window.focus from webapp does not trigger the focus event of the BrowserWindow

[pushkin-]

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for an issue that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Issue Details

• Electron Version: 10.1.2, 9.0.4, ... 4.0.4
• Operating System: Windows 10 (v 1909)

Expected Behavior

When I open a window in the webapp that's in my BrowserWindow, I expect that calling win.focus() focuses the BrowserWindow

Actual Behavior

w.focus() doesn't do anything and doesn't emit the focus event

To Reproduce

This is basically this issue which was closed. The part of the issue about win.close() not working appears to have been fixed, so I'm opening a new issue for the focus issue.

1. Start the app below
2. click "open window"
3. click "focus window"
4. observe that the window doesn't get focused

If you run the jsfiddle in Chrome, the focus button will put focus in the window.

Notice the "focus" event of the window doesn't fire.

(async () => {
  const {app, BrowserWindow, inAppPurchase} = require('electron');
  await app.whenReady();
  const mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({webPreferences: {nativeWindowOpen: true}});
  await mainWindow.loadURL("https://jsfiddle.net/ishats/0shxqkpw/2/");

  app.on("browser-window-created", (e, win) => {
    win.on("focus", () => {
      console.log("doesn't get hit");
    });
  });
})();

[nornagon]

Confirmed. https://gist.github.com/cb0763b1f310a640a360dd40ef0897e6

[CezaryKulakowski]

When focus is called on DOM's Window Electron is notified with call to content::WebContentsDelegate:::ActivateContents so following change:

--- a/shell/browser/api/electron_api_web_contents.cc
+++ b/shell/browser/api/electron_api_web_contents.cc
@@ -1151,6 +1151,7 @@ void WebContents::CloseContents(content::WebContents* source) {
 }

 void WebContents::ActivateContents(content::WebContents* source) {
+  web_contents()->Focus();
   for (ExtendedWebContentsObserver& observer : observers_)
     observer.OnActivateContents();
 }

fixes the problem. What do you think about it? I'm worried about possible double calls to WebContents::Focus in some scenarios.

[pushkin-]

repros in Electron 21

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale. If this issue is still affecting you, please leave any comment (for example, "bump"), and we'll keep it open. If you have any new additional information—in particular, if this is still reproducible in the latest version of Electron or in the beta—please include it with your comment!

[gpetrov]

Still a problem

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale. If this issue is still affecting you, please leave any comment (for example, "bump"), and we'll keep it open. If you have any new additional information—in particular, if this is still reproducible in the latest version of Electron or in the beta—please include it with your comment!

[gpetrov]

Bump

[jaime-rivas]

Same issue here

[bpasero]

@codebytere @MarshallOfSound @nornagon any update? we would like to focus child windows via basic window.focus() call. Currently I would otherwise have to go an ugly route from the renderer to the main process to find the web contents and call focus there. Is there anything to make this easier?

[codebytere]

@bpasero i'm trying to repro to little success - do you have a repro?

I tried https://gist.github.com/7b537954b7575085143d70f767ad5644 and the focus event triggered as expected

[bpasero]

@codebytere thanks for following up, so far I have only seen it in VS Code where a child window (about:blank) does not receive OS window focus when I call childWindow.focus() on it. If this is not a bug per-se then maybe its a BrowserWindow option I need to change to allow this? Was wondering if some kind of popup-blocker would be in the way.

[pushkin-]

@codebytere in my testing of your gist (on Windows), the focus event gets triggered when the window is first opened. But we don't get a second log when your w.focus() code runs.

[bpasero]

@codebytere reproduces for me with the gist https://gist.github.com/cb0763b1f310a640a360dd40ef0897e6 in Fiddle using Electron 25.x:

[codebytere]

@bpasero figured out what i was missing - will work on this today.

[jaime-rivas]

Hi @codebytere, please keep us posted for any updates on this issue when you have a chance. Thank you so much!