Setting Focus to SWF in Firefox using SWFObject

402 views
Skip to first unread message

smthames

unread,
Nov 9, 2009, 5:32:47 PM11/9/09
to SWFObject
Using SWFObject 2.0:

<div id="app"></div>

<style>
object:focus { outline: none; }
</style>

<script type="text/javascript">

var flashvars =
{
AppPath: '<%=String.Format("{0}://{1}{2}",
Request.Url.Scheme, Request.Url.Host, ai.Path)%>'
};

var params =
{
allowScriptAccess: "always",
wmode: "transparent"
};

var attributes =
{
};

swfobject.embedSWF("flash/CAPTAClient.swf?128988943755758144",
"app",
"950",
"480",
"9",
'/CAPTA/include/expressInstall.swf',
flashvars,
params,
attributes);

swfobject.addDomLoadEvent(function() { document.getElementById
("app").focus(); });

</script>
</div>

The SWF contains a username/password input panel. This works fine in
IE. In FF, the caret is flashing in the User Name field, as it
should, but no keyboard input works and will not work until the user
clicks on the SWF object, itself. Further, when the SWF is active,
tabbing will only tab through the SWF fields--not out into the browser
location bar.

I don't care so much about the tabbing but would really like to know
how to allow the user to type into the focused input field without
having to click on the SWF.

Anyone have any idea?

Sam Sherlock

unread,
Nov 10, 2009, 1:02:41 PM11/10/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com
swfobject is working fine, this is a general flash issue - does using traditional object/embed method rather than swfobject make it work?  (I would imagine not - why I see this as a general flash issue)

I have found (but not tried it)

- S



2009/11/9 smthames <sth...@csmgconsulting.com>

Steve Thames

unread,
Nov 10, 2009, 1:36:12 PM11/10/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com

Thanks for responding, Sam.

Actually, the consensus I am finding is that this is a general Mozilla issue.  Some think it is related to setting wmode to transparent but I find these results with any setting.  As I said, it works fine in IE.  Don’t know yet about Opera or Safari.  I am looking to find anyone that has found a solution to this problem.

 

I did find one site in which someone had apparently solved this but it involved about three pages of Javascript code and I’m looking for something a little easier than that.

Aran Rhee

unread,
Nov 10, 2009, 7:02:33 PM11/10/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com
Yes, this is a known Mozilla bug with wmode (amongst many others).

The easiest solution is to avoid wmode = opaque/transparent if at all possible...

Aran

Steve Thames

unread,
Nov 10, 2009, 7:30:58 PM11/10/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com

Actually, I tried with opaque/transparent/window and no setting at all.  No differences.

Aran Rhee

unread,
Nov 10, 2009, 7:50:31 PM11/10/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com
window is the default wmode value if nothing is set.

You should easily be able to set focus to the object with some simple js like:
document.getElementById("FlashObjectID").focus(); 

This is obviously a simplification, and you should ensure that you swf is actually available before trying to call this method (use the swfobject callback function)


Aran

Steve Thames

unread,
Nov 11, 2009, 10:09:37 AM11/11/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com

Aran, at the bottom of the code in my original post you will find:

 

swfobject.addDomLoadEvent(function() { document.getElementById("app").focus(); });

                where “app” is the DIV container where the swf is loaded.

 

This is the solution for setting focus suggested all over the web regarding swfobject 2.0 and it works fine in IE.

 

Did you mean something else?

Aran Rhee

unread,
Nov 11, 2009, 7:09:38 PM11/11/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com
Yes (I was referring to something else). I was meaning the callback function available on the swfobject embed methods. With your above code, you have not guaranteed that the swf has actually been created before running your code.

e.g.

<script type="text/javascript">
function doFocus(e) 
{
//alert("e.success = " + e.success +"\ne.id = "+ e.id +"\ne.ref = "+ e.ref);
e.ref.focus();
}
swfobject.embedSWF("focustest.swf", "myContent", "550", "400", "9.0.0", false, false, {wmode:"opaque"}, false, doFocus);
</script>

The callback function (after checking for the success property) should only run after the swf is actually on the page.


The other thing you should ensure is that all your swfobject code is up in the <head> so that the execution order is actually correct. If you have it inline, then of course your code will only run once that part of the page is actually loaded. 


That all being said, with the above example code, I can get the caret to flash in FF etc, but you still need to click into the swf to actually type anything which does not help you!!! ( BTW without opaque wmode, you cannot even get the caret to flash...)


<edit>

After some more messing around (I hate it when things don't work), I finally got it working in both IE and FF (note this still does not work in Chrome or Safari (PC)). As you may have seen in other threads, you seem to need to wait for some amount of time before trying to set focus in FF etc.

Both the callback method and addDomLoadEvent seem to execute to early. Some people hack it by adding a timer before calling focus, but that just seems lame to me. Here is what I came up with:



The only other methodolgy I have seen which I have not tried is to use ExternalInterface to get flash to call a js method on load to then invoke focus from the host page. Perhaps this will work across all browsers???

Unfortunately, I do not have any more spare time to dedicate to this right now. Anyone else ever had to deal with this issue?


Aran





 


Steve Thames

unread,
Nov 11, 2009, 8:36:11 PM11/11/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com

That’s quite clever, Aran.  Hadn’t thought of that.  Curious that it doesn’t work in the other browsers.

Steve Thames

unread,
Nov 16, 2009, 6:14:45 PM11/16/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com

FYI, Aran, it does not seem to be required to set “onkeydown=swf.focus()”.  I found that doing “swf.focus()” in the onload event is sufficient.  It looks clearly like you are correct—the addDomLoadEvent handler is being called too early.

Aran Rhee

unread,
Nov 16, 2009, 6:31:13 PM11/16/09
to swfo...@googlegroups.com
Hi Steve.

After reading a few rants/articles/etc, some authors (inc an Adobe engineer) seemed to think that this was required to ensure that the keys get captured properly under all circumstances. I too found that just the one focus call did the trick for my simple test file,. so feel free to remove it, if you app is working the way you want :)

Aran
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages