I am using jQuery 1.3.2.

There is an input field in a form. Clicking on the input field opens a div as a dropdown. The div contains a list of items. As the list size is large there is a vertical scrollbar in the div.

To close the dropdown when clicked outside, there is a blur event on the input field.

Now the problem is:

In chrome(2.0.172) when we click on the scrollbar, the input field will loose focus. And now if you click outside, then the dropdown won't close(as the input has already lost focus when you clicked on the srollbar)

In Firefox(3.5), IE(8), opera(9.64), safari() when we click on the scrollbar the input field will not loose focus. Hence when you click outside (after clicking on the srollbar) the dropdown will close. This is the expected behaviour.

So In chrome once the scrollbar is clicked, and then if I click outside the dropdown won't close. How can i fix this issue with chrome.

I am using jQuery 1.3.2.

There is an input field in a form. Clicking on the input field opens a div as a dropdown. The div contains a list of items. As the list size is large there is a vertical scrollbar in the div.

To close the dropdown when clicked outside, there is a blur event on the input field.

Now the problem is:

In chrome(2.0.172) when we click on the scrollbar, the input field will loose focus. And now if you click outside, then the dropdown won't close(as the input has already lost focus when you clicked on the srollbar)

In Firefox(3.5), IE(8), opera(9.64), safari() when we click on the scrollbar the input field will not loose focus. Hence when you click outside (after clicking on the srollbar) the dropdown will close. This is the expected behaviour.

So In chrome once the scrollbar is clicked, and then if I click outside the dropdown won't close. How can i fix this issue with chrome.

• javascript
• jquery
• cross-browser
• google-chrome
• scrollbar

8 Answers 8

Well, I had the same problem in my dropdown control. I've asked Chrome developers concerning this issue, they said it's a bug that is not going to be fixed in the nearest future because of "it has not been reported by many people and the fix is not trivial". So, let's face the truth: this bug will stay for another year at least.

Though, for this particular case (dropdown) there is a workaround. The trick is: when one click on a scrollbar the "mouse down" event comes to the owner element of that scrollbar. We can use this fact to set a flag and check it in "onblur" handler. Here the explanation:

<input id="search_ctrl">
<div id="dropdown_wrap" style="overflow:auto;max-height:30px">
  <div id="dropdown_rows">
    <span>row 1</span>
    <span>row 2</span>
    <span>row 2</span>
  </div>
</div>

"dropdown_wrap" div will get a vertical scrollbar since its content doesn't fit fixed height. Once we get the click we are pretty sure that scrollbar was clicked and focus is going to be taken off. Now some code how to handle this:

search_ctrl.onfocus = function() {
  search_has_focus = true
}

search_ctrl.onblur = function() {
  search_has_focus = false
  if (!keep_focus) {
    // hide dropdown
  } else {
    keep_focus = false;
    search_ctrl.focus();
  }
}

dropdow_wrap.onclick = function() {
  if (isChrome()) {
    keep_focus = search_has_focus;
  }
}

That's it. We don't need any hacks for FF so there is a check for browser. In Chrome we detect click on scrollbar, allow bluring focus without closing the list and then immediately restore focus back to input control. Of course, if we have some logic for "search_ctrl.onfocus" it should be modified as well. Note that we need to check if search_ctrl had focus to prevent troubles with double clicks.

You may guess that better idea could be canceling onblur event but this won't work in Chrome. Not sure if this is bug or feature.

P.S. "dropdown_wrap" should not have any paddings or borders, otherwise user could click in this areas and we'll treat this as a scrollbar click.

I couldn't get these answers to work, maybe because they are from 2009. I just dealt with this, I think ihsoft is on the right track but a bit heavy handed.

With two functions

onMouseDown() {
    lastClickWasDropdown=true;
}
onBlur() {
    if (lastClickWasDropdown) {
        lastClickWasDropdown = false;
        box.focus();
    } else {
        box.close();
    }
}

The trick is in how you bind the elements. The onMouseDown event should be on the "container" div which contains everything that will be clicked (ie, the text box, the dropdown arrow, and the dropdown box and its scroll bar). The Blur event (or in jQuery the focusout event) should be bound directly to the textbox.

Tested and works!

I was facing the same situation/problem and I tested the solution from "ihsoft" but it has some issues. So I worked on an alternative for that and made just one similar to "ihsoft" but one that works. here is my solution:

var hide_dropdownlist=true;

search_ctrl.onblur = function() {

  search_has_focus = false
  if (hide_dropdownlist) {
    // hide dropdown
  } else {
    hide_dropdownlist = true;
    search_ctrl.focus();
  }
}

dropdow_wrap.onmouseover = function() {
    hide_dropdownlist=false;
}
dropdow_wrap.onmouseoout = function() {
    hide_dropdownlist=true;
}

I hope this will help someone.

Earlier also I faced such situation and this is what I have been doing.

$('html').click(function() {
    hasFocus = 0;
    hideResults();
});

and on the input field i will do this

$('input').click()
{
    event.stopPropagation();

}

So this will close the drop down if clicked anywhere outside the div (even the scrollbar). But I thought if someone could provide a more logical solution.

Could you maybe set the blur event to fire on the drop down div as well? This way, when either the input or the drop down loses focus, it will dissapear...

I'm curious...
You're using the last version of every browser, why don't you try it in chrome 4.0.202?

instead of detecting the blur, detect the document.body or window click and grab the mouse point. determine if this mouse point is outside of the menu box. presto, you've detected when they clicked outside the box!

I solved this by doing the following:

#my_container is the container which has the "overflow: auto" CSS rule

$('#my_container')  
    .mouseenter(function(){  
    //  alert('ctr in!');  
    mouse_in_container = true;  
    })  

    .mouseleave(function(){   
     //  alert('ctr out!');  
     mouse_in_container = false;  
    });  

And then:

$('input').blur(function(){
  if(mouse_in_container)
    return;
  ... Normal code for blur event ...
});

When I select an element in the drop down, I rewrite the code as:

        (>> ADDED THIS) mouse_in_container=false;
        $('input').attr('active', false); // to blur input
        $('#my_container').hide();