JavaScript keydown event: can I tell what element previously had focus?

Question

When a user was focused on a particular element when they pressed the tab key, I want to execute a particular function. But I don't want to this function to execute unless that particular element had focus when the tab key was pressed.

Is there a way to to tell what element had (has?) focus from the keydown event itself? Or should I set a particularElementHasFocus property in response to onBlur and onFocus events on that element?

Answer 1

You can use document.activeElement to get current focused element. or use following code

var particularElementHasFocus  ;
$('input, textarea, button').focus(function() {
  particularElementHasFocus = this;
});

$('input, textarea, button').blur(function() {
  particularElementHasFocus = null;
});