Question

Is there something I can do like this (perhap via a plugin)

if ( ! $('form#contact input]').hasFocus()) {
  $('form#contact input:first]').focus();
}

Basically, set focus to the first input, but only if the user has not already clicked into anything?

I know this will work too, but is there anything more elegant?

$(function() {
  var focused = false;
  $('form#contact input]').focus(function() {
    focused = true;
  }); 
  setTimeout(function() {
    if ( ! focused) {      
      $('form#contact input:first]').focus();
    }
  }, 500);
});

Answer 1

There is no native solution but yes there is a more elegant way you can do it:

jQuery.extend(jQuery.expr[':'], {
  focus: "a == document.activeElement"
});

You’re defining a new selector. See Plugins/Authoring. Then you can do:

if ($("...").is(":focus")) {
  ...
}

or:

$("input:focus").doStuff();