Crossbrowser equivalent of explicitOriginalTarget event parameter

Question

Hi,

Does anyone know of crossbrowser equivalent of explicitOriginalTarget event parameter? This parameter is Mozilla specific and it gives me the element that caused the blur. Let's say i have a text input and a link on my page. Text input has the focus. If I click on the link, text input's blur event gives me the link element in Firefox via explicitOriginalTarget parameter.

I am extending Autocompleter.Base's onBlur method to not hide the search results when search field loses focus to given elements. By default, onBlur method hides if search-field loses focus to any element.

Autocompleter.Base.prototype.onBlur = Autocompleter.Base.prototype.onBlur.wrap(
function(origfunc, ev) {
    var newTargetElement = (ev.explicitOriginalTarget.nodeType == 3 ? ev.explicitOriginalTarget.parentNode: ev.explicitOriginalTarget); // FIX: This works only in firefox because of event's explicitOriginalTarget property
    var callOriginalFunction = true;
    for (i = 0; i < obj.options.validEventElements.length; i++) {
        if ($(obj.options.validEventElements[i])) {
            if (newTargetElement.descendantOf($(obj.options.validEventElements[i])) == true || newTargetElement == $(obj.options.validEventElements[i])) {
                callOriginalFunction = false;
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    if (callOriginalFunction) {
        return origFunc(ev);
    }
}
);


new Ajax.Autocompleter("search-field", "search-results", 'getresults.php', { validEventElements: ['search-field','result-count'] });

Thanks.

Answer 1

Looks like it is more designed for extension writers than for Web design...

I would watch the blur/focus events on both targets (or potential targets) and share their information.
The exact implementation might depend on the purpose, actually.

Answer 2

There is no equivalent to explicitOriginalTarget in any of the other than Gecko-based browsers. In Gecko this is an internal property and it is not supposed to be used by an application developer (maybe by XBL binding writers).

Answer 3

The rough equivalent for Mozilla's .explicitOriginalTarget in IE is document.activeElement. I say rough equivalent because it will sometimes return a slightly different level in the DOM node tree depending on your circumstance, but it's still a useful tool. Unfortunately I'm still looking for a Google Chrome equivalent.