Javascript – Mobile Safari Autofocus text field

autofocusfocusjavascriptmobile-safari

In Mobile Safari I am unable to focus onto a text field after setting a delay period. I'm attaching some example code showcasing the issue.
If, onclick of the button, you trigger .focus(), everything works as expected. If you hang the focus on a callback, like the setTimeout function, then it fails ONLY in mobile safari. In all other browsers, there is a delay, then the focus occurs.

Confusingly, the "focusin" event is triggered, even in mobile safari. This (and ~similar~ comments in SO) make me think that it's a mobile safari bug. Any guidance will be accepted.

I've tested in the emulator, and on iPhone 3GS/4 iOS4.

Example HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html> 
  <html lang='en'> 
    <head> 
      <title>Autofocus tests</title> 
      <meta content='width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no, minimum-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0' name='viewport'> 
      <meta content='yes' name='apple-mobile-web-app-capable'> 
    </head> 
    <body>
      <h1> 
        Show keyboard without user focus and select text:
      </h1> 
      <p> 
        <button id='focus-test-button'> 
          Should focus on input when you click me after .5 second
        </button> 
        <input id='focus-test-input' type='number' value='20'> 
      </p> 
      <script type="text/javascript"> 
        //<![CDATA[
        var button = document.getElementById('focus-test-button');
        var input  = document.getElementById('focus-test-input');

        input.addEventListener('focusin', function(event) {
          console.log('focus');
          console.log(event);
        });

        button.addEventListener('click', function() {
          // *** If triggered immediately - functionality occurs as expected
          // input.focus();
          // *** If called by callback - triggers the focusin event, but does not bring up keyboard or cursor
          var t = setTimeout("input.focus();",500);
        });
        //]]>
      </script>
    </body>
  </html>

~Similar~ SO questions:

Best Answer

I think this is a feature of mobile Safari rather than a bug. In our work on FastClick, my colleagues and I found that iOS will only allow focus to be triggered on other elements, from within a function, if the first function in the call stack was triggered by a non-programmatic event. In your case, the call to setTimeout starts a new call stack, and the security mechanism kicks in to prevent you from setting focus on the input.

Remember that on iOS setting focus on an input element brings up the keyboard - so all those web pages out there that set focus on an input element on page load, like Google does, would be extremely annoying to use on iOS. I guess Apple decided they had to do something to prevent this. So I disagree with @DA: this is a feature not a bug.

There's no known workaround for this, so you'll have to ditch the idea of using a delay.

Update August 2012:

As of iOS 5, handlers triggered by synthesised click events are allowed to trigger focus on input elements. Try the updated FastClick input focus example.

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