that was used to focus the currently focused
element.

setFocus(aElement, aFlags)

Changes the focused element reference within the window containing
aElement to aElement.

moveFocus(aWindow, aStartElement, aType, aFlags)

Move the focus to another element. If aStartElement is specified, then
movement is done relative to aStartElement. If aStartElement is null,
then movement is done relative to the currently focused element. If no
element is focused, focus the first focusable element within the
document (or the last focusable element if aType is MOVEFOCUS_END). This
method is equivalent to setting the focusedElement to the new element.

Specifying aStartElement and using MOVEFOCUS_LAST is not currently
implemented.

If no element is found, and aType is either MOVEFOCUS_ROOT or
MOVEFOCUS_CARET, then the focus is cleared. If aType is any other value,
the focus is not changed.

Returns the element that was focused.

clearFocus(aWindow)

Clears the focused element within aWindow. If the current focusedWindow
is a descendant of aWindow, sets the current focusedWindow to aWindow.

@throws NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG if aWindow is null

getFocusedElementForWindow(aWindow, aDeep, aFocusedWindow)

Returns the currently focused element within aWindow. If aWindow is equal
to the current value of focusedWindow, then the returned element will be
the application-wide focused element (the value of focusedElement). The
return value will be null if no element is focused.

If aDeep is true, then child frames are traversed and the return value
may be the element within a child descendant window that is focused. If
aDeep if false, then the return value will be the frame element if the
focus is in a child frame.

aFocusedWindow will be set to the currently focused descendant window of
aWindow, or to aWindow if aDeep is false. This will be set even if no
element is focused.

@throws NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG if aWindow is null

moveCaretToFocus(aWindow)

Moves the selection caret within aWindow to the current focus.

elementIsFocusable(aElement, aFlags)

Check if given element is focusable.

windowRaised(aWindow)

Called when a window has been raised.

windowLowered(aWindow)

Called when a window has been lowered.

windowShown(aWindow, aNeedsFocus)

Called when a new document in a window is shown.

If aNeedsFocus is true, then focus events are expected to be fired on the
window if this window is in the focused window chain.

windowHidden(aWindow)

Called when a document in a window has been hidden or otherwise can no
longer accept focus.

fireDelayedEvents(aDocument)

Fire any events that have been delayed due to synchronized actions.

focusPlugin(aPlugin)

Indicate that a plugin wishes to take the focus. This is similar to a
normal focus except that the widget focus is not changed. Updating the
widget focus state is the responsibility of the caller.

Attributes

activeWindow

The most active (frontmost) window, or null if no window that is part of
the application is active. Setting the activeWindow raises it, and
focuses the current child window’s current element, if any. Setting this
to null or to a non-top-level window throws an NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG
exception.

focusedWindow

The child window within the activeWindow that is focused. This will
always be activeWindow, a child window of activeWindow or null if no
child window is focused. Setting the focusedWindow changes the focused
window and raises the toplevel window it is in. If the current focus
within the new focusedWindow is a frame element, then the focusedWindow
will actually be set to the child window and the current element within
that set as the focused element. This process repeats downwards until a
non-frame element is found.

focusedElement

The element that is currently focused. This will always be an element
within the document loaded in focusedWindow or null if no element in that
document is focused.

Constants

FLAG_RAISE

FLAG_NOSCROLL

Do not scroll the element to focus into view

FLAG_NOSWITCHFRAME

If attempting to change focus in a window that is not focused, do not
switch focus to that window. Instead, just update the focus within that
window and leave the application focus as is. This flag will have no
effect if a child window is focused and an attempt is made to adjust the
focus in an ancestor, as the frame must be switched in this case.

FLAG_NOPARENTFRAME

This flag is only used when passed to moveFocus. If set, focus is never
moved to the parent frame of the starting element’s document, instead
iterating around to the beginning of that document again. Child frames
are navigated as normal.

FLAG_BYMOUSE

Focus is changing due to a mouse operation, for instance the mouse was
clicked on an element.

FLAG_BYKEY

Focus is changing due to a key operation, for instance pressing the tab
key. This flag would normally be passed when MOVEFOCUS_FORWARD or
MOVEFOCUS_BACKWARD is used.

FLAG_BYMOVEFOCUS

Focus is changing due to a call to MoveFocus. This flag will be implied
when MoveFocus is called except when one of the other mechanisms (mouse
or key) is specified, or when the type is MOVEFOCUS_ROOT or
MOVEFOCUS_CARET.

FLAG_SHOWRING

Always show the focus ring or other indicator of focus, regardless of
other state.

MOVEFOCUS_FORWARD

move focus forward one element, used when pressing TAB */

MOVEFOCUS_BACKWARD

move focus backward one element, used when pressing Shift+TAB */

MOVEFOCUS_FORWARDDOC

move focus forward to the next frame document, used when pressing F6 */

MOVEFOCUS_BACKWARDDOC

move focus forward to the previous frame document, used when pressing Shift+F6 */

MOVEFOCUS_FIRST

move focus to the first focusable element */

MOVEFOCUS_LAST

move focus to the last focusable element */

MOVEFOCUS_ROOT

move focus to the root element in the document */

MOVEFOCUS_CARET

move focus to a link at the position of the caret. This is a special value used to
focus links as the caret moves over them in caret browsing mode.