How can I trigger onblur from a ul li?

Question

I am essentially highlighting each li when clicked, and want to "un-highlight" the clicked li when clicking elsewhere or tabbing out (by effecting the background-color property).

This behavior would essentially be emulating <select> in its' highlighting behavior... I'm not using select though, because I want to nest HTML inside the listed items -- you can't do this with <option> .

I'm attempting to use onblur , which is not working...

---

Here is the HTML:

    #list {
        list-style-type: none;
    }

...here is the CSS:

    function getEventTarget(e) {
        e = e || window.event;
        return e.target || e.srcElement; 
    }

    function highlightSelection(selection) {
        alert("It worked!");
        $(selection).css("background-color","#FFFF00");
    }

    // this function is not being triggered:
    function removeHighlight(selection) {
        $(selection).css("background-color","none");
    }

    var ul = document.getElementById("list");

    ul.onclick = function(event) {
        var target = getEventTarget(event);
        highlightSelection(target);
    };

    // this event is not working:
    ul.onblur = function(event) {
        var target = getEventTarget(event);
        removeHighlight(target);
    };

...and here is the jQuery/javascript:

  function getEventTarget(e) { e = e || window.event; return e.target || e.srcElement; } function highlightSelection(selection) { alert("It worked!"); $(selection).css("background-color","#FFFF00"); } // this function is not being triggered: function removeHighlight(selection) { $(selection).css("background-color","none"); } var ul = document.getElementById("list"); ul.onclick = function(event) { var target = getEventTarget(event); highlightSelection(target); }; // this event is not working: ul.onblur = function(event) { var target = getEventTarget(event); removeHighlight(target); }; 

Answer 1

Since you're already using JQuery...

<ul id = "list">
     <li tabindex="1">asdf</li>
     <li tabindex="2">qwerty</li>
 <ul>


var ul = $("#list");
ul.on('click focus','li',function(){
    $(this)
        .css("background-color","#FFFF00")
        .siblings().css('background','');
}).on('blur','li',function(){
    $(this).css('background','');
});

http://jsfiddle.net/mc4tN/2/

I wasn't sure of what effect you wanted when you tab away from a list item... It seems you would just want to leave it highlighted. You can add focus-ability to your list items by giving them a tabindex attribute.

Answer 2

The li s don't blur because they don't focus. Try with mouseout or mouseleave .