How to Disable Hotkeys in GreaseMonkey While Editing Text Areas

Have you ever been in the middle of typing something important, only to accidentally trigger a hotkey that interrupts your flow? This situation can be quite annoying, especially if you’re using a GreaseMonkey script that employs hotkeys for navigation. Fortunately, there is a straightforward method to prevent hotkeys from activating when you’re editing text fields in your browser. In this blog post, we will walk you through a solution that effectively disables hotkeys in certain contexts while using GreaseMonkey.

The Problem

You might be using the following hotkeys in your GreaseMonkey script to navigate through pages:

• Ctrl + Left to go back
• Ctrl + Right to go forward

These hotkeys work perfectly on most occasions; however, when you’re in a text editing area (like an input field), it’s essential to disable them to avoid any interruptions. The common approach is to check the active element using document.activeElement. Unfortunately, many users have reported issues where this method returns undefined when checking if the active element is editable.

The Solution

To effectively disable hotkeys when editing text areas in GreaseMonkey, you can utilize an event listener and a little bit of JavaScript. Let’s break it down into simpler, organized sections.

Step 1: Set Up Variables

First, you need a variable that will keep track of the currently active element. This will help you determine whether you should execute your hotkey functionality.

var myActiveElement;

Step 2: Configure Keypress Functionality

Next, you will configure a function that checks the active element and determines whether it is an editable field, such as an input. This can be done with an onkeypress event listener.

document.onkeypress = function(event) {
    if ((myActiveElement || document.activeElement || {}).tagName != 'INPUT') {
        // Do your magic (handle hotkeys here)
    }
};

Step 3: Setup Focus and Blur Events

The final part is to set up event listeners for focus and blur events. You will loop through all input elements on the page and attach listeners to track when they gain or lose focus. This will help you update the myActiveElement variable accordingly.

// Check if there are no active elements initially
if (!document.activeElement) {
    var elements = document.getElementsByTagName('input');
    for(var i=0; i<elements.length; i++) {
        elements[i].addEventListener('focus', function() {
            myActiveElement = this; // Track the focused input element
        }, false);
        elements[i].addEventListener('blur', function() {
            myActiveElement = null; // Reset when focus is lost
        }, false);
    }
}

Complete Script

When you combine all these steps, your complete GreaseMonkey script will look like this:

(function() {
    var myActiveElement;
    document.onkeypress = function(event) {
        if ((myActiveElement || document.activeElement || {}).tagName != 'INPUT')
            // Do your magic (handle hotkeys here)
    };
    if (!document.activeElement) {
        var elements = document.getElementsByTagName('input');
        for(var i=0; i<elements.length; i++) {
            elements[i].addEventListener('focus', function() {
                myActiveElement = this;
            }, false);
            elements[i].addEventListener('blur', function() {
                myActiveElement = null;
            }, false);
        }
    }
})();

Conclusion

In conclusion, disabling hotkeys in GreaseMonkey while you’re editing text areas is a manageable task with the right JavaScript setup. By using document.activeElement judiciously alongside event listeners for focus and blur, you can enhance the usability of your script, allowing for uninterrupted text editing. This method ensures that your hotkeys only work when you are not actively typing. Implement this solution in your project to create a smoother and more user-friendly experience!