focus-trap
Advanced tools
The focus-trap npm package is designed to trap focus within a specified DOM element. This is particularly useful for accessibility in modal dialogs, ensuring that keyboard users do not accidentally move focus outside of the dialog, thereby improving the user experience and accessibility compliance.
Create and activate a focus trap
This code demonstrates how to create and activate a focus trap within a specified DOM element, typically a modal dialog. It ensures that all keyboard navigation remains within the 'modal' element.
const { createFocusTrap } = require('focus-trap');
const container = document.getElementById('modal');
const focusTrap = createFocusTrap(container);
focusTrap.activate();Deactivate a focus trap
This code snippet shows how to deactivate a previously activated focus trap, allowing focus to move freely outside the trapped container once again.
focusTrap.deactivate();Set return focus on deactivation
This feature allows setting a specific element to receive focus when the focus trap is deactivated. It enhances usability by returning focus to a logical location, such as a button that initially triggered the modal.
const focusTrap = createFocusTrap(container, {
onDeactivate: () => document.getElementById('triggerButton').focus()
});focus-lock is similar to focus-trap in that it also provides functionality to trap focus within a DOM element. However, focus-lock offers additional features such as auto-focusing the first focusable element and integration with React components.
react-focus-lock is a React-specific implementation of focus trapping. It provides similar functionalities to focus-trap but is tailored specifically for use within React applications, making it easier to integrate with React component lifecycle.
Trap focus within a DOM node.
There may come a time when you find it important to trap focus within a DOM node — so that when a user hits Tab or Shift+Tab or clicks around, she can't escape a certain cycle of focusable elements.
You will definitely face this challenge when you are trying to build accessible modals.
This module is a little, modular vanilla JS solution to that problem.
Use it in your higher-level components. For example, if you are using React check out focus-trap-react, a light wrapper around this library. If you are not a React user, consider creating light wrappers in your framework-of-choice.
When a focus trap is activated, this is what should happen:
Tab and Shift+Tab keys will cycle through the focus trap's tabbable elements but will not leave the focus trap.Escape key will deactivate the focus trap.When the focus trap is deactivated, this is what should happen:
For more advanced usage (e.g. focus traps within focus traps), you can also pause a focus trap's behavior without deactivating it entirely, then unpause at will.
npm install focus-trap
You can also use a UMD version published to unpkg.com as dist/focus-trap.umd.js and dist/focus-trap.umd.min.js.
NOTE: The UMD build does not bundle the
tabbabledependency. Therefore you will have to also include that one, and include it beforefocus-trap.
<head>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/tabbable/dist/index.umd.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/focus-trap/dist/focus-trap.umd.js"></script>
</head>
IE9+
Why?
Because this module uses EventTarget.addEventListener().
And its only dependency, tabbable, uses a couple of IE9+ functions.
import * as focusTrap from 'focus-trap'; // ESM
const focusTrap = require('focus-trap'); // CJS
// UMD: `focusTrap` is defined as a global on `window`
trap = focusTrap.createFocusTrap(element[, createOptions]);
Returns a new focus trap on element (one or more "containers" of tabbable nodes that, together, form the total set of nodes that can be visited, with clicks or the tab key, within the trap).
element can be
document.querySelector() to find the DOM node); orA focus trap must have at least one container with at least one tabbable/focusable node in it to be considered valid. While nodes can be added/removed at runtime, with the trap adjusting to added/removed tabbable nodes, an error will be thrown if the trap ever gets into a state where it determines none of its containers have any tabbable nodes in them and the
fallbackFocusoption does not resolve to an alternate node where focus can go.
{() => void}: A function that will be called before sending focus to the target element upon activation.{() => void}: A function that will be called after sending focus to the target element upon activation.{(containers: Array<HTMLElement | SVGElement>) => Promise<void>}: Animated dialogs have a small delay between when onActivate is called and when the focus trap is focusable. checkCanFocusTrap expects a promise to be returned. When that promise settles (resolves or rejects), focus will be sent to the first tabbable node (in tab order) in the focus trap (or the node configured in the initialFocus option). Due to the lack of Promise support, checkCanFocusTrap is not supported in IE unless you provide a Promise polyfill.{() => void}: A function that will be called before returning focus to the node that had focus prior to activation (or configured with the setReturnFocus option) upon deactivation.{() => void}: A function that will be called after returning focus to the node that had focus prior to activation (or configured with the setReturnFocus option) upon deactivation.{(trigger: HTMLElement | SVGElement) => Promise<void>}: An animated trigger button will have a small delay between when onDeactivate is called and when the focus is able to be sent back to the trigger. checkCanReturnFocus expects a promise to be returned. When that promise settles (resolves or rejects), focus will be sent to to the node that had focus prior to the activation of the trap (or the node configured in the setReturnFocus option). Due to the lack of Promise support, checkCanReturnFocus is not supported in IE unless you provide a Promise polyfill.{HTMLElement | SVGElement | string | () => HTMLElement | SVGElement}: By default, when a focus trap is activated the first element in the focus trap's tab order will receive focus. With this option you can specify a different element to receive that initial focus. Can be a DOM node, or a selector string (which will be passed to document.querySelector() to find the DOM node), or a function that returns a DOM node.{HTMLElement | SVGElement | string | () => HTMLElement | SVGElement}: By default, an error will be thrown if the focus trap contains no elements in its tab order. With this option you can specify a fallback element to programmatically receive focus if no other tabbable elements are found. For example, you may want a popover's <div> to receive focus if the popover's content includes no tabbable elements. Make sure the fallback element has a negative tabindex so it can be programmatically focused. The option value can be a DOM node, a selector string (which will be passed to document.querySelector() to find the DOM node), or a function that returns a DOM node.{boolean}: Default: true. If false, the Escape key will not trigger deactivation of the focus trap. This can be useful if you want to force the user to make a decision instead of allowing an easy way out.{boolean | (e: MouseEvent | TouchEvent) => boolean}: If true or returns true, a click outside the focus trap will deactivate the focus trap and allow the click event to do its thing (i.e. to pass-through to the element that was clicked). This option takes precedence over allowOutsideClick when it's set to true. Default: false.
allowOutsideClick option to better control exactly when the focus trap can be deactivated. The clickable icons are usually positioned absolutely, floating on top of the fields, and therefore not part of the container the trap is managing. When using the clickOutsideDeactivates option, clicking on a field's 1Password icon will likely cause the trap to be unintentionally deactivated.{boolean | (e: MouseEvent | TouchEvent) => boolean}: If set and is or returns true, a click outside the focus trap will not be prevented, even when clickOutsideDeactivates is false. When clickOutsideDeactivates is true, this option is ignored (i.e. if it's a function, it will not be called). Use this option to control if (and even which) clicks are allowed outside the trap in conjunction with clickOutsideDeactivates: false. Default: false.
mousedown (or touchstart on mobile), and then on the actual click if the function returned true on the first event. Be sure to check the event type if the double call is an issue in your code.{boolean}: Default: true. If false, when the trap is deactivated, focus will not return to the element that had focus before activation.{HTMLElement | SVGElement | string | () => HTMLElement | SVGElement}: By default, focus trap on deactivation will return to the element that was focused before activation. With this option you can specify another element to programmatically receive focus after deactivation. Can be a DOM node, or a selector string (which will be passed to document.querySelector() to find the DOM node), or a function that returns a DOM node.{boolean}: By default, focus() will scroll to the element if not in viewport. It can produce unintended effects like scrolling back to the top of a modal. If set to true, no scroll will happen.{boolean}: Default: true. Delays the autofocus to the next execution frame when the focus trap is activated. This prevents elements within the focusable element from capturing the event that triggered the focus trap activation.Activates the focus trap, adding various event listeners to the document.
If focus is already within it the trap, it remains unaffected. Otherwise, focus-trap will try to focus the following nodes, in order:
createOptions.initialFocuscreateOptions.fallbackFocusIf none of the above exist, an error will be thrown. You cannot have a focus trap that lacks focus.
Returns the trap.
activateOptions:
These options are used to override the focus trap's default behavior for this particular activation.
{() => void}: Default: whatever you chose for createOptions.onActivate. null or false are the equivalent of a noop.{() => void}: Default: whatever you chose for createOptions.onPostActivate. null or false are the equivalent of a noop.{(containers: Array<HTMLElement | SVGElement>) => Promise<void>}: Default: whatever you chose for createOptions.checkCanFocusTrap.Deactivates the focus trap.
Returns the trap.
deactivateOptions:
These options are used to override the focus trap's default behavior for this particular deactivation.
{boolean}: Default: whatever you chose for createOptions.returnFocusOnDeactivate.{() => void}: Default: whatever you chose for createOptions.onDeactivate. null or false are the equivalent of a noop.{() => void}: Default: whatever you chose for createOptions.onPostDeactivate. null or false are the equivalent of a noop.{(trigger: HTMLElement | SVGElement) => Promise<void>}: Default: whatever you chose for createOptions.checkCanReturnFocus. Not called if the returnFocus option is falsy. trigger is either the originally focused node prior to activation, or the result of the setReturnFocus configuration option.Pause an active focus trap's event listening without deactivating the trap.
If the focus trap has not been activated, nothing happens.
Returns the trap.
Any onDeactivate callback will not be called, and focus will not return to the element that was focused before the trap's activation. But the trap's behavior will be paused.
This is useful in various cases, one of which is when you want one focus trap within another. demo-six exemplifies how you can implement this.
Unpause an active focus trap. (See pause(), above.)
Focus is forced into the trap just as described for focusTrap.activate().
If the focus trap has not been activated or has not been paused, nothing happens.
Returns the trap.
Update the element(s) that are used as containers for the focus trap.
When you call the function createFocusTrap, you pass in an element (or selector), or an array of elements (or selectors) to keep the focus within. This method simply allows you to update which elements to keep the focus within.
A use case for this is found in focus-trap-react, where React ref's may not be initialized yet, but when they are you want to have them be a container element.
Returns the trap.
Read code in demo/ and see how it works.
Here's what happens in default.js (the "default behavior" demo):
const { createFocusTrap } = require('../../dist/focus-trap');
const container = document.getElementById('default');
const focusTrap = createFocusTrap('#default', {
onActivate: () => container.classList.add('is-active'),
onDeactivate: () => container.classList.remove('is-active'),
});
document
.getElementById('activate-default')
.addEventListener('click', focusTrap.activate);
document
.getElementById('deactivate-default')
.addEventListener('click', focusTrap.deactivate);
Only one focus trap can be listening at a time. If a second focus trap is activated the first will automatically pause. The first trap is unpaused and again traps focus when the second is deactivated.
Focus trap manages a queue of traps: if A activates; then B activates, pausing A; then C activates, pausing B; when C then deactivates, B is unpaused; and when B then deactivates, A is unpaused.
The focus trap will work best if the first and last focusable elements in your trap are simple elements that all browsers treat the same, like buttons and inputs.**
Tabbing will work as expected with trickier, less predictable elements — like iframes, shadow trees, audio and video elements, etc. — as long as they are between more predictable elements (that is, if they are not the first or last tabbable element in the trap).
This limitation is ultimately rooted in browser inconsistencies and inadequacies, but it comes to focus-trap through its dependency Tabbable. You can read about more details in the Tabbable documentation.
You can't have a focus trap without focus, so an error will be thrown if you try to initialize focus-trap with an element that contains no tabbable nodes.
If you find yourself in this situation, you should give you container tabindex="-1" and set it as initialFocus or fallbackFocus. A couple of demos illustrate this.
Because of the nature of the functionality, involving keyboard and click and (especially) focus events, JavaScript unit tests don't make sense. After all, JSDom does not fully support focus events. Since the demo was developed to also be the test, we use Cypress to automate running through all demos in the demo page.
See CONTRIBUTING.
In alphabetical order:
6.5.0
checkCanFocusTrap(), onPostActivate(), checkCanReturnFocus(), and onPostDeactivate().SVGElement as a supported type of "DOM node" since it supports the focus() method, same as HTMLElement.FAQs
Trap focus within a DOM node.
The npm package focus-trap receives a total of 1,675,416 weekly downloads. As such, focus-trap popularity was classified as popular.
We found that focus-trap demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 0 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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