Input effect on keyboard tab -> focus, but NOT on click

Question

When a user \'tabs over\' to an input, I want the focus effect to be normally displayed, but on click, I don\'t want it to be visible.

User hits tab

Answer 1

I'm currently doing something similar for my company. Unfortunately you must use JavaScript since CSS doesn't support this use case.

Here's what I've done.

var btns = document.querySelectorAll('button');

var onMouseDown = function (evt) {
  evt.target.dataset.pressed = 'true';
};

var onMouseUp = function (evt) {
  evt.target.dataset.pressed = 'false';
};

var onFocus = function (evt) {
  var element = evt.target;
  if (element.dataset.pressed !== 'true') {
    element.classList.add('focus');
  }
};

var onBlur = function (evt) {
  evt.target.classList.remove('focus');
};

for(var i = 0, l = btns.length; i < l; i++) {
  btns[i].addEventListener('mousedown', onMouseDown);
  btns[i].addEventListener('mouseup', onMouseUp); 
  btns[i].addEventListener('focus', onFocus);
  btns[i].addEventListener('blur', onBlur);
}

* { box-sizing: border-box; }

body { background-color: white; }

button {
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
  min-width: 100px;
  margin: 0 1px;
  padding: 12px 10px;
  font-size: 15px;
  color: white;
  background-color: #646e7c;
  border: none;
  border-radius: 5px;
  box-shadow: 0 2px 2px 0 rgba(0,0,0,.2);
  cursor: pointer;
  -webkit-user-select: none;
  -moz-user-select: none;
  user-select: none;
}

button:focus { outline: none; }

button:active {
  -webkit-transform: translateY(1px);
  -moz-transform: translateY(1px);
  transform: translateY(1px);
  box-shadow: 0 0 2px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}

button.focus {
  font-weight: bold;
}

button.primary { background-color: #2093d0; }

button.success { background-color: #71a842; }

button.danger { background-color: #ef4448; }

  


  Default
  Primary
  Success
  Danger

Basically instead of relying on browser's native focus I add/remove a focus class on my button depending on the situation.