Setting focus on table row elements

Question

I have a table list of items that I want to be able to scroll through using the keyboard up and down buttons. I am currently able to get the similar desired effect of moving down the list with the tabindex attribute. I am also using ng repeat to generate the instances of the elements. Tips or clues on how to achieve being able to focus and scroll up and down the list by using the up and down keys?

Sample code below.

table ng-if="!toolbarCtrl.loadingContacts" class="table dataTable hover" id="table3">
                <tbody role="alert" aria-live="polite" aria-relevant="all">
                    <tr class="pointer" tabindex="0" ng-repeat="contact in toolbarCtrl.contactEntities | filter:toolbarCtrl.toolbarSearchStringAfterDelay | orderBy: toolbarCtrl.tab == toolbarCtrl.tabs.RECENT ? '-dateSeen' : (toolbarCtrl.tab == toolbarCtrl.tabs.ALL ? '+data.fileAs' : '')"
                        ng-class="" ng-if="toolbarCtrl.toolbarSearchStringAfterDelay" ng-click="toolbarCtrl.selectContact(contact)"> 
                        <td rel="popover_dark" ng-class="contact.loading ? 'contactDisabled' : '' " data-container="body" data-toggle="popover" data-placement="right" data-content="" data-original-title="" title="" class="sorting_1 has_popover">
                        </td>
                    </tr>
                </tbody>
            </table>

I mutated your checkKey function to become this

 controller.checkKey = function (event) {
        $("tr[tabindex=0]").focus();
        var event = window.event;
        if (event.keyCode == 40) { //down
            var idx = $("tr:focus").attr("tabindex");
            idx++;
            if (idx > 6) {
                idx = 0;
            }
            $("tr[tabindex=" + idx + "]").focus();
        }
        if (event.keyCode == 38) { //up
            var idx = $("tr:focus").attr("tabindex");
            idx--;
            if (idx < 0) {
                idx = 6;
            }
            $("tr[tabindex=" + idx + "]").focus();
        }
    }

I'm close but its skipping straight to the last element. Does this look right?

Answer 1

Here is a little technique for handling the keydown events for up/down arrows to navigate your table rows (<tr>). You may need to tweak the upper and lower tabindex handling from your generated data but that's on you. GL!

(jsfiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/qkna8jgu/2/ )

Sample HTML:

<table>
  <tr tabindex="0">
    <td>first row</td>
  </tr>
  <tr tabindex="1">
    <td>second row</td>
  </tr>
  <tr tabindex="2">
    <td>third row</td>
  </tr>
  <tr tabindex="3">
    <td>fourth row</td>
  </tr>
  <tr tabindex="4">
    <td>fifth row</td>
  </tr>
  <tr tabindex="5">
    <td>sixth row</td>
  </tr>
  <tr tabindex="6">
    <td>seventh row</td>
  </tr>
</table>

jQuery:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $("tr[tabindex=0]").focus();    
    document.onkeydown = checkKey;
});

function checkKey(e) {
    var event = window.event ? window.event : e;
    if(event.keyCode == 40){ //down
      var idx = $("tr:focus").attr("tabindex");
      idx++;
      if(idx > 6){
        idx = 0;
      }
      $("tr[tabindex="+idx+"]").focus();
    }
    if(event.keyCode == 38){ //up
      var idx = $("tr:focus").attr("tabindex");
      idx--;
      if(idx < 0){
        idx = 6;
      }
      $("tr[tabindex="+idx+"]").focus();      
    }
}